Can frenemies harm your health? study finds HALF our acquaintances fall into category - and even the mention of their name can cause blood pressure to rise

Rachel McAdams (left) pictured as Karen Smith, with Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron, in Mean Girls. Researchers now say that frenemies can actually harm your health.

We may have more frenemies - people we both love and hate - than we realise, and they may be harming our health, researchers have warned.

Experts say on average about half of our social network consists of people we have, as they put it, an 'ambivalent relationship' with.

They say the stress of these relationships is harming our health.

'It is rare to encounter someone who doesn't have at least one ambivalent relationship,' Julianne Holt-Lunstad at Brigham Young University in Utah, told the BBC.

They found, as expected, highly 'aversive' persons such as an unreasonable boss raised blood pressure more than the 'supportive' group.

However, blood pressure actually rose the most for the ambivalent ties, such as an overbearing parent.

Further research by Holt-Lunstad showed that blood pressure rose even when the participants were merely exposed to subliminal triggers that reminded them of the 'ambivalent' social contact, like flashing the person's name on a screen.

'Even when the other person is just in another room in the lab, they have higher blood pressure and higher levels of anxiety,' Holt-Lunstad told the BBC.

'It's just the anticipation of having to interact with them.'

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2848179/Can-frenemies-harm-health-Team-say-HALF-acquaintances-fall-category-mention-cause-blood-pressure-rise.html