{"id":84697,"date":"2017-02-21T08:52:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=84697"},"modified":"2017-02-21T08:53:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:53:23","slug":"silversneakers-friends-helping-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/02\/21\/silversneakers-friends-helping-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"SilverSneakers: Friends helping friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n

Having close friends\u00a0leads to\u00a0many\u00a0benefits. Sure, it\u2019s great to have someone in a person\u2019s life who shares a love of rom-coms and is always willing to give a friend a sympathetic ear. But the benefits of friendship\u00a0are even\u00a0greater than people may think. Turns out, friends play an important role in one\u2019s physical and emotional health.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch indicates that lonely and socially isolated people tend to be less healthy and more likely to have a lifestyle that is not as health-promoting,\u201d says Christopher\u00a0Coe, Ph.D., director of the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.<\/p>\n

In other words, nurturing friendships is one of the best things people can do for their health. Here are just a few\u00a0of the many\u00a0benefits of\u00a0friendship:<\/p>\n

\"YMCA
YMCA SilverSneakers friends gather together before Line Dancing class, held Fridays 10:45-11:15 a.m. at the YMCA of Van Wert County.<\/strong> (photo submitted)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thinking of joining a new gym or trying a new healthy eating plan? People are more likely to stick with it and meet their goals if they can convince a few buddies to join them.\u00a0Research<\/a>\u00a0presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association found that when groups of friends participated in an exercise and nutrition program together, they lost more weight compared to those who tried to slim down alone.<\/p>\n

Social isolation is a major risk factor for both heart attack and stroke, according to a recent study in\u00a0Heart<\/em>. The researchers found that adults with the fewest social ties were 29 percent more likely to have heart disease and 32 percent more likely to suffer a stroke.<\/p>\n

People with serious ailments who go it alone are more apt to struggle. Friends might drive friends to doctors\u2019 appointments, cook them dinner when they\u2019re not up for it, or just encourage them to take care of themselves. Some\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0even suggests that people with type 2 diabetes who have a strong support system maintain better control over their blood sugar levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuality social relationships — which can include family relationships and friendships — have been found to lower mortality risk at levels comparable to other positive lifestyle factors, such as not smoking and avoiding excessive alcohol consumption,\u201d says psychologist Jamila Bookwala, Ph.D., dean of curriculum and research at Lafayette College.<\/p>\n

When researchers at Brigham Young University analyzed 70 different studies — which included info from more than 3.4 million participants — they found that people who felt isolated were 29 percent more likely than those with solid social ties to die during the course of the studies. The researchers, who published their findings in\u00a0Perspectives on Psychological Science<\/em>, noted that it\u2019s not only seniors who are in danger. In fact, middle-aged folks had an even greater risk of dying prematurely if they suffered from loneliness.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s no surprise that people who have a strong social network are less apt to suffer from clinical depression. But it\u2019s not enough to just exchange emails or chat on the phone. For those who want to keep their mood up, seeing their close friends face-to-face in real life\u00ad — not via Skype or FaceTime — is crucial. Research from the\u00a0Journal of the American Geriatrics Society<\/em>\u00a0found that people who saw friends or loved ones at least once or twice a week were substantially less likely to be depressed than those who only had those sorts of interactions once or twice a month.<\/p>\n

If a person\u2019s social circle seems a bit lacking, don\u2019t be afraid to branch out. Sign up for a book club, volunteer to lend a hand at a local community center or place of worship, take a\u00a0group\u00a0exercise class<\/a>,\u00a0or simply invite a neighbor over for a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n

And focus on quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cCloseness of friendships and family relationships,\u201d says Bookwala, \u201cis more important for health and well-being than the number of friends you have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The YMCA is the perfect place for people of all ages to improve their health and well-being while developing strong relationships with family and friends. During the month of February, members are welcome and encouraged to bring friends to the YMCA for free!\u00a0 Check out a fitness class, get on the treadmills in the Wellness Center, splash around in the pool, shoot some hoops, and more. Interested in all the YMCA has to offer? Contact Kristin Lichtensteiger, YMCA membership director, at 419.238.0443 or visit www.vwymca.org<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n

The YMCA of Van Wert County is partially funded by United Way and Van Wert County Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submitted information Having close friends\u00a0leads to\u00a0many\u00a0benefits. Sure, it\u2019s great to have someone in a person\u2019s life who shares a love of rom-coms and is always willing to give a friend a sympathetic ear. But the benefits of friendship\u00a0are even\u00a0greater than people may think. Turns out, friends play an important role in one\u2019s physical and emotional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyles"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-31 08:15:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}