Social support, physiological processes, and health

Social relationships serve important,functions in people's people's everyday lives. Epidemiological research indicates that supportive relationships may: also significantly protect individuals from various causes of mortality, including cardiovascular disease. An important issue is how social support influences such long-term EE health outcomes. In this article, we review evidence indicating that social support may influence mortality via changes in cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems. These data-suggest that it may be worthwhile to incorporate social-support interventions in: the prevention and treatment of physical health problems.