朋友的功效

塔拉·帕克-波普

為了追求健康,很多人求助于醫生、查詢保健書或服用草藥調理。但他們忽視了能幫助他們對抗疾病、抗擊抑郁、加速康復、減緩衰老和延年益壽的一種強有力的武器——朋友。

研究人員現在才開始關注友誼和社會關系對人體健康的重要性。澳大利亞一項歷時10年的研究發現,在研究期間,交友廣泛的老人死亡的可能性比朋友較少的老人低22%。去年,哈佛大學研究人員報道,當人們變老的時候,強大的社會關系能促進大腦的健康。朋友關系比家庭關系對我們的心理健康具有更大的影響。

在一本名為《來自埃姆斯的女孩們:40年友誼的故事》的書中,作者杰弗里·扎斯洛描述了11個孩童時期的朋友從愛荷華州分散到8個不同州的故事。雖然她們相距很遠,但經歷了從大學到結婚、離婚和其他的種種危機,她們的友誼仍然保持了下來。通過剪貼簿、相冊以及這些女人自己的回憶,作者按年代記錄了她們的親密友誼如何影響她們的生活,幾乎在每一章里都能找到友誼對她們的健康和幸福產生的巨大作用。2006年,一項對近3000名患乳腺癌護士的研究發現,與具有10個或以上親密朋友的女性相比,沒有親密朋友的女性死于乳腺癌的可能性是前者的4倍。

雖然許多對友誼的研究著重于女性之間的親密關系,但一些研究表明男性也能受益。瑞典一項針對736名中年男性為期6年的研究表明,愛情對于心臟病和致命冠心病的發作機率沒有影響,但友誼卻影響巨大。缺乏社會支持和吸煙并列為對健康的兩大威脅。

友誼為何有如此重要作用的原因目前還不完全清楚。雖然朋友可以為一個病人跑腿買東西、取藥,但是友誼的益處遠遠超出了實際幫助。友誼對一個人顯然具有深遠的心理影響。擁有強大朋友關系的人比其他人患感冒的可能性更小,也許是因為他們承受的壓力較低。

去年,研究人員對美國弗吉尼亞大學34個學生進行了一項試驗,把這些學生帶到了一座陡峭的山腳下,給他們每人發了一個很重的背包,然后要求他們估算這座山的陡度。在估算期間,有些學生和朋友們站在一起,有的學生則是獨自一人。結果顯示,和朋友站在一起的學生對這座山的陡度估算較低。朋友相互認識的時間越長,估算的陡度似乎就越低。

“擁有深厚友誼的人會覺得自己有一種后盾”,弗吉尼亞理工大學老年醫學中心主任凱倫·A·羅伯特說,“朋友關系是一種被低估的資源,這些研究得到的一致信息是:朋友使你的生活更加美好?！?/p>

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.”

[譯自美國《紐約時報》]