Several years ago, Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad of Brigham Young University boiled a heap of meaty research down to a simple finding: loneliness and a low level of social support present the same risk to our physical health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. That’s right. While people facing cancer and other serious illnesses have long been advised to join support groups to bolster their emotional well-being, we now know that social support is also linked with improved physical health in the general population, such as lower mortality rates, lower risk of heart disease and stroke and decreased blood pressure and chronic pain.