Loneliness is as big a killer as anything else.

Some have said it's equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

There's a huge biology to it.

Why aren't doctors prescribing to spend more time with friends?

I do.

We are what we eat, or so the adage goes.

But it turns out that statement is actually medically true.

Dr. Mark Hyman is one of the leading voices in the field of functional medicine, which basically

means that if we feed our bodies the nutrients it needs, not only does it help us prevent

illness, but we can actually supercharge our immune systems to heal us when we get sick.

So I wanted to talk to him about something we need in our lives as much as we need food.

Friendship.

World leaders ask Mark for health advice.

He's the author of 15 books, many of them New York Times bestsellers,

and the host of the podcast, The Doctors Pharmacy.

So I really wanted to get his take.

And it turns out, if we give our friendships the same attention as we give our diets,

it benefits our minds, our spirits, and our bodies. This is a bit of optimism.

Mark, thanks so much for coming today. It was such a treat to sit down with you.

There's so much I want to talk to you about. My big thing right now is I'm writing about friendship.

Yeah. Sort of mildly obsessed with it. And so it's a good thing to be obsessed.

It's a good thing to be obsessed with it. So I want to go down the path of the connection between

...