Living longer and better~~in relationships

Love and intimacy are greater indicators of longevity than any other well known “risk factors” and the best decision you can make for your health ~ both in quality and length of life.

Data across 308,849 individuals, followed for an average of 7.5 years, indicate that individuals with adequate social relationships have a 50% greater likelihood of survival compared to those with poor or insufficient social relationships. The magnitude of this effect is comparable with quitting smoking and it exceeds many well-known risk factors for mortality (eg. obesity or physical inactivity)

To draw a parallel, many decades ago high mortality rates were observed among infants in custodial care (i.e., orphanages), even when controlling for pre-existing health conditions and medical treatment. Lack of human contact predicted mortality. The medical profession was stunned to learn that infants would die without social interaction. This single finding, so simplistic in hindsight, was responsible for changes in practice and policy that markedly decreased mortality rates in custodial care settings. Contemporary medicine could similarly benefit from acknowledging the data: Social relationships influence the health outcomes of adults.

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316

Medicine today tends to focus primarily on the physical and mechanistic: drugs and surgery, genes and germs, microbes and molecules. However, there isn’t any other factor in medicine – not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery – that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness and premature death from all causes than loneliness and isolation.

Love and intimacy — our ability to connect with ourselves and others, is at the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to healing.

http://www.ornishspectrum.com/proven-program/love-support/

How we choose our social relationships, who we allow into our lives, our lived experiences of love, our comfort with intimacy ( in-to-me-see) and what we value is uniquely personal. How many times have you disengaged because “men and women can’t be friends” and you didn’t recognize the value of variety in levels of engagement? How many times have you hidden from engaging with others because you were afraid of being hurt or “gun shy”? How long do you have to reconsider? The research from the last 30 years is clear. Choosing, nurturing and enjoying positive relationships in whatever form they arrive is more important than your family history, genetics, environmental exposures, diet, exercise, lab reports or any advice a health practitioner could give you.

Has anyone else proven that your risk of death is reduced by 50% for any one choice?

Why wait? The energy flow of lively discourse, learning more about who you are with the mirror you see reflected in another person’s eyes, the feeling of being more alive, the facts above validating that you are helping each other live longer and better…what more do you need? Enjoy everyone in your life and be a joy in theirs!!!!