In their study Social Relationships and Mortality Risk, BYU professors Julianne Holt-Lunstad and Timothy Smith have found that your social connections – friends, family, neighbors and colleagues – improve your odds of survival by 50 percent.

In fact, living a life with few social connections is….

• Equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day
• Equivalent to being an alcoholic
• More harmful than not exercising
• Twice as harmful as obesity

The Study

The researchers analyzed data from 148 previously published longitudinal studies that measured frequency of human interaction and tracked health outcomes for a period of seven and a half years on average.

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Because information on relationship quality was unavailable, the 50 percent increased odds of survival may underestimate the benefit of healthy relationships. “The data simply shows whether they were integrated in a social network,” Holt-Lunstad said. “That means the effects of negative relationships are lumped in there with the positive ones. They are all averaged together.”

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Dr. Holt-Lunstad said there are many pathways through which friends and family influence health for the better, ranging from a calming touch to finding meaning in life.

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“When someone is connected to a group and feels responsibility for other people, that sense of purpose and meaning translates to taking better care of themselves and taking fewer risks,” Holt-Lunstad said.

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In examining the data, Smith took a careful look at whether the results were driven primarily by people helping each other prolong their golden years.

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“This effect is not isolated to older adults,” Smith said. “Relationships provide a level of protection across all ages.”

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Smith said that modern conveniences and technology can lead some people to think that social networks aren’t necessary.

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“We take relationships for granted as humans – we’re like fish that don’t notice the water,” Smith said. “That constant interaction is not only beneficial psychologically but directly to our physical health.”

So, what are we supposed to do with this info?

Assuming you want to live longer, you should try to make new friends.

And yes, I know that as “grown-ups”, we all have uber-busy schedules and we just don’t have time to make new friends.

And yes, it’s not like when we were back in elementary school (or university) – where making a new friend is as simple as sharing your blankie during nap time.

Making new friends as an adult can be a little weird.

But have no fear, your ole buddy Health Habits Doug is here to help:

First of all, if you’re like me, you actually don’t have a lot of free time to devote to new friend hunting, so my first piece of advice is to look for friends with common interests. That way you can hunt for friends while you do the “stuff” you already love to do.

For example, I love just about anything to do with fitness – ergo I try to make friends with people who also love fitness. That way I can hang out with my buddies and stay fit at the same time – 2 birds – 1 stone.

But, what if everybody at your health club is plugged into their own little ipod world and have no interest in making friends?

No problem.

1. Talk to the staff. They know which members are cool and which members are jerks.
2. Join an exercise class – those people are more social
3. Go outside the gym and look for a Meetup group in your city
4. Actually start interacting with all of your Facebook & Twitter friends.
5. Friend me on Facebook (Health Habits and/or the real Me) & Twitter – I actually talk to people
6. Don’t feel weird about trying to make new friends…we all need friends…but some of us are just to scared/shy/apathetic to take the first step.
7. Be brave.

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Scientific Reference

• BYU press release
• the study

Attention Loners: Popular People Live Longer is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

We all know what it takes to be in good shape

• Exercise daily
• Eat healthy, nutritious food
• Stay hydrated
• Reduce your stress
• Get 8 hours of sleep
• Quit smoking, Quit McDonalds, Quit drinking gallons of Coke, etc….

And for some lucky people, working out and living a healthy lifestyle come naturally. They Just Do It™

However, for the rest of us, the effort required to “get into shape” takes too much…..effort.

• It costs too much
• It’s too hard
• I don’t know what to do
• Fitness people are jerks
• People will look at me
• People won’t look at me
• I’m too fat
• I don’t want to get all sweaty
• I don’t have enough time
• and it’s still too hard

So, we give up, give in and get out of shape.

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If that sounds like you or someone you care about, read on and find out:

1. Why we do what we do,
   
2. Why we don’t do what we should,
3. And how you can re-program yourself to actually enjoy exercise.
   

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The Best Fitness Tip you are ever going to get

Your biggest impediment to getting in shape isn’t a lack of money or knowledge or natural ability.

It’s your emotions.

It’s the beliefs you hold that exercise is too hard and diets don’t work and you have fat DNA.

And I am here to tell you that until you change these beliefs and the emotions that come with them, you will never, ever get in shape.

In fact, every single day, I work with people who are desperate to get in shape…but they don’t believe they can.

But, lucky for them, I do believe. I believe because I have seen it happen over and over again.

So, I lend them my confidence and my emotions.

True, I work them hard and I yell at them for breaking their diet. But, I always make them understand that they can get in shape and that I am going to make it happen.

And like magic, when they start to believe, they start to improve.

For some people, it’s right away. For others, it takes a few weeks.

But eventually, my beliefs and emotions become their beliefs and emotions.

And it’s those emotions and belief in themselves that drives the improvement in fitness.

And if you don’t think that emotion influences performance, ask this guy…

The meanest personal trainer in the world

But, let’s say you don’t have access to a charging bull or don’t want to pay for the airline ticket to fly me to your home town.

What do you do?

You need to make 3 Decisions

1. What are you going to focus on?
2. What does getting in shape mean to you?
3. What actions are you going to take?

FOCUS

• Are you going to focus on your past failures? – NO
• Or, are you going to focus on your fantastically fit future self? – YES

What you focus on creates emotions. We want/need positive emotions

MEANING

• What does living a healthy life mean to you?
• Does it MEAN fatigue/pain/sweat/expense/pain/lack of confidence/pain??? – NO
• Or, does it mean feeling great, looking great and actually being great? – YES

• Is it a punishment or is it a reward?

Meaning creates emotions. We want/need positive emotions.

ACTION

• Your emotions WILL control your actions…positive emotions = positive actions
• And, when you are ready to take positive action, you will find that there are more than enough resources available to transform your body from fat to fit.

• But, of course, you should start by looking through the Health Habits archives.

And, if you need more help with creating these positive emotions, you can start by watching this TED talk by Tony Robbins.

See, I told you there were lots of resources available.

And, before anyone starts thinking that they don’t need that Tony Robbins motivational crap, keep in mind that there are a whole bunch of big brains hanging on Robbins’ every word…including Al Gore. So, don’t go getting all cynical on me now.

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates

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Related Posts

• The Secret to Health and Fitness is……
• The Most Amazing Weight Loss Story
• Why Personal Trainers get Results
• Think Yourself Thin

Successful Fitness Motivation or "how I finally whipped my lazy butt into shape" is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

Your brain on meditation

We all have stress in our lives.

Job stress, school stress, family stress, economic stress, the stress of your daily commute, etc…

And how we deal with that stress can have a huge impact on our health.

Some of us direct that stress outward.

While others turn it back onto ourselves.

Well, today’s post is for those self-flagellators who tend to beat themselves up with all of life’s little stresses.

According to a new study, with just 5 days of practice, test subjects learned how to perform IBMT ( integrated body-mind techniques) and were able to:

• Reduce their levels of cortisol – the stress hormone
• Improve blood flow and electrical activity in their brains
• Improve their quality of breathing
• Reduce their levels of anxiety
• Reduce their levels of depression
• Reduce their levels of anger
• Reduce their levels of fatigue, and

• “create a state of ah, much like in the morning opening your eyes, looking outside the grass and sunshine, you feel relaxed, calm and refresh without any stress”

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So, what is IBMT?

IBMT is a combination of several body–mind techniques including:

1. body relaxation,
2. breath adjustment,
3. mental imagery, and
4. mindfulness training, accompanied with selected music background.

In the study, subjects followed an instructional compact disc with body posture adjustment, breathing practice, guided imagery, and mindfulness training accompanied by a music background.

The sessions lasted 20 minutes each day for 5 days.

20 minutes x 5 days?

Hmmmm

Where do I sign up?

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates

For all of you super-geeks, here is a pdf copy of the complete study.

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Related Posts

• The status quo is broken
• The Evolution of Health Habits
• Loneliness worse for your heart than smoking and obesity
  
• How to beat emotional eating
  
• Santa Claus is clinically depressed
  
• Want to be happier?
  

Reference

• EurekAlert
• University of Oregon – IBMT
• The meditation study
• Another study on meditation & stress
• Dr. Yang explains IBMT

Your brain on meditation is a post from: Health and Fitness articles