Being popular really IS good for our health-Socially-isolated-people- have higher-levels-proteins-linked to heart-attacks and strokes.

Study: People with fewer friends have higher levels of fibrinogen
Protein raises risk of heart attacks and strokes by triggering blood to clot
What mattered was how many people named a person as their friend
Previous work revealed people overestimate who thinks of them as a pal


Being unpopular could be as bad for your heart as smoking.

A study found that levels of a protein instrumental in heart attacks and strokes were higher in people who were socially isolated.

Interestingly, it wasn’t the number of friends a person thought they had that was important – but the number of people who named them as a pal.

Being popular is good for our health, researchers said. The found that levels of a protein instrumental in heart attacks and strokes were higher in people who were isolated

The Harvard University researchers said: ‘What matters is how others see us, not how we see them.’

The analysis focused on levels of fibrinogen, a protein that is made by the liver and helps blood clot, stopping bleeding.

When we are seriously injured, its production can be lifesaving.

However, if levels stay high long-term, a person’s odds of the dangerous clots behind heart attacks and strokes rise.

The team compared fibrinogen measurements from more than 3,500 men and women with information on their social networks.
WHY GRIEVING MEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO DIE OF A BROKEN HEART

They may struggle to show their emotions when married but men are more likely to die from a broken heart when bereaved.

A Miami University study found males who were widowed died younger than their still-married counterparts.

In contrast, female longevity wasn’t affected by the loss of their spouses.

It is thought one of the reasons men are affected more deeply is because they tend to rely on their wives to look after their health and social lives.

As a result, the loss of their other half can leave them struggling with everything from loneliness, to cooking healthy meals and remembering to take their medicines.

Vices, such as smoking, which were kept in check by their spouse, may also be taken up again, as a source of solace.

Women, in contrast, are more self-sufficient, plus they tend to have a bigger network of friends who will provide support in times of need.

Not all friendships are mutual and so the social data took two forms - the number of people a person named as a friend, and the number of people who thought of that person as a friend.

The men and women taking part the study said they had between two and 32 friends but the average number of was ten.

In contrast, a participant was typically thought of as a friend by just four people.

Analysis showed there to be little link between the number of friends a person said they had and their fibrinogen levels.

However, those who were named by lots of people as being a friend had lower levels of the clotting protein.

On the flip side, those who were rarely described as a friend had more of the compound in their blood.

In those who were least popular, fibrinogen levels were as high as in smokers, the Royal Society journal Proceedings B reports.

The researchers said that although we might like to think we have lots of friends, the real help and support comes from those who count us a friend.

More research is needed to work out why friendship is so important.

But possibilities range from the stress relief of having an active social life to friends encouraging each other to look after their health.
culled from dailymailonline