Having lunch with your friends may be just as important in keeping you alive as exercising, Linda Waite argues.

Waite’s research on social well-being has provided key insights into how our social lives affect our physical health.

“My dream would be that people would have healthier more satisfying lives,” says Waite, a professor of urban sociology at the University of Chicago.

“If they and we as a society paid more attention to the social and how it connects to everything else, we could help people the same way we provide physical therapy if somebody has an injury.”

The data from Waite’s studies have changed our understanding of what it means to be healthy. Now, she’s insisting that our health care and medical industries need to incorporate social well-being into their practice when treating patients.

On this episode of the Big Brains podcast, Waite explains her work and why your social life is vital for your health.

?>

books_health