We all know that our BFF is pretty much amazing. She makes us laugh, she’s a great listener and we’ve yet to meet someone else who can manage to do a bazillion things at once without breaking so much as a sweat (never mind a nail).
Yes, besties are brilliant and now modern medicine has confirmed what we’ve already known for ages – a good friendship can work wonders on your overall sense of health and wellbeing.
According to a new study, companionship and social interaction not only reduce your stress levels they can also ease pain and help patients recover more quickly from pain that is specifically linked to nerve damage. In fact, even being in the same room as another person can relax us considerably, which in turn encourages our body to heal.
Researchers from Ohio State University discovered all this by studying mice which had recently undergone some neurosurgery. Some of the mice were left to recover in a cage by themselves, while others were given a companion.
The mice who had a friend with them suffered less nerve-related pain and had a quicker rate of recovery than the mice who were left in a cage alone.
Feeling sick? Meeting up with a friend can give you an instant health boost.
“If they were alone and had stress, the animals had increased inflammation and allodynia [nerve-related pain] behaviour,” said Adam Hinzey, the lead author of the study.
“If the mice had a social partner, both allodynia and inflammation were reduced,” he added.
So your friends can not only offer you a shoulder to cry on if you’re not feeling the best, they can also make you feel less pain and recover faster. Amazing or what?
We don’t know about you, but we’ll definitely be rallying our besties for a girls’ night out soon…what? It’s, eh, good for our health…
