Meeting friends twice a week is good for your health

The wife of my best friend had a birthday, a good excuse to load ourselves up and celebrate at a party near Haarlem. The southernmost drove from the island where we grew up via Utrecht, past my little place and on to the birthday girl. She spent about three hours one way in the car, but it was no problem because she was already on the road. She said. And honestly: those hours in the car are actually hilarious.

On Mondays, I eat and drink with friend B. somewhere within the ring, on July 20 we’re going to a festival with the four of us, in October B. celebrates her wedding anniversary and in November we’re going for a day-night trip to Den Bosch. We just need to come up with something for August and September, but then we’ve still seen each other nicely once a month. Good score, I thought. Too little, says a study now, because meeting friends twice a week is really healthy. I suspect there will be a panic outbreak when I tell them this and that we will then need a timetable for who is up when, because they also have children.

Researchers from the University of Oxford came up with these cheerful research results. Seeing your friends twice a week is good for your physical and mental health. The more the merrier even, because the more friends you have, the less risk you run of getting sick, you recover faster after surgery (?) and there’s even a chance that you live longer. I think these are three outstanding reasons to pull out my agenda, plan more dates, and dig up vague acquaintances from the past.

The professors explain how it works with those two times a week, because this is the average for an average person seeing their friends or family. Women with friends have less stress; this has to do with the so-called love hormone that does a lot of good between the ears. Men also benefit just as much from bonding with family and friends. You can spread it out, it doesn’t have to be the same two times a week, that makes the score a bit easier to achieve.

So don’t cancel if you’re too busy (or pretend to be), your friends actually help reduce your stress. I’m going to text one about wine and something with a terrace to the other.

Source: The Oprah Magazine