The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson,

and is narrated by Tina Lehman.

Four surprising ways other people affect your health.

Jean-Paul Sart, in one of his famous plays, said,

Hell is Other People.

I think most of us might sympathize with that claim depending on the day

and the person we're dealing with.

On the flip side, people can be the source of our greatest choice.

His sentiment, regardless, speaks to the strong impact others can have

on us. Whether we like it or not, we all live and need to live in some relation to others.

None of us exist in a vacuum, and research on extreme isolation suggests the real hell on

earth might be exactly that. So make no mistake, how people make us feel is not

just the stuff of poetry and philosophy. Other people can and do influence our immediate physiology,

as well as our ongoing health. What does this process look like, though? How does it play out in our

lives? Let's examine a few examples.

Evolution shaped us to be intricately social creatures. From the time of infancy, we're innately

directed to be highly attuned to those around us, first to our mothers and or primary caregivers,

and later to our peers and larger community.

Complex neurological patterns guide our instinctual process of observation and emulation.

Researchers have long studied mirroring, the subconscious mechanism that moves us to adopt

the subtle behavioral signals of someone with whom we're likely to establish rapport, trust, and empathy.

The cornerstones of human connection. Interdependence and the social tools to support it

...