By: Laura Blue Researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pooled data from 148 studies on health outcomes and social relationships — every research paper on the topic they could find, involving more than 300,000 men and women across the developed world — and found that those with poor social connections had on average 50% higher odds of death in the study's follow-up period (an average of 7.5 years) than people with more robust social ties. That boost in longevity is about as large as the mortality difference observed between smokers and nonsmokers, the study's authors say. And it's larger than differences in the risk of death associated with many other well-known lifestyle factors, including lack of exercise and obesity. "This is not just a few studies here and there," says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, lead author on the review and an associate professor of psychology at Brigham Young University. "I'm hoping there will be recognition from the medical community, the public-health community and even the general public about the importance of this." The friend effect did not appear to vary by sex or by age, with men and women of all ages and health statuses showing roughly equal benefit. Nor were lonely people unusually susceptible to any one disease in particular. But if it's true that we get by with a little help from our friends, then how, exactly, do our friends do it? That is, how does "social integration" — measured by surveys and questionnaires about friends, family size, marital status and the number of household residents — influence long life? The short answer is that we don't really know yet. "The truth of the matter is that the critical evidence on psychosocial processes and health has come about only within the last 10 to 15 years — even though there's been a lot of theory on it since the 1970s," says psychology professor Bert Uchino at the University of Utah. That may help to explain why doctors, for the most part, have yet to embrace social support as a factor in good health, on par with smoking habits, diet or exercise. Without a good sense of the physiological mechanisms that may link feelings of loneliness, for instance, to biological markers like blood pressure and resting heart rate, it has been easy to dismiss the power of social connections as nothing more than an artifact of the data or, worse, as touchy-feely pseudoscience. To be sure, the direct physical evidence of the health benefits of social support is much more preliminary than the population-level association reported by Holt-Lunstad. But the evidence is mounting, says Uchino, who has written widely on the physiological links between social life and health outcomes. (Uchino did not contribute to the new review in PLoS Medicine, but has collaborated with Holt-Lunstad on other projects and was, once upon a time, also her grad-school adviser.) We turn to family and friends for obvious tangible support when we're sick — from help preparing meals to keeping track of pills, appointments and insurance forms. And caring about others may also prompt us to take better care of ourselves. "A really good example, of course, is someone who has a child," Uchino says. That new bond is often the impetus to quit smoking, to drink less or to curb any number of risky pastimes. But the influence of social ties may be even more powerful than that. Social relationships, it seems, may also help our bodies help themselves. Recent lab studies have shown that, in a stressful situation, blood pressure and heart rate will increase less when people are accompanied by a person who is close to them. Brain imaging also shows neurological differences between a person who is alone and a person who has support: in a lab-induced tense situation, brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region activated in times of stress, is attenuated when people have a close friend or relative alongside them. And it's not just adult stress. In an experiment published this spring, children who were allowed to talk to their mothers after a stressful encounter — giving an impromptu speech or doing math problems in public — showed increased levels of oxytocin, a neurotransmitter thought to dampen the hormonal stress response, compared with children who did not have contact with their mothers. In one of the most famous experiments on health and social life, Sheldon Cohen at Carnegie Mellon University exposed hundreds of healthy volunteers to the common cold virus, then quarantined them for several days. Cohen showed that the study participants with more social connections and with more diverse social networks — that is, with friends from a variety of social contexts, such as work, sports teams and church — were less likely to develop a cold than the more socially isolated study participants. The immune systems of people with lots of friends simply worked better, fighting off the cold virus often without symptoms. Studies suggest that the immune response may be affected by stress hormones — catecholamines and glucocorticoids — so that a strong social life thus affects immune function by helping people keep physiological stress in check. But turning such research into full-fledged medical advice isn't easy. "It's hard to legislate social relationships," Holt-Lunstad says. "And we all know that some relationships are better than others, and not all relationships are entirely positive." Since Holt-Lunstad's new study reviewed the statistical association between mortality risk and relationship quantity, rather than perceived quality, she wonders whether we wouldn't see even stronger benefits if we focused only on the good relationships. Bolstering these connections may ultimately help people stay healthier than trying to build connections between complete strangers, as in, say, a cancer support group. (Studies on the physical health benefits of support groups show mixed results.) "We need to pay better attention to naturally occurring relationships and to fostering those," Holt-Lunstad says.
A healthy social life may be as good for your long-term health as avoiding cigarettes, according to a massive research review released Tuesday by the journal PLoS Medicine.
Source: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2006938,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
Monday, August 23, 2010
Recipe for Longevity: No Smoking, Lots of Friends
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Family Involvement Mini-Grants
Mary J. Marin, the executive director of the Family Center Children's Special Health Care Services (CSHCS) Division is happy to announce that the Family center is able to offer Family Involvement Mini-Grants to local health departments. The mini-Grants will increase interaction between the health departments and families,enabling families to provide input and work together to make program improvements at the local level. The grants will allow a variety of activities.
Example of grant activities are:
- Increasing the use of parents as paid staff to perform various functions
- Building a CSHCS database of client e-mail addresses
- Conducting Surveys to assess program effectiveness
- Conducting family forums
- Underwriting family oriented activities and events
- Providing programming costs such as childcare,stipends and speaker fees
Friday, August 6, 2010
Ribfest is here ! Be our Potluck Pal!!
Community Advocates Ribfest 2010 has started!
Please come down to the festival site and visit our tent!There's a lot of food and fun to be had as well as a rockin' entertainment line up:
Friday, August 6
2 pm:Cooking demonstration
5-6:30 pm: Small Town Son
7 pm: Sponsor's Choice
7-9:30 pm: Jedi Mind Trip
10-11:15 pm: Eddie Money
11:45 pm-1:15 am: InCustody
Saturday, August 7
11 am-1 pm: Family Day at the Fest
11 am-1 pm: Kalamazoo Academy of Rock
Noon-4 pm: Kalamazoo Cook-Off
1:30-2:30 pm: Adhesive Pieces
5-7 pm: Midtown Underground
7:30-9:30 pm: Drop 35
8:30 pm: Awards Announcement
10-11:15 pm: The Verve Pipe
11:45 pm- 1:15 am: The Vandrie
Please Vote for Community Advocates
starting today through august 20th at http://one.wkzo.com/stationfiles/loris-cookbook/vote.asp
Select Community Advocates from the list of charities. You may vote once a day every day per computer through August 20th.
Details
Community Advocates has an opportunity to be one of 12 charities to benefit from the sales of Lori Moore’s Potluck Pals cookbook as well as receive a matching gift from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation but we need your vote.
For each donation made through cookbook sales on Community Advocates' designated date, the Community Foundation will match $1/$1 up to $3600. These dollars will allow us continue to serve those with developmental disabilities in Kalamazoo County.
Join us tonight!!!!
Today is the second day of our annual Fundraiser : Community Advocates Ribfest. Some people doesn't know that the Ribfest is our Fundraiser and what we do . We are a non-profit agency who has been supporting individuals with developmental disabilities and their families in the Kalamazoo area since 1953.We are a Kalamazoo County affiliate of The Arc Michigan and The Arc US, and a Greater Kalamazoo United Way member agency.
Our Mission:
We exist as an advocacy organization to make it possible for each person with a disability to participate fully in all aspects of community and to support the effort of each individual to determine his/her own future.Help us make a difference in the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities. Bring your family enjoy some delicious food and live entertainment for everybody!!!!
For more info visit: http://www.ribfestkalamazoo.com/
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
19th Annual Community Advocates Ribfest
Community Advocates' Ribfest is a major fundraising event for Community Advocates for Persons with Developmental Disabilities. The money raised through this event enables the agency to make it possible for each person with a developmental disability to participate fully in all aspects of community and to support the effort of each individual to determine his/her own future. And in 2009 we made more than 4,600 contacts to assist people with disabilities and their families of all ages in Kalamazoo County to do just that.
The 3-day event is hosted at the Arcadia Creek Festival Place in Downtown Kalamazoo. The event features ten national and local rib vendors along with food vendors offering fried veggies, pasta, and traditional food, plus ice cream.
Festival Hours
Thursday, 11 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.
Friday & Saturday, 11 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.
Admission/Entrances
Daily Gate Fee: $5 at 4 p.m.
Friday and Saturday: $10 at 7 p.m.
Located at 145 E. Water Street (Kalamazoo, MI 49007) there are two convenient entrances and exits at Kalamazoo Ave. and Water Street.
For more info visit: http://www.ribfestkalamazoo.com/ and our Facebook Page:
Community Advocates for Persons with Developmental Disabilities
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