Do You Want to Live Longer? Widen Your Circle of Friends.

A recent Australian study shows that friends are valuable to longevity.
Previous studies showed that strong social connections help older people
live longer but these studies did not differentiate between friends and
family. The new study does and the results are in favor of friends over
family.

The study of almost 1500 people over the age of 70 (when the study began)
showed that those with five or more friends were 22 percent less likely to
die in the following decade. The presence or absence of family had no impact
on survival.

Although researchers are unsure why friends - and not family - aid in the
survival rate, they postulate that friends might help in times of stress
while family members can be a source of stress.

And we all know stress kills.