Pal Panacea

Friendship and love are the greatest and perhaps the cheapest healing therapy. Solid scientific evidence has shown that friendships help us live longer and better.

Studies have proved having strong social ties reduces the risk of disease by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol levels. People with strong social networks are shown to boost their chances of surviving life-threatening illnesses, have stronger, more resilient immune systems. Friendships improve their mental health, and help them live longer lives.

Isolation can kill and the lack of friends in our lives could be as detrimental to health as smoking or obesity.

Having friends can reduce your chances of contracting common viruses like cold. Those with friends are less likely to succumb to depression, dementia, anxiety and other illnesses.

How does this work?

Primarily because friends watch out for each other and take care of each other, even urge you to go to the doctor. Also, most ills can be seen as the effects of stress on the endocrinal, cardiovascular and immune systems. Simply by keeping stress at bay, friendship effectively rules out a host of ailments.

However, unhealthy friendships that drain you rather than nurture, can do more harm than good. Also, more the friends, greater the benefits. But a few good friends should suffice for most of us.