A couple weeks ago I wrote about what traits make a happy retiree. It turns out two of them, enjoying good health and enjoying good friends, are pretty intertwined.
A strong social network not only makes you happier, a recent Brigham Young University study shows it will also make you healthier, increasing your odds of survival by 50%. Not having such social connectedness was the health equivalent of:
-smoking 15 cigaretts a day,
-being an alcoholic,
-worse than being sedentary,
-twice as bad as being obese.
Want to get an idea of your own life expectancy? Emily Brandon’s piece over at U.S. News this week has links to a couple of fun calculators to estimate just how long you’ll be kicking. Mine said I’ll live to 100 but that was before I shared a bucket of extra crispy Kentucky Fried Chicken last night with some friends. I’m sure that shaved at least a year off, but at least I’ll die happy.
This is a post from Retirement: A Full Time Job
The BYU study is a real eye-opener. The importance of friends and good health is not surprising. But, the effects of not having them is amazingly powerful. Thanks for finding that info.
Posted by: Bob | July 30, 2010 at 10:48 AM