来源：Q译境花开R的个人空间

With a little help from your friends you can live longerStudy finds being sociable is good for your health, while loneliness is as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes a day

   (384)Tweet this (219)Ian Sample, science correspondent guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 July 2010 23.22 BST Article history

A close-knit circle of friends can boost health, the study found. Photograph: Channel 4 Picture Publicity

A life of booze, fags and slothfulness may be enough to earn your doctor's disapproval, but there is one last hope: a repeat prescription of mates and good conversation.

A circle of close friends and strong family ties can boost a person's health more than exercise, losing weight or quitting cigarettes and alcohol, psychologists say.

Sociable people seem to reap extra rewards from their relationships by feeling less stressed, taking better care of themselves and having less risky lifestyles than those who are more isolated, they claim.

A review of studies into the impact of relationships on health found that people had a 50% better survival rate if they belonged to a wider social group, be it friends, neighbours, relatives or a mix of these.

The striking impact of social connections on wellbeing has led researchers to call on GPs and health officials to take loneliness as seriously as other health risks, such as alcoholism and smoking.

"We take relationships for granted as humans," said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychologist at Brigham Young University in Utah. "That constant interaction is not only beneficial psychologically but directly to our physical health."

Holt-Lunstad's team reviewed 148 studies that tracked the social interactions and health of 308,849 people over an average of 7.5 years. From these they worked out how death rates varied depending on how sociable a person was.

Being lonely and isolated was as bad for a person's health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic. It was as harmful as not exercising and twice as bad for the health as being obese. The study is reported in the journal Plos Medicine.

Holt-Lunstad said friends and family can improve health in numerous ways, from help in tough times to finding meaning in life. "When someone is connected to a group and feels responsibility to other people, that sense of purpose and meaning translates to taking better care of themselves and taking fewer risks."

Holt-Lunstad said there was no clear figure on how many relationships are enough to boost a person's health, but people fared better when they rarely felt lonely and were close to a group of friends, had good family contact and had someone they could rely on and confide in.

Writing in the journal, the authors point out that doctors, health educators and the media take the dangers of smoking, diet and exercise seriously, and urge them to add social relationships to the list.

A report by the Mental Health Foundation in May blamed technology and the pressures of modern life for widespread feelings of loneliness in all age groups across Britain. The survey of more than 2,200 adults found one in 10 people often felt lonely and one in three would like to move closer to their family.

Andrew McCulloch, of the Mental Health Foundation, said the latest study builds on work that links isolation to poor mental and physical health. "Trends such as increasing numbers of people living alone and the advent of new technologies, are changing the way in which we interact and are leading both the young and old to experience loneliness. It is important that individuals and policy-makers take notice of emerging evidence and of the potential health problems associated with loneliness."

多交朋友身体棒

饮酒过量、工作劳累以及生活散漫都有害健康，但是有一线希望可以让你的生活倍感轻松：多与朋友谈谈心。

心理学家说，拥有亲密的朋友圈子和紧密的家庭纽带比运动、减肥、戒烟戒酒更能提高一个人的健康状况。

热衷于社交的人们更是从朋友圈里受益不少，因为他们压力更小，可以更好地照顾自己，不像那些被隔离的人们过着冒险的生活。

一项有关社会关系对人的健康的影响的调查显示，若一个人生活在较广的群体中，不论是朋友、邻居、家人还是以上都有，那么这个人会有高出50%的生存率。

由于人的社会关系对于其健康有显著影响，研究人员开始呼吁普通开业医生和卫生部官员将“孤独”视为同吸烟酗酒一样严重的健康威胁。

“作为人类，我们交际是理所当然的，”朱利安·霍伦斯得，犹他州杨百翰大学的一位心理学家说到，“这种时常进行的互动不仅有利于人们的心理健康，而且对身体健康发展有直接的积极作用。”

霍伦斯得的研究团队历时七年半，针对308,849位人士的社交和健康进行了148项研究。他们通过回顾和复审，研究出了健康指数和社交情况之间的关系。1

孤独和隔离感对身体健康的危害相当于一天抽15支烟或者酗酒，其坏处相当于不运动和肥胖。具体研究结果已在《公共图书馆药学杂志》上发表。

霍伦斯得教授指出，朋友和家人在许多方面提高健康状况，在困难时助你一臂之力，甚至帮你找到人生的意义。“当一个人置身某一个圈子并对他人感到有责任感时，那种目的感和意义会促使其照顾好自己，不去贸然行动。”

霍伦斯得说，虽然还说不准到底要多少朋友才对人的身体有好处，但是孤独感越少越好，所以应该多与朋友家人联络感情，倾吐心声，互相信赖。

报告的作者还指出，医生，健康教育者和媒体应当重视吸烟的危害，鼓励他们提倡人们适当扩大交际圈。

在五月，心理健康基金会发表了一篇报告，斥责了现代科技和生活压力，因为它们增加了英国各年龄段的人们的孤独感。在针对2200名成人的调查中，研究者发现有十分之一的人时常感到孤独，三人之一的人渴望和家人更亲密一些。

安德鲁·麦克洛奇是该基金会的一位工作者，他说有关隔离感和心理生理不健康之间联系的研究是最新报告的基础。“随着孤独的人数量增加，高新科技的不断进步，人们交往的方式也在日益变化，男女老少都在变得孤独。”所以，正视日益显著的由孤独引起的潜在的健康问题对个人和决策者都很重要。