Study Finds Having Friends Makes for a Healthier Life (And Poses a Question About the Existence of God)
Having a lot of friends makes for a happier life experience, but there is also strong evidence that having extended social connectedness also helps improve an individual’s physical health, including improving odds against suffering major diseases.
And, while the study’s authors don’t say it, I will suggest that the link between a multitude of friends and better health may also suggest another evidence for the existence of God.
Dr. Pat Fagan of MARRIpedia points to a 2019 data-driven analysis that “investigated the association between social integration (connections and friendships) social support (help), and the risk of dying from any of the major life-ending diseases.”
The study found:
- Participants with the highest levels of social integration were 30 percent less likely to die from “all causes.”
- Participants with the highest levels of social integration were 33 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease.
- Participants with the highest levels of social integration were 35 percent less likely to die from heart disease.
- Participants with the highest levels of social integration were 47 percent less likely to die from chronic lower respiratory disease.
- Social support did not have an association with mortality from “all causes,” cardiovascular disease, or any of the nonvascular diseases.
Working middle-age white women appear to benefit the most, according to the study authors:
“Among the 29,179 participants included, 55.8% was less than 70 years old; 51.5% were women and 73.9% were non-Hispanic white. Compared to a low social integration index (0–3 scores), participants with a high social integration index (7–8 scores) were more likely to be females, ≤45 years old, non-Hispanic white ethnicity, employed, to have more education, more income, more social support, not to smoke, to be alcohol-users, and to present no history of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.”
The study’s authors pointed out that the specific reasons why extensive social connectedness improves physical health are unclear:
“Although the associations between low social connections and increased the likelihood of survival has been repeatedly shown, the biological, behavioral, or social pathways that may drive these relationships are not well elucidated.
“Social relationships have been hypothesized to improve health through various mechanisms, such as stress buffering, role modeling and social control of health behaviors. Those with poor social relationships have less healthy behaviors, lower levels of immunity and increased inflammation which may lead to bad health outcomes.”
No doubt, having friends who, for example, exercise influence against bad habits like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, is likely to be a significant factor here. But the reverse is also possible. So consider this: There is an intangible element in the positive relationship between multiple friends and improved health.
Does the intangible factor constitute 20 percent of the explanation for the healthy effect, or 40 or 60 percent or more? That’s impossible to know definitively at this point, but that there is an intangible element here seems clear.
But if we live in a universe that is purely a product of physical processes — dominoes successively falling one against the other — then there is no room for such an intangible factor. But if there is something non-physical outside the physical universe, then it’s logical to think there can indeed be a link between an intangible cause and a physical result.
“That man thrives on good relationships — the dimension of person to person, soul to soul, spirit to spirit — is visible in man’s physical dimension, his body,” Fagan observes.
I would only add that we might even call that non-physical factor outside the physical realm “God.”