couple-under-beach-umbrella-eating-sunstarHaving good social relationships — friends, marriage or children — may be every bit as important to a healthy lifespan as quitting smoking, losing weight or taking certain medications, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

People with strong social relationships were 50 percent less likely to die early than people without such support, which correlated to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, said the team at Brigham Young University in Utah.

They suggest that policymakers look at ways to help people maintain social relationships as a way of keeping the population healthy.

(READ the full story at Reuters)

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