Crucial Minutiae

Friends. Gotta have em.

They’re great for eating next to, dancing with, second opinions, inside jokes, bear hugs, reality checks, inspiration, and mirroring (I learned that last one from Kimmi). Come to think of it, friends are great teachers.

But new scientific evidence reveals that friends aren’t just fun to have; they actually make us healthier human beings.

From the May 2007 issue of More magazine:

“There’s solid scientific research that friends actually change the biochemistry of our brains and the functioning of our immune systems.”

We’ve long known that those with close friends tend to live longer, but now we also know that if you’ve got some buddies, you’ve also got less chance of chronic diseases, accidents, and psychological impairments. Scientists haven’t totally pinned down why this is, but most ascribe to the theory that friends are a buffer between little old you and the stress of the world. They tell you when you need to stop drinking, get you out of the house and walking around, and help you process your anxiety.

Loneliness actually registers in our brains like pain, according to Naomi Eisenberger, a research psychologist at UCLA. The overload of cortisol that results from being alone for long periods increases our chances of getting chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

None of this surprises me, though it does delight me. Whenever I start obsessing over the world’s problems—which we all know is quite a bit—I usually end up deciding that the solution has something to do with community, friendship, good ol’ understanding. This scientific research gives this hunch some physiological oomph.

I’ll leave you with this, one of my favorite quotations, because it rings so true of my experiences of the Crucial Minutia crew, in addition to so many other friends that I have discovered new worlds in/with:

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
-Anais Nin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 10:51 am and is filed under Career/Life, Health, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.