Maintaining a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet, regular exercise and good sleep. Effectively managing stress, limiting alcohol consumption and avoiding smoking. On the path to ageing well, none of these practices are any secret.
A research team led by Cornell University in the United States claims that there’s another major factor that could work wonders for longevity. It’s all about our social life.
The fountain of youth
The study argues that deep, lasting social bonds not only enrich lives but they prolong them, too. The findings were published in the journal ‘Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health’(opens in new window).
The researchers analysed data from over 2 100 Americans in a landmark national study(opens in new window) that is aimed at understanding why some maintain health and well-being during adult life. They examined the social connections the American adults had built over the years and compared them with measurements of biological ageing.
The focus was on the adults’ so-called epigenetic clocks – sophisticated algorithms that estimated how fast they were ageing biologically based on DNA changes.
The three Fs: friends, family and faith
The idea was to look at the cumulative effect social bonds had on people from childhood to adulthood, and not in isolation. The research team used questionnaires to measure 16 different indicators across four areas of social connection: parental warmth and support in childhood; community and neighbourhood engagement; religious involvement; and continuous support from friends and family in adulthood. Surprisingly, how connected people felt to their community came out on top for healthy ageing, followed by positive relationships with friends and family.
“This paper builds on a foundational study we published last year showing how cumulative social advantage relates to positive health outcomes,” first author Anthony Ong, psychology professor at Cornell, commented in a news item(opens in new window). “This new study digs deeper into the same data to understand the biological mechanisms – essentially, how social connections get under our skin to affect aging at the molecular level.”
He added: “Cumulative social advantage is really about the depth and breadth of your social connections over a lifetime.”
Overall, the results showed that a lifetime of social ties helped to slow down the biological processes of ageing itself and reduced levels of chronic inflammation. Even genes aged slower.
“What’s striking is the cumulative effect – these social resources build on each other over time,” Ong explained. “It’s not just about having friends today; it’s about how your social connections have grown and deepened throughout your life. That accumulation shapes your health trajectory in measurable ways.”
Ong recommends that we treat our social lives as long-term investments, similar to a retirement plan. “Think of social connections like a retirement account. The earlier you start investing and the more consistently you contribute, the greater your returns. Our study shows those returns aren’t just emotional; they’re biological. People with richer, more sustained social connections literally age more slowly at the cellular level. Aging well means both staying healthy and staying connected – they’re inseparable.”