A new advisory released from the U.S. Surgeon General shows people who are lonely have a greater chance of developing serious health issues compared to those who aren’t.
The U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said people who are lonely and experience social isolation together have a greater chance at dying a lot faster.
Loneliness and isolation has been declared a public health issue in our nation that has recently grown much larger due to ramifications from the pandemic.
Dr. Thomas Cudjoe, who’s an Assistant Professor of Medicine with John’s Hopkins University, said people’s interpretations of loneliness plays a huge factor.
“People's expression of their expression with some unhappiness with being alone, having no one to talk to about certain things, lacking companionship, feeling left out,” Dr. Cudjoe said.
All factors of someone’s perception that can lead people to feel like they're lonely. Dr Thomas Cudjoe said there’s one common measure used in studies that comes from the UCLA loneliness scale to help identify it.
"Essentially asked what their how often do people feel that they lack companionship? How often? Do someone feel like they're left out? How often does someone feel like they're isolated from others?,” Dr. Cudjoe said.
The findings in the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory showed how important social connection is to the detriments of mental and physical health. Loneliness and isolation is associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and premature death.
“People who may experience mental health conditions, that those conditions are worse in instances of isolation or loneliness,” Dr. Cudjoe said.
Dr. Cudjoe said for decades there has been evidence to support that loneliness and social isolation are important for our health, and now is a perfect time to work in collaboration with the community to change it.
“I think that we have to start proximately thinking about our own friends and family in thinking and asking ourselves if we're meaningfully connecting with them, and then extend beyond this. I think that is the way that we need to approach addressing isolation and loneliness. How we need to think about how we strengthen social infrastructure in our local communities, how we think broadly about public policy and how it can impact how we connect, building a culture of connection, through increasing our acts of kindness in our community, all these things,” Dr. Cudjoe said.
This advisory shows the mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Which is why the surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy is advising everyone to build better connections for a stronger society.
