Social Relationships Can Help You Live Longer

Having good social relationships with family and friends may be just as important to your health as not smoking and controlling your weight.

In the study of more than 300,000 people, published in the Public Library of Science , those with close social ties were 50 percent less likely to die early than people who didn't enjoy those relationships.

MetroHealth Medical Center's James W. Campbell, M.D. was not at all surprised by the conclusions of the meta analysis.

He said he regularly counsels patients in his geriatrics and family medicine practice about the importance of interacting with people, but that more physicians should keep that in mind with their older patients, especially.