You probably lean on your friends in tough times. Now, new research suggests your pals might even help you prevent one very big health problem -- type 2 diabetes.
In a study of nearly 3,000 middle-aged to elderly people in the Netherlands, researchers found that people who had social networks of 10 to 12 people were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people with only seven to eight close friends.
Each drop in a social network member was tied to a 5 percent to 12 percent higher risk of diabetes, the study found.
The investigators also found that men living alone were more likely to have type 2 diabetes, while living alone didn't seem to affect a woman's risk of having the blood sugar disease.
"A larger network size may have an important impact on an individual's lifestyle," said the study's lead author, Stephanie Brinkhues. She's a doctoral candidate at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
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