Is this on your competent? doctor's protocols to get you 100% recovered so these problems don't occur? NO. So, you don't have a functioning stroke doctor, do you?
Want to reduce risk of stroke, heart disease, infection? Socialize
You’ve heard that loneliness and social isolation can create health problems. But a new study from the U.K. and China finds that the story actually is written in one’s blood, in the form of proteins that are known to contribute to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, infections and perhaps other challenges to well-being.
The findings, which involved looking at nearly 3,000 proteins in donated blood samples from 42,062 people ages 40-69 who are part of the UK Biobank, are published in the journal Nature Human Behavior. The research showed which proteins were in the blood at higher levels among folks who were socially isolated or lonely and how those are connected to health. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and Fudan University in Shanghai, China, did follow-up at about 14 years to see how the participants had fared.
“Social relationships are adaptive and critical for well-being and survival in social species,” per the study. It said that both social isolation and loneliness, using objective and subjective assessments, are linked to disease and death, “with effects comparable to traditional risk factors such as smoking and obesity.”
After they accounted for age, sex and socioeconomic background, the research team identified 175 proteins associated with social isolation and 26 linked with loneliness.
“Many of these proteins are produced in response to inflammation, viral infection and as part of our immune response, as well as having been linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and early death,” the researchers pointed out in a press release about the study.
Counting proteins and ills
Researchers used a statistical model that’s commonly employed in research to find five proteins “whose abundance was caused by loneliness,” which is often but not always a result of being socially isolated. While loneliness and isolation are not the same, they frequently go hand-in-hand. Eighty-five percent of proteins related to loneliness were also found in social isolation, demonstrating the huge overlap.
Professor Jianfeng Feng from the University of Warwick said: “There are more than 100,000 proteins and many of their variants in the human body. (Artificial intelligence) and high throughput proteomics can help us pinpoint some key proteins in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis in many human diseases and revolutionize the traditional view of human health.”
Previous research has linked some of the proteins to specific health risks. For instance, one called ASGR1 is associated with elevated cholesterol and greater risk of heart disease, while higher levels of one called ADM are linked to increased risk of early death.
The researchers concluded that “loneliness causally contributed to the abundance of five proteins,” which they wrote “partly mediated the relationship between loneliness and cardiovascular disease, stroke and mortality.” The researchers found a “moderate” relationship between social isolation and loneliness in the impact on the proteins.
Both social isolation and loneliness are known to trigger the body’s stress responses, including increased inflammation, which is linked to numerous health woes.
“These findings drive home the importance of social contact in keeping us well. More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. That’s why the World Health Organization has described social isolation and loneliness as a ‘global public health concern’. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy,“ said Barbara Sahakian, a Department of Psychiatry professor at Cambridge.
A public health epidemic?
The World Health Organization created a commission to address the “health threat of loneliness” in late 2023. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has written and spoken at length about loneliness, which he calls an “epidemic” and also noted a mental health crisis among U.S. parents.
More in Health
The issue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is feeling lonely, not social isolation. Some people prefer being alone, so they may thrive living by themselves and choose not to spend much time with others. But feeling lonely — which is more apt to happen when you don’t have a lot of social connection, but is subjective and occurs even when surrounded by others — fuels depression, according to a CDC study.
It was based on 2021 data from the National Health Interview Survey.
Loneliness is more subjective. But the study found that there was no difference between people who lived alone and those living with others when it came to depression, as long as all of them felt they had social and emotional support.
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