Why Hanging Out With A Buddy Is One Of The Best Things You Can Do For Your Brain

It’s an often-repeated statement that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Work. The commute. Chores. The to-do list of the everyday keeps us very busy and rarely doing what makes us happy. It’s hardly surprising that many of us aren’t clocking as many hours with loved ones as we used to, and the World Health Organization has declared loneliness a “hidden threat to global health”.

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In America, 66 percent of people who reported feeling lonely said it came down to insufficient time with family. It’s a situation worthy of intervention because, as research has found, spending time with the ones we love isn’t just good for the soul, it’s also critical for brain health.

The powerful science of social connection is explored in Chris Hemsworth’s newest film with National Geographic, A Road To Remember, in which he takes a rather literal trip down memory lane with his father, Craig, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Together they hit the road to find out how community and nostalgia can be potent medicine.

Along their emotional journey they’re joined by Dr Suraj Samtani, a dementia researcher at the Centre For Healthy Brain Ageing at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Samtani has explored how social frailty – an index to measure a person’s social resources and if they’re sufficient to meet basic social needs – can impact human health, and the results demonstrate just how critical social connection is to cognitive function (and if artificial intelligence companions could help).

“We knew that loneliness and lack of social connections are bad for our brain,” Samtani told IFLScience. “For example, we know that loneliness is as bad for us as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, but what we didn't know is what is exactly the recipe for good brain health using social connections.”

“What really surprised us was that there were these two ingredients which we could use to promote brain health, which was seeing friends and family at least a few times a month – or more, if we can – and having someone to confide in. The most shocking part was just how powerful this was, because not only do they reduce our risk of dementia by half, which is astounding, but they also put the brakes on cognitive decline after it begins.”

Social frailty was identified as a risk factor for dementia in an article published in The Journals of Gerontology Series B, showing that it was a powerful predictor for this kind of cognitive decline. A worrying association, but one that we have the power to address. Like much of the body, it seems one of the keys to good brain health is giving it a good workout.

“To really address social frailty, we need a mix of two ingredients,” said Samtani. “We need people to have a variety of social interactions, ideally outside the family home with different people, as it gives the brain more of a workout compared to at home where we often have people completing our sentences for us.”

“The other thing that's really important to have is having someone we trust so that we can confide in them, because we know that is really powerful, not only to reduce our rate of cognitive decline, but also helps us to live a longer life.”

On his “road trip back in time,” father and son Chris and Craig revisit key places from their past to deepen their bond and relive memories. As Samtani’s work has shown, it’s a journey that has profound therapeutic potential, too, and can help raise awareness and humanize the experience of living with dementia.

“A lot of people will relate to the memory loss and the disorientation that they see in the documentary with Craig and understand just how hard it is for the family to come to terms with these changes, but also for Craig himself,” said Samtani, “and I hope they will take away the message that you can absolutely do things to reduce risk of cognitive decline and slow down the pace of cognitive decline through the power of social connections and reminiscence therapy.”

Watch CHRIS HEMSWORTH: A ROAD TRIP TO REMEMBER available November 23 on National Geographic at 9/8c and stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.