Dr. Zorba Paster: Pandemic helps doctor realize our social spheres of prime importance to our health

Years ago – sometimes it seems like eons ago – I wrote a book and did a PBS special titled “The Longevity Code: Your Personal Prescription for a Longer, Sweeter Life.”

I learned a lot about writing a book. If you’ve never had this experience, let me clue you in – it’s not that easy. When you’re done, you realize you learned so much that you’d like to change the whole thing and start over again.

The problem is you have the publisher’s deadline. Crown Publishing, an imprint of Random House, had its deadline for my book, so out the door it went.

In that book, I postulated there were five spheres that affect our wellness: physical, mental, family/social, spiritual and material. I thought – and still do think – these are ways you can organize your life space, learning what you need to do to improve your longevity, keep robust and healthy and avoid disease and disability.

It’s kind of like buckling your seat belt. Taking action reduces risk but doesn’t eliminate it.

I put physical first because I am first and foremost a doctor using science and medicine to guide my judgment but realizing they don’t have all the answers. Some of those – whether or not you’re happy or sad, pleased with your life or not – might not be up to science at all. That’s why life balance and the other four spheres are so important.

Now that we’re dealing with social distancing, I am starting to realize perhaps I have been wrong in my analysis – the social sphere should come first.

When lecturing, I like to pepper my talk with stories and jokes. That’s the only way to keep an audience on task; anecdotes help us emote.

When I get to the social sphere, I often say, “Why go to the gym to get the best body you can if you don’t have someone to share it with?” It’s a cute, trite thing to say and usually gets a laugh.

But, truth be told, I see now with the latest isolation situations that we crave our social connections. Yes, we have phones, FaceTime, etc., but the lack of in-person contact comes with a cloud that seems to hang over all of us.

We want these connections with others more than ever now that we must keep them at a distance.

Getting together with friends and family, exchanging ideas and checking in with others are critical to our health. When I have patients who retire, I always ask them how it’s going. Often, they say they don’t miss the job, but they do miss seeing their co-workers.

Social connectedness gives us pleasure, influences our health and motivates us to take action for ourselves and others.

A recent study of more than 300,000 people showed that a lack of strong social relationships could increase death by up to 50% – which is about the same as smoking half a pack a day.

So why is this so important? I’ve read about this for more than 20 years and have distilled what I think are the most salient points.

Being connected gives us joy and pleasure because we are incredibly social. In the book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” by Yuval Noah Harari, the author postulates that the reason Homo sapiens took over from other humanoid species was our ability to form social relationships and engage in cooperative behavior.

My spin: During this time of physical distancing, it’s critical to use all the electronic tools we have to stay connected – it benefits our health. As we come out of hibernation from winter and look to resume connecting in our usual physical way, we now need to take a little bit different action.

Handshakes, fist bumps and high fives will return. And those hugs from friends and family that make us feel so good will feel even better when we get to share them once again. Stay well.