Loneliness Can Cause Inflammation and Serious Illness, Finds New Study
We're in a loneliness epidemic. Around 27% of adults in the UK report feeling lonely at least some of the time, with the eldest and youngest generations often being the most isolated.
But while loneliness is typically thought of as a mental health issue, a growing number of studies are now showing it's just as bad for our physical health. For example, research suggests people who feel lonely have a 50% increased risk of developing dementia and a 30% higher chance of stroke.
The impact of loneliness has become so bad that, in 2023, The World Health Organization (WHO) launched an international commission on loneliness, claiming it's as bad for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
By now, we know that our bodies don't work in isolation, and our physical and mental health are absolutely linked. But a new study has looked at exactly why loneliness has such a huge impact on our bodies.
The Study
Researchers from the University of Cambridge knew that there was plenty of evidence showing that both social isolation and loneliness are linked to morbidity and mortality at rates comparable with smoking and obesity. However, the reasons why were elusive.
So they decided to look at data from more than 42,000 participants in the UK Biobank project, comparing whether people who reported loneliness and social isolation had different levels of proteins in their blood compared with those who did not.
The Results
Published in the journal Nature, the main takeaways are:
9.3% of people reported social isolation, and 6.4% of people reported loneliness.
Researchers identified 175 proteins associated with social isolation and 26 proteins associated with loneliness.
The most common protein associated with social isolation is one that acts as an inflammatory marker.
A key protein in the regulation of cholesterol metabolism had the strongest association with loneliness.
90% of the proteins are linked to the risk of mortality, and more than half were linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and mortality.
Four proteins were found as protective factors against social isolation and one against loneliness.
When looking at genetic variants, they found none of the proteins appeared to cause social isolation or loneliness. Instead, loneliness influenced the levels of the proteins.
What This Means For Us
The purpose of the study was to work out exactly how loneliness causes declines in physical health. The researchers did that, finding that loneliness and social isolation causes an increase in proteins in the body associated with inflammation, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and other illnesses.
Many people are genetically predisposed to having these proteins in their bodies. So the researchers looked at whether people with these genes were more likely to feel lonely. They found that they weren't, meaning these proteins don't cause loneliness, but loneliness causes an increase in these proteins.
Now, we can safely say that social isolation is bad for our health because it causes an increase in inflammatory and immune weakening markers associated with illness. That means going out of our way to foster community is essential to improving health outcomes for yourself and others.
The Takeaway
Preventing isolation in today's world isn't easy. If it was, we wouldn't have an epidemic of loneliness. But it's vital to keep up your social health in order to look after your physical wellbeing.
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