Your friends and their friends may influence your health

I recently came across an excellent TED (Technology, Education and Design) Lecture given by Harvard Social Epidemiologist Nicholas Christakis. His work over the past 15 years has shown very interesting relationships among those connected both directly and indirectly with others. His work is not about understanding how influenza or other contagious diseases get transmitted, but rather how social connections seem to influence the state of health. For example, Christakis has found that if your friend's friend is obese (even someone you have never met), it increases your risk of also being obese by a rather surprising percentage. That percentage decreases as the social connections are become more distant, but the findings are rather surprising and worthy of significant additional scrutiny. Christakis continues to unravel the explanations behind his interesting findings, but suggests that one clear implication is that we can all benefit each other by recognizing that attending to our own health and well-being can have an impact well beyond our lives and the lives of those closest to us. Be intrigued, see Christakis' lecture here.