The 10 benefits of having friends, according to science

Authentic friendship is one of the most wonderful things that can happen to us in this life.. Having someone faithful to trust and have fun with, having their support through the ups and downs and setbacks of life, or being able to confess our concerns to them is worth its weight in gold.

As the popular saying goes: "who has a friend has a treasure."

There are many kinds of friends

Obviously there are many types of friends. Some are, simply, great companions of diversions; others, on the other hand, are everything in our life, almost like our family. And it is that throughout our existence we can meet many people and make good friends, but there are really few friends.

Over the years we can lose contact with some of them, although there are always those good friends, those of childhood, those who when we meet them again after a while it seems that we have not separated a single instant.

• If you want to know more about the different kinds of friends, you can visit our article: "The 12 types of friends: what are yours like?”

Benefits of having friends

But regardless of what kind of friend we have, all of them bring us benefits: learning, unique experiences, fun and unforgettable moments, advice…

According to some studies, 98% of people have between 1 and 9 good close friends. Other research indicates that friendship is not simply fun, but is necessary for our development, our emotional health and our mental and physical well-being.

In the following lines we are going to delve into these benefits:

1. They help you live longer

People with an active social life and good interpersonal relationships live longer, as stated in a meta-analysis carried out in 2010. For the study, 148 investigations were examined that sought to find some type of relationship between friendship, social skills and mortality.

The subjects of the various studies numbered more than 300,000 participants. According to the results, the stronger the ties in social relationships, the later the subjects died. The researchers affirm that the relationship may be in the importance of friendship to overcome the stressful situations of life, and this positive impact would significantly affect both mental and physical health.

2. Reduce stress

There are many studies that affirm that friendship reduces stress. In fact, organizational psychologists have long studied the relationship between good relationship with co-workers and the burnout or chronic stress.

It seems that healthy relationships with co-workers function as a buffer against this phenomenon, reducing its symptoms and participating in its prevention.

3. A healthier life

A study carried out by Yang and her collaborators, after comparing the health status of people with healthy interpersonal relationships and those who were isolated, found that the former enjoyed better general health: good blood pressure, lower body mass index, etc. Their findings were published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

4. More fun

Friends provide us with good times and funny situations. In fact, we associate friendship with fun times and with sharing activities that we find pleasant and enjoyable. If on top of that we have a friend of those who spend the day telling jokes, our health and well-being are significantly improved.

• Do you want to know why this happens? To find out you just have to read our post: "The physical and psychological benefits of laughter”

5. Relieve pain

Friends not only relieve emotional pain when we are sad and they listen to us and give us their most unconditional support, but they can also help us to reduce physical pain. This is what an investigation published by the Psychosomatic Medicine, which states that the perception of pain is reduced when we are physically close to a person we consider close to.

6. Improve mental acuity

Friends also affect our brain. According to a 2012 study, people with dementia get worse when they are not in contact with other people and feel alone. The study subjects were more than 2000 Dutch aged over 65, analyzed for 3 years.

After analyzing the results, the researchers stated that: "it has more to do with the feeling of being alone than with being really alone." Therefore, it is not simply contact with other people that is productive in this regard, but a qualitatively better and closer contact improves brain function.

7. Improves cardiovascular health

As if it were physical exercise, friendship has a positive effect on our heart. This is what an investigation from Duke University in the United States concludes. To conduct their study, the researchers analyzed 1,000 subjects with cardiovascular disease.

The results indicated that, after five years, half of the participants who had died did not have a close friend. Instead, 85% of the survivors had a strong friendship with someone.

8. They favor personal development or growth

Friendship is present in all stages of our life, and favors our development. For example, friendship is necessary for development in adolescence, because it can help in the process of self-discovery of identity. In addition, through friends we can acquire values, knowledge and they can serve as a model for learning different behaviors.

9. Greater emotional balance

Human beings are sociable beings and, therefore, we need contact with other people. Friendship deprivation negatively affects our mental balance. Friends increase our self-esteem and make us feel good in bad times. It is difficult to imagine a happy person without having friends.

10. Help prevent obesity

Friends help prevent obesity. At least this is what a study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine concludes. The researchers explain that, especially in childhood: “socialization has a substitute effect for food”, which makes us eat less when entertained. Without a doubt, some curious results.