Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on IHeartRadio.

I had a column in the New York Post yesterday on a topic you've heard me cover on here a lot, friendship.

The hook was a study published last week in the UK's Nature Medicine Journal. It found, and none of this

is a surprise, people with stronger social interactions live longer than those without. Living with a

partner, for example, is as good for physical health as regular exercise. That's what researchers found. And having non-related

friends to confide in also extends lifespan. We need each other. Nothing surprising. We've been hearing

for years now how bad loneliness is for our health. A U.S. Surgeon General's report from

23 found it is just as dangerous as

smoking, associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression,

anxiety, and premature death, while upwards of 60% of Americans feel lonely on a regular basis.

So it's good for us to have friends and maintain those friendships.

So why don't we do it? The answer is it's easier not to. And I have a lot of data in the piece. And again,

you might have heard some of it on the show before about the collapse of friendships, how we used to have six close friends and now many people have

zero. It's easier not to have friends and that's unfortunate. It's like eating vegetables.

You have to do something. You have to participate in some way and it's hard. We know we're

supposed to do it but, you know, tired, exhausted from the day,

just not wanting to interact with anyone. So what needs to happen? Because a lot of people do end up

eating their vegetables and going to the gym and doing all the things you're supposed to do for better

living. Maybe not all the time. So why aren't we maintaining this other part of our lives that is also good

for us? Maybe friendship needs to be part of that life hacking that the kids are all into. You wake up early,

make your bed, text a friend to make plans.

We have to see it as part of taking care of ourselves and something good that we do to make ourselves feel better in the short term and the long term.

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