Topic

Are Friends Better than Family for Your Health?

Famous expressions

l You can choose your _________________, but you can't choose your ______________.

l  _________________ is thicker than __________________.

Introduction

Having strong ties to ____________________ has long been identified as an important part of being happy and healthy. People need people. However, if forced to choose which is more important, American researchers now say __________ is more important than ______________. Their new study suggests that ________________ may be more important than __________________, especially as we _____________. The study comes from researchers at Michigan State University. They found the importance of _______________ and _______________________________________.

Body

The Michigan State researchers considered information from _______________________________________.

l The first involved just over 271,000 subjects. They participated in a study on ___________________________.

l The second survey had nearly 7,500 participants. Its purpose was to study " __________________________________" in older adults suffering from chronic, or long-term, conditions.

l In the first group, both ____________________________ influenced overall health and happiness.

l However, in the second, researchers said that friendships "became a __________________________ of health and happiness" as people get older. Also in the second group, unhealthy friendships led to ___________________________. But with _________________, Chopik noted, participants reported being happier. One reason: people can keep the friendships that _____________________ and ___________ from the ones that don't. Family, on the other hand, will always be with you. They can be _________________________, but can also cause _____________.

l Chopik explained that "there are now a few studies starting to show just how important friendships can be for _______________________."

l In general, he said, they show that friendships affect our day-to-day happiness and how long we live more so than relationships with ______________.

l Friendships, he added, keep us from _____________________. But _______________________________________ takes work.

l "If a friendship has survived ___________________," he said, "you know it must be a good one, a person you turn to for __________________" and a person you want in your life.

Conclusion

This may be good news for people who don't have _____________________ with family members. Not all of us are born into the families we need. But we all have the ability to make the friendships that we need.