Relationships
There is an intimate relationship between the mind and body. Courage, love, hope, faith, and sympathy promote 
health and prolong life (White). Doc Childre states that a harmonious relationship with one you love can enhance your work, health and entire well-being. “For better or worse” may have have a greater impact on physical and mental health than most people realize as seen in vascular reaction or cellular immune competence, when intense affective bonds are disrupted during conflict or confiding in each other.
Influence of Relationships
Poor, unstable interpersonal relationships can lead to mental health problems, while stable relationships can lead individuals back to good mental health (McKenna). Sustaining meaningful relationships counteracts problems of loneliness for each of us, and is especially important for individuals who have experienced a mentaql illness. Meaningful relationships for these individuals is a important as penicillin is to individuals with pneumonia (Sharfstein).
Having meaningful relationships and social support can influence outcomes for individuals with cardiovascular disease. Living alone without social support or meaningful relationships is associated with higher cardiovascular mortality risk (Schmaltz et al). Patients with acute myeloid leukaemia without good social support were also shown to be at greater mortality risk.
Women with infrequent experiences of reassurance of worth, emotional closeness, sense of belonging and opportunity for nurturance experienced 2.5 times the risk of death than women who had these needs met. Women with breast cancer who did not have meaningful relationships and support did not live as long as women who had.
Social isolation is associated with increased risk of dying from all causes.
Benefits of Meaningful Relationships
Positive interpersonal relationships is thought to buffer the effects of stress on the immune system. High-quality social support is linked to higher killer cell activity in cancer patients. Social support and interpersonal relationships also moderates the effect of stress on the immune system which combats tumor growth.
Having the assurance of support from family and friends can strengthen one resolve to make choices that contribute to improved health (Cummings & Reed). High social support is associated with increased physical activity, less substance abuse and better dietary practices.
Dr. Dean Ornish states that he is not aware of any other factor in medicine – not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery – that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness and premature death from all cause, than interpersonal relationships.
Too often we under estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, a honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring all of which have the potential to turn life around (Buscoglia).
Don’t miss an opportunity to show genuine caring to family and friends through the warmth of a hug.
Hugging is good medicine. It transfers energy, and gives the person hugged an emotional boost. You need four hugs a day for survival, eight for maintenance, and twelve for growth. A hug makes you feel good. The skin is the largest organ we have and it needs a great deal of care. A hug can cover a lot of skin and gives the message that you care. It is also a form of communication. It can say things you don’t have words for. The nicest thing about a hug is that you usually can’t give one without getting one. Author Unknown
