Loneliness as dangerous as smoking, says US surgeon general: Here’s how it affects the body

There’s an ailment afflicting almost half of America and it is also linked to increased heart attacks, depression, diabetes, crime and premature death. It’s not obesity, nor is it diabetes, neither is it hypertension. It’s loneliness.

America’s Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Tuesday issued a health advisory, stating that there was widespread loneliness across the country, posing a health risk as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually. He even went on to state that loneliness was the latest public health epidemic in America.

“We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing,” Murthy told The Associated Press in an interview. “Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that’s not right. That’s why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.”

We take a closer look at how pervasive loneliness has become in America and around the world and how exactly does it affect our physical well-being.

Lonesome America

According to Murthy, half of US adults experience loneliness. In his 81-page report, research revealed that time spent with friends declined 20 hours a month between 2003 and 2020 and time spent alone increased by 24 hours a month in that period. And loneliness is more distinct among young Americans. The advisory reported that young people aged between 15 and 24 had 70 per cent less social interaction with their friends.

Murthy stated that he, too, had to battle loneliness, which struck him during and directly after his first stint as surgeon general ended in April 2017.

“I had neglected my family and my friends during that time, thinking that it was too hard to focus on work, and focus on family and friends,” he said. “I was really suffering from the consequences of that, which were a profound sense of loneliness that followed me for weeks, which stretched into months.”

He wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times, “For me, it took more than a year of struggling with the pain and shame of loneliness, but I eventually found my footing. I didn’t do it on my own. My mother, Myetraie; father, Hallegere; and sister, Rashmi called me every day to remind me that they loved me for who I was. My wife, Alice, reminded me that the light she had seen in me when we first met was still there, even if i couldn’t see it at times.”

He states that the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns only added to loneliness woes. “What COVID did is really pour fuel on a fire that was already burning,” Murthy said in an interview. “I want the entire country to understand how profound a public health threat loneliness and isolation pose.”

Health risks posed by loneliness

Before we jump into the dangers of loneliness, here’s a better understanding of what is loneliness. Loneliness has been defined in different ways. A common definition is “a state of solitude or being alone”. The other definition is “loneliness is not necessarily about being alone. Instead, “it is the perception of being alone and isolated that matters most” and is “a state of mind”.

“Inability to find meaning in one’s life”, “feeling of negative and unpleasant” and “a subjective, negative feeling related to the deficient social relations” are the other ways to define loneliness.

Besides being socially painful, loneliness is also bad for our health. Loneliness is associated with an increased risk of mood disorders like depression and anxiety, as well as stress and problems with sleep.

Loneliness also affects your body directly. Psychologist Amy Sullivan told CleavelandClinic that loneliness causes a spike in cortisol levels. An increase in cortisol can impair cognitive performance, compromise the immune system, and increase your risk for vascular problems, inflammation and heart disease.

Experts have found that loneliness can trigger chronic inflammation. This type of chronic inflammation causes chronic health problems, like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer. According to a 2020 study, researchers had said that people who are more socially isolated have higher levels of inflammatory chemicals that are associated with poor health.

The report released by the US surgeon general also charted just how dangerous loneliness can be to the human body. The advisory stated that loneliness and social isolation increase the risk for premature death by 26 per cent and 29 per cent respectively. In addition, loneliness increases risk of heart disease by 29 per cent and risk of stroke by 32 per cent. Loneliness may also increase susceptibility to viruses and respiratory illness.

A previous 2012 study also revealed that the idea of being lonely could make a person’s body temperature drop. Simply put, loneliness can give you the chills.

Adults who experience loneliness are also at a 40 per cent increased risk of developing dementia and other cognitive impairments, according to a study led by Dr Sutin that was published in 2018.

Biologists have shown that feelings of loneliness trigger the release of hormonal changes due to stress, causing low resistance to illnesses and a risk of cancer.

Chronic loneliness alters the body on a cellular level. In a 2015 study led by University of Chicago psychology professor John Cacioppo and colleagues, researchers asked 141 elderly adults to report levels of social isolation. The team then measured the expression of over 400 genes related to the immune system that are expressed by white blood cells, or leukocytes. They found that individuals describing themselves as socially isolated had an increase in genes involved in inflammation, but a decrease in genes that help the body to defend against germs.

Cure for loneliness

However, one doesn’t have to continue suffering from loneliness. Murthy has called for a collective effort to “to mend the social fabric of our nation” in order to “destigmatise loneliness and change our cultural and policy response to it”.

His strategy has six pillars that include efforts to strengthen social infrastructure in communities, in part by utilising public health systems. The advisory calls for more “pro-connection public policies” that are developed with the help of a research agenda to help address gaps in the data surrounding the effects of social isolation.

In his New York Times op-ed, Murthy wrote, “Addressing the crisis of loneliness and isolation is one of our generation’s greatest challenges. By building more connected lives and more connected communities, we can strengthen the foundation of our individual and collective well-being and we can be better poised to respond to threats we are facing as a nation.”

With inputs from agencies

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