People often describe the impact of social relationships on personal behavior as “those who are close to the vermilion and those who are close to the ink”. A US study showed that positive social relationships are as beneficial to health as a balanced diet and adequate sleep, while negative and hostile social relationships may have adverse health effects in the form of inflammation.
Checking for inflammation
To study the possible link between health and social relationships, researchers at the UCLA School of Medicine recruited 122 healthy adult volunteers to observe how their immune systems changed in response to changes in daily social activities.
Study subjects were asked to report their social activities in a diary for eight consecutive days, recording anything related to competition. The researchers measured levels of two proteins in their saliva that cause inflammation, known as pro-inflammatory cytokines. Pro-inflammatory cytokines have been shown to increase when people feel socially stressed. The results showed that volunteers who had more diary entries about hostile social interactions such as conflicts with friends or family members or competition at work had higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in their saliva.
A few days after completing the last diary entry, volunteers took a 25-minute stress test that included completing mental arithmetic questions and speaking in front of strangers. Saliva test results also showed higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the study subjects who had previously recorded more negative social activities.
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Predisposition to disease
The study showed that leisure-related competition, such as exercise, was not significantly associated with pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in the volunteers, while work-related competition and the pressure to ensure that at least The study showed that leisure-related competition such as exercise was not significantly associated with pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in volunteers, whereas work-related competition and the pressure to attract the attention of at least one person of the opposite sex were associated with higher pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in volunteers.
In a report published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers reasoned, “This may be due to the increased threat perceived by the body in the aforementioned situations.”
Social neuroscientist Shelley Taylor of the University of California, Los Angeles, one of the report’s authors, said, “We wanted to understand how mental states, such as positive emotions or social relationships like competition, work under the skin.” The findings suggest that over longer periods of time, frequent negative social relationships or competition may trigger or worsen inflammation-related diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, depression and certain types of cancer.
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A series of previous studies have shown that
A series of previous studies have shown that close friendships can help reduce stress, lower the risk of depression, improve health, and even help you live longer.
Erin Levine, a professor of psychology at New York University School of Medicine, said, “Not only can people get practical advice and material help from friends, but they can also feel understanding and support that can’t be measured in money.”
Some studies have shown that facebook has a powerful effect on health behaviors, including smoking, obesity, and happiness. A study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that the frequency of contact between friends influenced people’s health behaviors more than the number of friends.
The findings obtained by Taylor et al. show that stress reduction means less inflammation. She said, “Relationships are extremely important to health, as is everyone’s diet.”