朋友的功效

塔拉·帕克-波普

为了追求健康,很多人求助于医生、查询保健书或服用草药调理。但他们忽视了能帮助他们对抗疾病、抗击抑郁、加速康复、减缓衰老和延年益寿的一种强有力的武器——朋友。

研究人员现在才开始关注友谊和社会关系对人体健康的重要性。澳大利亚一项历时10年的研究发现,在研究期间,交友广泛的老人死亡的可能性比朋友较少的老人低22%。去年,哈佛大学研究人员报道,当人们变老的时候,强大的社会关系能促进大脑的健康。朋友关系比家庭关系对我们的心理健康具有更大的影响。

在一本名为《来自埃姆斯的女孩们:40年友谊的故事》的书中,作者杰弗里·扎斯洛描述了11个孩童时期的朋友从爱荷华州分散到8个不同州的故事。虽然她们相距很远,但经历了从大学到结婚、离婚和其他的种种危机,她们的友谊仍然保持了下来。通过剪贴簿、相册以及这些女人自己的回忆,作者按年代记录了她们的亲密友谊如何影响她们的生活,几乎在每一章里都能找到友谊对她们的健康和幸福产生的巨大作用。2006年,一项对近3000名患乳腺癌护士的研究发现,与具有10个或以上亲密朋友的女性相比,没有亲密朋友的女性死于乳腺癌的可能性是前者的4倍。

虽然许多对友谊的研究着重于女性之间的亲密关系,但一些研究表明男性也能受益。瑞典一项针对736名中年男性为期6年的研究表明,爱情对于心脏病和致命冠心病的发作机率没有影响,但友谊却影响巨大。缺乏社会支持和吸烟并列为对健康的两大威胁。

友谊为何有如此重要作用的原因目前还不完全清楚。虽然朋友可以为一个病人跑腿买东西、取药,但是友谊的益处远远超出了实际帮助。友谊对一个人显然具有深远的心理影响。拥有强大朋友关系的人比其他人患感冒的可能性更小,也许是因为他们承受的压力较低。

去年,研究人员对美国弗吉尼亚大学34个学生进行了一项试验,把这些学生带到了一座陡峭的山脚下,给他们每人发了一个很重的背包,然后要求他们估算这座山的陡度。在估算期间,有些学生和朋友们站在一起,有的学生则是独自一人。结果显示,和朋友站在一起的学生对这座山的陡度估算较低。朋友相互认识的时间越长,估算的陡度似乎就越低。

“拥有深厚友谊的人会觉得自己有一种后盾”,弗吉尼亚理工大学老年医学中心主任凯伦·A·罗伯特说,“朋友关系是一种被低估的资源,这些研究得到的一致信息是:朋友使你的生活更加美好。”

What Are Friends For?

A Longer Life

By Tara Parker-Pope

In the quest for better health, many people turn to doctors, self-help books or herbal supplements. But they overlook a powerful weapon that could help them fight illness and depression, speed recovery, slow aging and prolong life: their friends.

Researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends. And last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age. Friendship has a bigger impact on our psychological well-being than family relationships.

In his new book, The Girls From Ames: A Story of Women and a 40-Year Friendship , Jeffrey Zaslow tells the story of 11 childhood friends who scattered from Iowa to eight different states. Despite the distance, their friendships endured through college and marriage, divorce and other crises. Using scrapbooks, photo albums and the womens own memories, Mr. Zaslow chronicles how their close friendships have shaped their lives and continue to sustain them. The role of friendship in their health and well-being is evident in almost every chapter.In 2006, a study of nearly 3,000 nurses with breast cancer found that women without close friends were four times as likely to die from the disease as women with 10 or more friends.

While many friendship studies focus on the intense relationships of women, some research shows that men can benefit, too. In a six-year study of 736 middle-age Swedish men, attachment to a single person didnt appear to affect the risk of heart attack and fatal coronary heart disease, but having friendships did. Only smoking was as important a risk factor as lack of social support.

Exactly why friendship has such a big effect isnt entirely clear. While friends can run errands and pick up medicine for a sick person, the benefits go well beyond physical assistance. Friendship clearly has a profound psychological effect. People with strong friendships are less likely than others to get colds, perhaps because they have lower stress levels.

Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone. The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.

“People with stronger friendship networks feel like there is someone they can turn to.” said Karen A. Roberto, director of the center for gerontology at Virginia Tech. “Friendship is an undervalued resource. The consistent message of these studies is that friends make your life better.”

[译自美国《纽约时报》]