Warm relationships kept people happiest and healthiest into old age
A study since 1938 found having at least one person to count on was tied to better aging.
TED · The Secret to a Happy Life — Lessons from 8 Decades of Research | Robert Waldinger | TEDPeople with warm relationships stayed happiest, healthiest, and sharpest into old age.
That is the finding described by Robert Waldinger, the psychiatrist who directs the Harvard Study of Adult Development. It began in 1938 with 724 boys, including Harvard undergraduates and inner-city boys from disadvantaged families, and later added women and children to more than 2,000 people.
About 30 years ago, researchers found warm connections predicted well-being, physical strength, and sharper brains. They did not believe it at first. But connected people had less depression, less diabetes and heart disease, and recovered faster from illness. Having at least one person to count on when sick or scared was tied to better aging.
Happier people also aged more slowly and stayed able longer. When the original participants reached their 80s and looked back on their lives, almost everyone talked about relationships, describing being a good mentor, friend, partner, or parent.
Questions people ask
Do you need to be married or have a romantic partner to get the benefit?
No. The study found that all kinds of connection count, including friends, relatives, coworkers, and even casual contacts. What mattered was having at least one person you felt really had your back if you were sick or scared.
How could friendships actually change physical health?
Close relationships appear to calm the body's stress response after an upsetting day. People without that buffer can stay in a low-grade fight-or-flight state, with higher chronic inflammation and stress hormones that wear on mood, the heart, metabolism, and other systems.
Does having good relationships guarantee a longer, healthier life?
No. The researchers describe relationships as ingredients, like not smoking, exercising, and getting regular health care, not guarantees. On average, happier, connected people age more slowly and stay able longer, but any one person's outcome can still differ.