Looking for ways to improve your health in the New Year.  Consider making some new friends.  LiveScience.com explains a number of ways friendship is great for your health.

--Friends may extend your life. According to a 2010 review of research, the effect of your social ties on how long you live is twice as strong as that of exercising, and equivalent to that of quitting smoking.

--Your friends make you generally healthier. People who live isolated lives were found in a 2015 study to have double the risk of high blood pressure.

--Friendships might help keep your mind sharp. A 2012 study found that older people's dementia risk increased with their feelings of loneliness.

--Friends influence us --for better and for worse. A famous 2007 study found obesity is contagious within social groups --we’re 57 percent more likely to become obese if we have friends who are obese. But the opposite is also true. Hang out with people who exercise and lose weight, and you’re more likely to as well.

--Your close friends can help you through health challenges. A major study published in The Lancet in 1989 found that women with breast cancer who were randomly assigned to attend support groups with other cancer patients had a better quality of life and lived longer, compared to women who were not assigned to support groups.

--Friends can help you cope with rejection. A 2011 study on fourth-graders found that having friends helped kids cope with the stress of being picked on or rejected by other classmates.

 

More From News Talk KIT