We need socialization and togetherness to make us happy and healthy. Loneliness has been linked to increased risk for heart disease and leads to huge increases in hospitalizations and ER visits.

On the flip side, consider the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which since 1938 has tracked the lives of more than 700 men and found that the healthiest and happiest had the strongest relationships with others.

Or consider the study of so-called “blue zones of happiness,” such as Sardinia, Italy, and Loma Linda, California, where an unusually large number of people live to 100, have overall healthier lives, and suffer fewer diseases than other parts of the world.

One of the biggest contributing factors to this longevity and one common to all the blue zones studied? Social interactions.

You can find these social interactions in the practices of meditation the way Thoreau never could. Standard meditative practice, tai chi, qigong, or any other practice you find interesting are often done in groups, and this meditating will prolong your life by controlling the stresses that all of us face every day.

Similarly, yoga has been shown to provide extensive relief of stress and pain; it’s a great way to combine meditation with stretching and exercise to produce immune benefits if done with regularity.

And since we have learned grief has an adverse effect on immunity, don’t ignore the benefits of the power of positive thinking. I don’t mean that if you believe you are better, you are. But there is some truth that you are only as sick as you act and think you are.

This power of positive thinking, however, may be all that is happening when it comes to trying to prevent immunosenescence through taking dietary additives like vitamins, holistic medications, and herbs to increase immune response.