And the people in relationships where they feel they really can’t count on the other one,those are the people who experience earlier memory decline

To get the clearest picture of these lives, we don’t just send them questionnaires. We interview them in their living rooms. We get their medical records from their doctors. We draw their blood, we scan their brains, we talk to their children. We videotape them talking with their wives about their deepest concerns.And when, about a decade ago, we finally asked the wives if they would join us as members of the study,many of the women said, “You know, it’s about time.”

So what have we learned? What are the lessons that come from the tens of thousands of pages of information that we’ve generated on these lives? Well, the lessons aren’t about wealth or fame or working harder and harder. Period.

We’ve learned three big lessons about relationships. The first is that social connections are really good for us, and that loneliness kills. It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community, are happier, they’re physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected. (more…)

In a world where everyone seems to be pairing up with the help of dating apps, it’s becoming increasingly rare to meet a couple whose love story began sans swiping right. But there is hope! There are plenty of coupled-up pairs whose initial meetings went down in really unexpected places (i.e. during an UberPOOL ride, a round of World of Warcraft and more).

Tamara Langman and John Bentley are just two of the many couples who met while playing the multiplayer fantasy game. In 2011, the New York Times interviewed the couple, who first began chatting via the game’s messaging and voice communication service for two months before meeting in real life in Santa Barbara, where they currently reside. They have been together since 2009.

I returned to England afterwards feeling very love sick

Okay, so this isn’t so strange. Plenty of people form connections while lifting weights or running on the treadmill, right? At least that was the case for Stephanie Hughes and Joe Keith, who met and wed at a Planet Fitness.

“I was using the bosu ball, and he asked if I was using a piece of the equipment, and I looked up and was like, ‘No,’ ” Hughes recalled, with a dreamy look on her face, in the couple’s wedding video. (more…)