Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism, and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100 with Marta Zaraska
One of the most unfortunate aspects of dealing with COVID-19 is the need for social distancing. It’s protecting us and helping to stop the spread of this catastrophic virus, but it’s leading to an increase in isolation and loneliness, which are already an epidemic of their own.
Health is multifaceted, but diet and exercise tend to steal the show when it comes to what most people focus on. That means some other really important pieces of wellness aren’t getting the attention they deserve, like whether you have friends, a quality marriage, or know your neighbors.
On today’s
Broken Brain Podcast,
Dhru talks to Marta Zaraska, a Canadian science journalist. She has written for the
Washington Post,
Scientific American,
New Scientist, and
The Atlantic, among others. She is the author of the bestselling book
Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100.
In this episode, Dhru and Marta talk about how diet and exercise are indeed very important to your overall health, but that other social factors matter far more for health and longevity. They discuss how loneliness does not only result from being alone—even those who live with others can feel lonely and isolated, meaning the quality of our relationships are extremely important to our health.
Social media has become so ingrained in our modern world that it has a huge impact on how we interact with others. Dhru and Marta discuss how this trickles down to our happiness and longevity, and what we can do to be more mindful.
They also talk about how friendship, kindness, and optimism are core interventions that help us live healthier and longer lives. Marta shares some interesting anecdotes about communities with the secrets to longer lives and why finding a sense of purpose is so crucial for healthspan and lifespan.
I know you’ll love this episode as much as I did.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD