Are Your Friends Good For Your Health?

Ever been told your mates are bad for your health. Well it may be the opposite.

The old statement of a friend in need is a friend indeed runs true for many things in life and physical activity is no different. As we live in a society where most people barely expend enough energy to stay conscious, we need to take a good hard look at ourselves and beyond. As a society we have got ourselves into this position and I propose that we can all get out of it together as well.

Recent findings in the New England Journal of Medicine tracked changes in body weight in social circles over a 32 year period. Results indicated that as a person increased their body weight, their friends and spouses surrounding them also increased in a similar fashion. Whilst the media missed the truth with an ever familiar spin (saying that obesity is contagious), the authors suggested that the opposite applies, being fit and lean tends to run in social circles as well.

Now before you go out and provide your friends with a retrenchment notice, you may wish to set in motion one of your greatest assets for your health – get your friends involved. Using boxing parlance this gets another person in your corner and is a time efficient way of staying in touch with your friends at the same time.

It is a bit like how football or netball teams work hard for a common goal, spurring each other on the way to success. Grab a friend today and get them in your corner. The more like-minded active, healthy people supporting you the better off both you and your friends will be.

h4>What type of exercise?

Use the Lifestyle Medicine The Exerselector Questionaire to seek the most appropriate forms of exercise for you and the family.