Loneliness worse for health than obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day

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Story at-a-glance

  • An estimated 42.6 million Americans over the age of 45 suffer from chronic loneliness, and census data reveals more than 25 percent of the U.S. population lives alone
  • Loneliness is associated with higher blood pressure and higher risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression and lower survival rates for breast cancer patients
  • Two recent meta analyses reveal loneliness is more hazardous to your health than obesity, raising your risk of early death by as much as 50 percent, and compares to the risk of smoking 15 cigarettes per day

By Dr. Mercola

[source: https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/08/24/loneliness-hazardous-than-obesity-smoking.aspx]

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JdN: I find this article valid, but the worst kind of loneliness is what the great Swiss psychologist Carl Jung describes:

 

You can be terribly lonely in a big city if you are a WN and surrounded by utter sheeple and libtards…..

, and people who are “friendly” but never become real friends, and only think of themselves.

And joining a gardening club or acquiring a dog, as recommended below, will not solve this problem. The new religion for whites that I create will.

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Loneliness doesn’t just affect your mind; it can also cause a number of health problems. For example, previous research1 shows feeling lonely can raise your blood pressure up to 14 points, with greater increases the longer loneliness persists. With that, the risk for heart disease and dementia also increases.2

More recently, researchers concluded social isolation and loneliness may have more severe consequences than obesity and smoking. Other recent research reveals the brain-related changes associated with feelings of loneliness start to take place after as little as 24 hours of isolation.3

Loneliness More Hazardous to Your Health Than Obesity

Negative emotions will invariably impact your physical well-being, and feeling lonely is no different. According to two meta analyses4,5presented at the 2017 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, loneliness and social isolation ” which are similar but not identical ” pose greater threats to public health than obesity, raising your risk for premature death by as much as 50 percent. As reported by Medical News Today:6

“While loneliness and social isolation are often used interchangeably, there are notable differences between the two. Social isolation is defined as a lack of contact with other individuals, while loneliness is the feeling that one is emotionally disconnected from others.

In essence, a person can be in the presence of others and still feel lonely. According to a 2016 Harris Poll7 of more than 2,000 adults in the U.S., around 72 percent reported having felt lonely at some point in their lives. Of these adults, around 31 percent reported feeling lonely at least once a week.”

The first analysis, which looked at 148 studies involving more than 300,000 adults, found social isolation increased the risk of premature death by 50 percent. The second,8,9 which evaluated 70 studies that included more than 3.4 million individuals, found social isolation, loneliness and living alone correlated with a 29 percent, 26 percent and 32 percent increased risk of mortality respectively.

Overall, this is comparable to the risk of premature death associated with obesity and other well-established risk factors for mortality, including the risks associated with smoking 15 cigarettes a day.10

Loneliness

According to the American Osteopathic Association,11 which commissioned the Harris Poll cited above, loneliness plays a role in many chronic health conditions, including pain, drug or alcohol abuse and depression. Recent studies have linked loneliness to an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease,12 heart attack and stroke,13  and lower survival rates for breast cancer patients.14 Studies have also shown that people who are lonely are more likely to experience:

  • Higher levels of stress15,16
  • Poor sleep17
  • Increased inflammation18
  • Reduced immune function19

Epidemic of Loneliness and Social Isolation Looms Large

According to a 2010 study20 on loneliness conducted by the AARP, an estimated 42.6 million Americans over the age of 45 suffer from chronic loneliness, and census data reveals more than 25 percent of the U.S. population live alone. Why is loneliness becoming an increasingly prevalent experience? According to researchers, common reasons include:

  • Long work hours
  • Use of social media surpassing face-to-face interaction
  • Frequent travel for work
  • Living far from family
  • Delaying and/or forgoing marriage

Commenting on the Harris Poll on loneliness, Dr. Jennifer Caudle, assistant professor of family medicine at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine noted:21

“Loneliness is an invisible epidemic masked by our online personas, which are rarely representative of our real emotions. It’s important for patients to understand how their mental and emotional well-being directly affects the body ¦ Face-to-face communication is critical for emotional and mental health. Seeking out meaningful human interactions makes patients happier and, ultimately, healthier overall.”

In light of a growing population of seniors and the rising prevalence of social isolation in general, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Ph.D., a professor of psychology who led the two meta-analyses, suggests we need to tackle loneliness both on an individual basis and as a society. To do this, she suggests devoting resources to:

  • Social skills training for school-aged children
  • Training doctors to incorporate social connectedness evaluations into their medical screening
  • Seniors are also advised to prepare for the social implications of retirement, as many adults have few if any social networks outside of the workplace

The Mind-Body Connection

It truly is amazing how your mindset can influence your physical health. It’s a powerful force that can either bolster or undermine your physical and mental health. One reason for this has to do with epigenetics, which centers on the notion that environmental factors such as stress and diet influence your genetic expression. It is the expression of your genes ” not the genes themselves ” that dictates whether you develop certain diseases or age prematurely.

Your epigenome is readily influenced by physical and emotional stresses ” how you respond to everything that happens in your environment, from final exams to childhood abuse. So, if you are chronically lonely, this negative emotion will influence the expression of your genes and thus impact your risk of developing disease.

This also explains why, as Dawson Church cites in his book “The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention,” heart surgery patients who have a strong social support network and spiritual practice have one-seventh the mortality rate of those who don’t!

Strategies to Address Loneliness

If you struggle with loneliness, you’re certainly not alone. The question is what to do about it. Following are a number of suggestions and strategies pulled from a variety of sources that can help address loneliness:22,23,24

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSXh1YfNyVA

Join a club

Proactive approaches to meeting others include joining a club and planning get-togethers with family, friends or neighbors, Meetup.com is an online source where you can locate a vast array of local clubs and get-togethers. Many communities also have community gardens where you can benefit from the outdoors while mingling with your neighbors.

Learn a new skill

Consider enrolling in a class or taking an educational course.

Create rituals of connection

As described by Baya Voce in the TED Talk above, rituals are a powerful means for reducing loneliness. Examples include having weekly talk sessions with your girlfriends and/or making meal time a special time to connect with your family without rushing.

Consider a digital cleanse

If your digital life has overtaken face-to-face interactions, consider taking a break from social media while taking proactive steps to meet people in person. Recent research shows Facebook may be more harmful than helpful to your emotional well-being, raising your risk of depression ” especially if your contacts’ posts elicit envy.

In one recent study,25 Facebook users who took a one-week break from the site reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction and a significantly improved emotional life.

Make good use of digital media

For others, a phone call or text message can be a much-needed lifeline. As noted by Will Wright in his TED Talk, “digitizing empathy” can be a powerful way to help each other. Examples of this include sending encouraging text messages to people who are struggling with loneliness, offering support and help to live healthier lives and follow through on healthy lifestyle changes.

In the U.K., seniors can call the Silver Line,26,27 a help line for older people where they can speak to a live person for as long as they wish. The help line is open 24 hours a day, year-round. The service receives an average of 10,000 calls per week

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruh6rN5UrME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruh6rN5UrME

Exercise with others

Joining a gym or signing up with a fitness-directed club or team sport will create opportunities to meet people while improving your physical fitness at the same time.

Shop local

Routinely frequenting local shops, coffee shops or farmers markets will help you develop a sense of community and encourage the formation of relationships.

Talk to strangers

Talking to strangers in the store, in your neighborhood or on your daily commute is often a challenge, but can have many valuable benefits, including alleviating loneliness (your own and others’). Talking to strangers builds bridges between ordinary people who may not otherwise forge a connection.

People of the opposite gender, different walks of life or different cultures hold a key to opening up to new ideas or making connections with old ones. In this short video, reporter for The Atlantic, Dr. James Hamblin, demonstrates techniques for learning how to talk with strangers.

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOBCJ_71Y4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOBCJ_71Y4s

Volunteer

Volunteering is another way to increase your social interactions and pave the way for new relationships.

Adopt a companion pet

A dog or cat can provide unconditional love and comfort, and studies show that owning a pet can help protect against loneliness, depression and anxiety. The bond that forms between a person and a companion pet can be incredibly fulfilling and serves, in many ways, as an important and rewarding relationship. The research on this is really quite profound.

For instance, having a dog as a companion could add years to your life,28 as studies have shown that owning a dog played a significant role on survival rates in heart attack victims. Studies have also revealed that people on Medicaid or Medicare who own a pet make fewer visits to the doctor.29 The unconditional acceptance and love a dog gives to their owner positively impacts their owner’s emotional health in ways such as:

  • Boosting self-confidence and self-esteem
  • Helping to meet new friends and promoting communication between elderly residents and neighbors
  • Helping you cope with illness, loss and depression
  • Reducing stress levels
  • Providing a source of touch and affiliation

If you’re looking for a furry friend, check out your local animal shelter. Most are filled with cats and dogs looking for someone to love. Petfinder.com30 is another excellent resource for finding a pet companion.

Move and/or change jobs

While the most drastic of all options, it may be part of the answer for some. To make it worthwhile, be sure to identify the environment or culture that would fit your personality best and consider proximity to longtime friends and family.

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…..Comments on Facebook

John de Nugent Depression and loneliness are brutal, and WNs suffer from it most of any group.

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Dan Cunningham You would think the internet would help unite but it seems to be making it worse. The only people I have been able to connect with are over 100 miles away.

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John de Nugent The Net is enabling people to verbally abuse each other who would not dare say such things in a bar or a restaurant. My father would demand guys “step outside” with him who merely swore (used foul language) in front of his wife and kids. Today I see the f-word the s- word, all the time, and even from ladies. 

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Blenda Richter The WN’s that might suffer from “loneliness” might be the ‘people person’ ones. An inveterate misanthropic soul welcomes it.
Dan Cunningham John de Nugent Yes it is amazing how things have changed in just 50 years, I have done it myself and looking back it is embarrassing to say the least. I have seen women in public cuss so profusely they could make a seasoned sailor blush.
Dan Cunningham Blenda Richter I have been divorced 2 years now and the women I have met are dishonest, scammers, bitter, or too full of themselves and think they deserve a Fabio when they look like Rosie O’Donnell on her worst day. I have no idea what the average woman wants these days, I would be so grateful if God would just send me that one last woman that isn’t bipolar and holds just some of my values.

Blenda Richter Dan Cunningham “Para no terminar junto a los despojos de una fauna hostil, el espà­ritu fuerte y valiente se refugia dentro de sà­ mismo como el lobo solitario.” ~ B. R.

“In order not to end up next to the spoils of a hostile wildlife, the strong and brave spirit seeks refuge within itself like the lone wolf.” ~ B. R.

Dan Cunningham Blenda Richter That’s pretty much sums it up. I do have my dogs though, LOL.
Brian Avran i don’t need a doctor to tell me this. no way to cure by oneself. only cope 
Nick Gilliam In that case I’m going both barrels, I’m a loner and I still smoke.. time for some life style changes.
Andrew Kelley We, when gut-level honest, have never felt as though we ‘fit in’ much of our life, or even ‘belong’ on this greed driven planet where profit has replaced people by those who see humanity as something to be farmed. I so despise those who are not fully human and those who worship them and their lies for 30 shekels at the expense of their own folk, then wink, and turn the other cheek at the genocide of their own blood, refusing to honor their Father and Mothers for fear of the serpent class then celebrate a front seat of ‘honor’ a front seat of treasonous honor in the synagogue of satan.
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My Aryan Mother often challenges me to love more then I hate, but as the vice tightens the treason is celebrated, and the blinders are viewed as Faith, while the people perish , ….it is most difficult to maintain a balance. A balance which keeps us ‘human’ and healthy. In all reality, John, we are kept fractionalized and lonely intentionally and on purpose by those who hate the White men who are not their useful masonic slaves, and a Nationalism which operates outside of the Judas Genocidal Usury kingdom. Loneliness in days of deceit is a badge of honor, for those who can see and yet love the sheep who have no druthers being vaccinated, sheered then butchered and will worship the devils who do it. Unpacking Inversion is for the Noble who do indeed love good and hate evil, and are willing to do that which few find comforting…….Think. Now if we can only Organize and Act? Love to you and yours. ak
John de Nugent Well put, Brother Andrew. the sad thing is that until the egoic mind is eradicated (which I am convinced both the Buddha and Jesus also saw as the root of all evil), then the J-Team is not all that wrong when they label us “goyeem,” cattle! (But what then are THEY?   Serpents, hyenas, ticks or leeches? )
Sarah Perry I like Jung’s definition for loneliness. If no one in your life, write a book, keep a journal. IMO, depression is your body telling you there is something in your life you need to change.
Ian DeSantis Unfortunately, naturally, I’ve coped with this by becoming more and more cynical. Every time I get knocked down and have to get back up, I hate everything that much more. Like I said it’s unfortunate but totally natural.
John de Nugent When I started reading Eckhart Tolle, I was at the same point. Disgust at the folly and cowardice of humanity can overwhelm you.
Ian DeSantis I feel like I’m getting closer to being completely unable to trust people and it doesn’t feel good. But I mean, you can only reach for a hot cast iron and get burned so many times before you just naturally know if you touch it (trust people) it will burn you every time.
John de Nugent As I say, Tolle suddenly can begin to make sense, and then restore your joy in life.  Even in hellish times like now!
Ian DeSantis I will look into Tolle to see if it can’t pull me out of this because it’s pretty miserable to feel like everyone has ulterior motives and will discard you when they are done using you
Tony Rawlings It’s like when one door shuts, another slams you in the face.
John de Nugent Ian DeSantis As Tolle, says, serene and un-pushy: “If it does not make any sense now, then just go and suffer intensely for a few more years, and eventually it will.” 
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John de Nugent Tony Rawlings The good thing is that suffering can lead to a great inner awakening. Then nothing anyone can do to you will affect your inner peace. You may not be happy every second after that, because happiness comes from external things, but you can have joy inside, no matter what.
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I have been a active and hardcore WN for 40 years, I was disowned by my entire family, and disinherited by a multimillionaire father, and have been defamed all across this “movement,” which is not moving  , since 2009.
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I walked for the last three years because I could not afford to insure my car. I have gotten a direct threat from the White House itself, three visits from the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and two calls from the FBI. In March of last year I was told of a plot by two locals to murder me.
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Believe me, Tony, I know what it means to have everything go wrong. I got tired of the world stressing me out.
John de Nugent Translated from French: Bruno Christian Loneliness and calm can be beneficial when they do not last too long. Otherwise, over the long run and, as with inaction, it creates severe depression.
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I replied: John de Nugent Yes, and that’s what our Enemy wants – to isolate us, one from the other, and to engender egoistic behaviors that will create in us the disgust of the others. Thus my desire to create a new Aryan religion to clean up our souls. The road to power using politicians is in any case blocked.
Patroshka Garbarini Oh so that’s my problem
John de Nugent I have gotten a lot of reaction to this blog in three languages. When people ask me why I am creating a religion and not just a new philosophy for our race it is because, though many religions have been discredited, a religion can provide what the people need — COMMUNITY: friends, potential marriage mates, solidarity and helping each other, and rules to raise your children by. Margi has been visiting a Mormon church for a few months, and you should see how they help each other!
Sheri Leigh Goodine Lonely yet not alone.
John de Nugent I understand. 

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