Long-time friendships strengthen health, too

Girlfriends from Tipton, Iowa, reunite in 2018 at the Tipton Country Club

The strength of friendship is well known, but did you also realize that strong friendships are good for your health?

Research shows friendship, especially the lasting kind, are commonly connected to better health, including heart health. The data shows that the more rich, and the number of friendships you enjoy, the longer your longevity.

As an example, several of my girlfriends are now 60-61 years old, and we all met when we were students at Tipton Elementary School in Tipton, Iowa. We've kept in touch over the decades, through letters, phone calls, texts these days, parties, and in the last 10 years, trips.

As our children grow older, the strength of female friendship becomes more, and more important. As a daily newspaper reporter for health and wellness, I once interviewed several women from Rock Island. Those girls had been friends since childhood, and vouched for the the connections that lasted for decades.

As I spoke to them as a newspaper reporter, I thought about my own girlfriends. To date, we have been on a significant vacations including to the Lake of the Ozarks, to Florida, to Nashville, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other states. We hang together, trust each other, and see one another on a regular basis.

According to thriveglobal.com, in an article by Bonnie Milletto, "girlfriend times" provide serotonin to each woman, which helps combat depression, and promotes general feelings of well-being. Men, on the other hand, tend to form relationships around activities. My husband for example, meets weekly with friends who are also retired from long careers.

I thrive from my friendships with my girlfriends, which started many years ago and continue to this day. Thank you for prompting my psychological health, you girls!