How to Help Your Friend with Cancer
It’s tough to know what to do when a friend has cancer. Your heart goes out to them, and you want to help in any way you can, but how do you know where and how? The good news is that there are many ways for friends and family members of someone with cancer to lend support. This article will give some great ideas on what you can do without feeling like an outsider or imposing on your friend who may be overwhelmed already.
We Are Better Together — No Seriously
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.