In a substantial study of three thousand breast cancer patients, all of whom were nurses, completed in 2006, researchers found that women without close friends had a mortality rate of four times that of women with a close circle of friends. In another study of 514 women, 239 were diagnosed with breast cancer. One of the results of this study was that those […]
Tag Archives | community
Video: Social Isolation = Sickness and Death
In a very famous epidemiology study, one of the most referenced of its kind because of its impressive sample size, researchers Dr. Lisa Berkman and Dr. Leonard Syme studied seven thousand residents of Alameda County, California. All of them were observed for a nine-year period in order to discover all the common denominators among the […]
Video: Social Connections Are Essential for Health
Around the world and in all cultures, the healthiest people belong to some kind of community or at least have close friends. Humans are meant to be in community and the degree of community we experience directly correlates with the degree of health we experience. A healthy network of supportive relationships is essential for the […]
Empowered Patients Make Things Happen
The hundreds of studies I reviewed and explain in my book all point to certain specific behaviors and activities that consistently correlate with wellbeing and better health outcomes. The first is autonomy, which refers to courageously taking action to make things happen. Empowered patients have an internal locus of control; in other words, their motivation […]
Video: Your Friends and Family May Save Your Life
A study done in the San Francisco Bay Area (Alameda County) over a nine year period showed that the people with the highest quality and quantity of social support and connections had the lowest rates of sickness and death. An eight year follow-up with the same study group showed the same results – those who […]
Video: Social Support Is Absolutely Essential For Health and Wellbeing
Researchers concluded that despite terrible health habits such as high fat diet, lack of exercise, chain smoking, excessive drinking, working in coal mines, the residents of Roseto, Pennsylvania in the 1950s were very healthy and had one sixth the heart disease of the rest of the country. All the researchers concluded that the secret was […]
Video: Community and Social Support
This presentation, given at the Marin Center for Independent Living in 2013, discusses the importance of social support. Many epidemiological researchers have demonstrated that the quality and quantity of our social connections determines our state of health and well-being. This presentation includes suggestions as to how to improve social connections–such as doing volunteer work or […]
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