Loneliness increases the risk of diseases, blood samples confirm

Loneliness has been concluded to increase the risk of infections and diseases. Now, a new study details with the help of blood samples that loneliness can increase the risk of several diseases and even premature death.

The result was reached by the researchers of the international group based on extensive material. Researchers from a Chinese and British university analyzed stress and disease markers in the blood samples of more than 42,000 adults.

Proteins related to infections and stress, as well as related to several diseases, were found in the lonely.

“This is a very good study and an important addition to previous results. We have already shown in the past that serious infections are more common in lonely people,” says the professor of psychology Marko Elovainis from the University of Helsinki.

What is new in the new study is precisely the measurement of proteins. Samples and other data were obtained from the UK Biobank file, which has been used in several population-based studies. The group included researchers from Cambridge University and Fudan University.

In the background is the knowledge that, in contrast to loneliness, sociability keeps a person healthy. Socializing seems to strengthen the body against pathogens and reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

“The feeling of loneliness is a kind of stress reaction that has developed in evolution. It encourages you to seek out the company of others. People who feel lonely have fewer contacts than they would like,” says Elovainio.

Social interaction is important for well-being. For example, the studies of Elovainio’s group show that social isolation and especially loneliness are related to impaired health and even to premature death.

In the background existing body mechanisms have not been thoroughly elucidated. That’s why researchers are now analyzing proteins in blood samples that tell about the body’s functions and metabolism.

The team studied the proteome, which means Science term bank according to the set of proteins in an organism or the set of proteins produced in a cell. In human blood, you can find more than a hundred thousand proteins with modifications, reminds the researcher Jianfeng Feng in the bulletin.

The idea was to find out which proteins were elevated in those subjects who, based on what they said, were socially isolated or lonely. More than nine percent of the subjects felt socially isolated, and more than six percent felt lonely.

The group determined numerical values ​​for the subjects that describe loneliness. This includes, for example, living alone, little social contact and little social participation.

Loneliness is of course a subjective experience, but for a lonely person it is a reality. The world is already talking about an epidemic of loneliness, like British broadcasting company BBC has told.

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“The feeling of loneliness is a kind of stress reaction that has developed in evolution.”

Group analyzed nearly 3,000 proteins, and singled out those that researchers linked to social isolation and loneliness. Loneliness was ultimately associated with an increase in five proteins related to stress and infections in the summary.

During the 14-year follow-up, many other of the monitored proteins are related to, among other things, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and cerebral infarction. They can at least partially explain illnesses associated with loneliness, the researchers think The Conversation in the online magazine.

Proteins could also indicate an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Some are linked to a reduced ability to respond to insulin, artery disease and even cancers.

“I believe that some of the proteins are related to lifestyle mechanisms, because it can be difficult for a lonely person to live a healthy life. Lifestyles are standardized in research, but it is not always perfect in modelling,” Elovainio reflects.

Score was published Nature Human Behaviour – science journal, and they are summarized in the bulletin.