WE are all aware of the basic WEare health commandments. Smoking is bad. No one questions that one any more. Too many glasses of wine and lazing on the couch for hours on end? Also bad. In fact, the physical effects of a sedentary lifestyle are so dire that it inspired a catchy little phrase that had us all doing stress laps around the block: ‘Sitting is the new smoking.’
But did you know that loneliness is also bad for your health?
Science journalist Lydia Denworth – the author of Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond – says that friendship is as important for your health as diet and exercise – and your cells biologically age faster if you are lonely.
Whoa. Bet you’re really regretting every time you’ve bailed on your friends to stay in and watch TV instead! It also puts a whole new spin on that opening scene of Bridget Jones’s Diary (not the most current reference, but you knew exactly what I was talking about – even without the pics on the left, admit it) where she’s sprawled on her couch, smoking, drinking wine and singing ‘All by Myself’. Quadruple health whammy, as it turns out.
Better than jogging
‘We’ve always known that friends are pleasurable,
