Loneliness is as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes a day
Being cut off from people raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia and early death. It is growing, in cities most of all.
In 2023 the US Surgeon General issued a formal health advisory, the kind usually kept for things like tobacco, on loneliness. It concluded that a lack of social connection raises the risk of dying early by about as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. An earlier review of 148 studies found that people with strong relationships were 50% more likely to be alive at the end of the study period than people without them.
Loneliness is linked to heart disease and stroke, to dementia in older people, and to depression and anxiety at every age. It raises stress hormones, disturbs sleep and weakens the immune system.
It is also more common than it looks. In our cities it is often the parent who moved in with their son or daughter in a new city and knows nobody in the building. The young professional who shares a flat but not their life. The new mother at home all day. Being surrounded by people is not the same as feeling close to any of them.
What helps - Call one person this week you have been meaning to call. A voice does more than a message. - Build small, regular contact: the same morning walk group, a weekly class, the temple or gurdwara, the park bench. - Look in on older relatives and neighbours who live alone. Ten minutes means a great deal to someone who speaks to nobody all day. - Volunteering is one of the most reliable ways to feel connected again. - If loneliness has turned into constant low mood, poor sleep or not wanting to see anyone at all, it may be depression, and it is worth talking to someone about.
Where this comes from - Office of the US Surgeon General. Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023. - Holt-Lunstad J et al. Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Medicine, 2010.
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