FEATURE: Best Friends Forever Stay Healthy Together

Written by Kathryn Savage

Scientists have shown that social connections are vital to a healthy life. Recent studies suggest that belonging to a group of people who have similar beliefs, lifestyle choices, economic status, or religious practices may lead to deeper understanding, longer-lasting friendships, and a longer, healthier life. At Blue Zones, we call this being surrounded by “the right inner circle.

But I don't plan out my friendships!
In real life, you meet friends at work, a bbq, the neighborhood sandbox, etc. Sure, once you’ve met, you should having a thing or two in common, but do most people make a calculation of their friends' lifestyle choices before beginning the friendship?

Actually, yes.
If you think about your friends, you will find you tend to support each others beliefs and lifestyles. In many cases you may have similar economic status. There's a reason why you gravitate to certain kinds of people! This idea of “the right inner circle” has little to do with how friendships form, it merely points out that people who share these traits tend to form friendships that last, while also pointing out the ugly fact that bad habits do tend to rub off.

Bad habits like what?
Studies reported in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that, between close mutual friends, when one becomes obese the odds of the other becoming obese triple. The same statistic applies to weight loss - when one close friend decides to lose weight, the other friend has tripled their chance of being successful with weight loss, merely by association.

For residents of the Blue Zones, being surrounded by the right inner circle comes naturally.
Seventh Day Adventists, encouraged by their religious practice and observation of the Sabbath, have big, bustling social networks. The Nuoro highland Sardinians we studied are geographically – but not culturally – isolated. Many share the same professional, personal and religious practices. Most evenings, they share a few glasses of wine at the local bar, and once a year the town contributes to the annual grape harvest. Centenarian Okinawans have regular moais; it’s sort of like the bar in Cheers, where everybody knows your name. Groups of Okinawans, who rarely move from their community, have lifelong, regular moais in the evenings to share sake and conversation.

The lesson? Keep your wonderful friends close.
The lesson I’ll take away from all this talk about “the right inner circle” is this: if you’ve got a group of people who support and nurture you, nurture them in return. And if you'd like to do a little self-improvement, get your friends on board!

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written by Miley Cyrus, November 21, 2008

Keep your friends and family close, keep your enimies closer.

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written by Bruno Bornsztein, May 05, 2008

Thanks for that clarification, Suzanne. The post has been updated to reflect the idea that we're talking about a specific sub-group of Sardinians (with whom Dan and his team spent weeks interviewing and researching).

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Sardinia is more than Nuoro
written by Suzanne, May 02, 2008

You guys know that Sardinia is an entire island, right? Sardinians live in more than just the Nuoro highlands. And as charming as the image of wine at the local bar and the annual grape harvest is...I think you're more likely to find the locals sucking back an espresso at that bar. My "inner circle" of Sardinian friends are career professionals who live in major cities and get together at the trendiest new pizzeria. Your characterization of Sardinians seems like a sweeping, and incorrect, generalization.

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