Make friends, live longer
That's the conclusion of a new U.S. study, which found that the secret to a long, healthy life is having a strong social network.
Researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that people with adequate social relationships -- friends, family and community involvement -- were 50 per cent less likely to die during study periods than those with sparse social support. It's an effect comparable to that of quitting smoking.
And, turning it around, people with little social support have a mortality risk equal to alcoholism and even higher than either obesity or physical inactivity, the study found.
The analysis compiled data from 148 studies. More than 300,000 people were in the data pool, followed for an average of 7.5 years.
The link between social support and mortality risk was found for men and women of all ages, regardless of initial health condition, years of a study or cause of death.
In concrete terms, that 50 per cent number means that socially connected people would live an average of 3.7 years longer than less-connected people, said study co-author Timothy B. Smith, a psychology professor at Brigham Young.
However, Dr Antonio Gomez, assistant clinical professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said doctors should take note of the study, but that it has its limitations.
"We can't make the broad, sweeping claim that social relationships cause increased survivability - at least, not yet," The LA Times quoted him as saying.
Love is a powerful painkiller
London, Oct 14 (IANS) Intense romantic love is like a drug and can be as effective as morphine in relieving pain, says a new study.
Passions triggered by the early flushes of a relationship block physical pain in a similar way to painkillers and drugs.
Scientists in the US tested the theory on a group of male and female university students who were in the passionate early stages of a love affair.
They were shown photos of their partners while a computer-controlled heat probe placed in the palms of their hands delivered mild doses of pain, reports The Telegraph.
At the same time, the students had their brains scanned by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine.
The study showed that feelings of love, triggered by seeing a photo of one's beloved, acted as a powerful pain killer.
Focusing on a photo of an attractive acquaintance rather than a relationship partner did not have the same benefit.
The scans revealed that the effects of love could be compared with those of morphine and cocaine, both of which target the brain's 'reward centres'.
Sean Mackey, study leader at Stanford University Medical Centre in California, said: 'When people are in this passionate, all-consuming phase of love, there are significant alterations in their mood that are impacting their experience of pain.
