Loneliness: Damages Your Health And Well-being

If you are over 50, loneliness can add up to 30 points to your blood pressure. The relationship holds even after allowing for other negative emotive states, like sadness, stress or hostility. A 30 point difference is enough to recategorise someone from normal blood pressure to hypertension. (The study looked at the impact on systolic blood pressure, the top number in the BP reading.)

Friendship and social connections are important parts of happiness: they contribute to our resilience. Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam and a recent study by Lynn Smith-Lovin draw attention to the sharp contraction of inner circles until it only includes close family or a spouse. It seems that we are more protected from adverse events if we have several people with whom we can discuss important issues.

Loneliness has such a significant impact on hypertension in older people that it is estimated to be of a similar order of magnitude as the well-accepted risk factors, such as obesity or sedentary lifestyles. People can be socially active but still feel lonely. It seems that feelings of loneliness are a health risk. The lonelier somebody is, then the higher the blood pressure. Hypertension is known to have negative health consequences. Loneliness is probably a significant contributor to our Hearts and Minds Age.