Loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking.
It seems astonishing, but scientific research suggests that social isolation, in the long term, is as damaging as a 15-a-day cigarette habit or being an alcoholic.
Other studies have found that those with a poor social network are at increased risk of dementia and high blood pressure, that the genes we need to fight off serious viral infections seem to be less active in the lonely than in the rest of the population, and that loneliness may cause cancer or heart disease.
Chicago-based psychologist John Cacioppo, who has studied the phenomenon, explains: ‘Feeling alone and unloved can also make it harder to sleep and even speed the progression of dementia. When time takes its toll on the body, loneliness steepens that slope of descent.’
His work found that loneliness raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol and can push blood pressure up into the danger zone for heart attacks and strokes.
‘We are increasingly living in isolation – partly because we are ageing, also because we are marrying later and having fewer children. There are fewer confidantes and levels of loneliness are going up,’ he says.
It’s all very well saying this but also pretty bleak news for anyone actually affected. Smokers seem to be a priority for the NHS – or at least stopping them from smoking and, therefore, developing health problems that will put a greater strain on resources
It seems astonishing, but scientific research suggests that social isolation, in the long term, is as damaging as a 15-a-day cigarette habit or being an alcoholic.
Other studies have found that those with a poor social network are at increased risk of dementia and high blood pressure, that the genes we need to fight off serious viral infections seem to be less active in the lonely than in the rest of the population, and that loneliness may cause cancer or heart disease.
Chicago-based psychologist John Cacioppo, who has studied the phenomenon, explains: ‘Feeling alone and unloved can also make it harder to sleep and even speed the progression of dementia. When time takes its toll on the body, loneliness steepens that slope of descent.’
His work found that loneliness raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol and can push blood pressure up into the danger zone for heart attacks and strokes.
‘We are increasingly living in isolation – partly because we are ageing, also because we are marrying later and having fewer children. There are fewer confidantes and levels of loneliness are going up,’ he says.
It’s all very well saying this but also pretty bleak news for anyone actually affected. Smokers seem to be a priority for the NHS – or at least stopping them from smoking and, therefore, developing health problems that will put a greater strain on resources
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