Mental and behavioral well being issues like inappropriate eating behaviors, sedentary lifestyle, and patterns of social isolation, are frequent, and have been linked to increased physical sickness, greater mortality rates, poorer treatment outcomes and better healthcare prices, the ACP committee writes in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Research throughout disciplines and populations suggests potential psychosocial mechanisms to clarify how social ties promote well being. Mechanisms include (however will not be limited to): social help, private control, symbolic meanings and norms, and psychological well being. While most research deal with just one or two of these mechanisms, it’s clear that connections between mechanisms are advanced, and that these interconnections could explain the linkage between social ties and health better than any single mechanism ( Thoits 1995 ; Umberson et al. 2010 ). The internist then advised my mother her blood pressure would go down if she simply stopped working so onerous.…