A Night Out With Friends is VERY Healthy Says This Study

A night out with friends is just what the doc ordered.

Seriously, if you were looking for an excuse to head to dinner, the theater, movie night with Prosecco ice cream, or just about anything else you might do on a night out with friends, consider this it — and bookmark this page. According to a new University-backed study, women should actually go out with their friends twice a week to improve their health. It’s that simple.

Seriously, the University of Oxford found that women who felt free enough to go out with their girlfriends twice a week were in better overall health and reported “improved wellbeing” when regularly socializing with four best friends twice a week. Sounds like a Sex and the City plotline in real life, doesn’t it? The key, according to the study, was that the friends “do things,” when they meet up — and that could be anything from catching a new show to an intense round of cardio spin classes.

The “things” the study had the groups of women do were actually drinking beer, gossiping, and talking about their rivals. Doing these “things” encourage female bonding and friendship — the things we’d normally do on a night out with friends. The counted health benefits were impressive, and included recovering faster from illness (better than probiotics, right?), decreased anxiety levels, and increased generosity levels.

A night out with friends creates laughter, nature’s medicine

The study found that laughter as a result of joking, funny comments, and general socialization was one of the major keys to releasing those happiness-creating endorphins. Smaller groups worked better to create laugh-worthy situations, which is why a group of four or more female friends is ideal on a night out with friends.

If you can’t schedule a night out with friends any time this week, you can text your BFF this link to pictures of smooshed cats in the meantime. That’ll be enough laughter to raise your endorphins for at least a few minutes.