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Friends With Benefits: Being Highly Social Cuts Dementia Risk by 70%

Yet more evidence that friends and family are the best medicine: a new study finds that the most social seniors had a 70% reduction in the rate of cognitive decline, compared with their least social peers.

Why Going to Church Can Make You Fat

ALFRED EISENSTAEDT

Maybe it’s all the church socials, but a new study finds that those who attend religious activities are more likely to gain weight than those who don’t go to church as often.

How to Win Friends: Have a Big Amygdala?

Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images

Got a big social network? Then you probably have a large amygdala, according to a new study that found a connection between the size of this brain region and the number of social relationships a person has.

How Social Networks Impact Drinking Habits

Serge Kozak / Corbis

Adding to their previous research examining the impact of social contagion on everything from smoking to generosity, Harvard sociologist Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis and University of California, San Diego, political scientist James Fowler most recently teamed up to examine how social networks influence alcohol consumption.