Why love could help you live longer? │ How Love Makes Us Human with Dr Anna Machin
Do relationships boost our health?
Find out which role our social capital plays for our life span, health and happiness.
Anthropologist Anna Machin explains which aspects of love and attraction are hard-wired into our brains by nature, and why we can blame (some of) our misbehaviour in relationships on biology. She also gives us a glimpse of what the future of love might look like.
More on the science behind this video:
Dr Anna Machin’s website https://annamachin.com/
Dr Anna Machin’s blog https://annamachin.com/blog/
This series was produced with our partner Pint of Science! Find out more: www.pintofscience.com
Do relationships boost our health? You're about to find out.
The size and quality of your social network is the biggest predictor of health, happiness and life satisfaction across your life course. This is known as your social capital, and it's as valuable as any financial capital. We measure your social capital by looking at things like the size and cohesion of your social network - that's how strong those bonds are between you and other people, your level of loneliness, your reciprocity or level of involvement with those you are in a network with, your level of trust, your sense of belonging, and how likely you are to help other people out, to volunteer.
And we've now gathered lots and lots of health data that shows that your social connections predict your mortality. Having a good and strong social network lowers your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. That decrease in risk is 50%, that's the same as quitting smoking or losing weight if you're obese. The likelihood that you are obese is also linked to the nature of your social network, and having a strong social network, spending a lot of time interacting with other people maintains cognitive function in the elderly.
And finally, having a good social network reduces your risk of poor mental health. This might be in part because being with other people lowers your cortisol and allows those social neurochemicals to flow. Why does your social network, your love, have this influence on your life? There are several possibilities and we're still not quite sure how important each of them is. Having people to rely on to ask for aid buffers the stresses of life. So, for example they can lend you money, they can help you practically, they can pass on important health information. Being with people improves your mood, which improves your mental health. Particularly, cortisol is reduced if you interact socially because of the floods of oxytocin, dopamine and beta-endorphin. But it may also be that the neurochemistry that underpins your love is actually linked to your immune system. We now know that beta-endorphin stimulates the release of killer cells.
Your social capital, your love, holds the key to health and happiness. Invest in them for lifelong satisfaction.
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