Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by approximately 26%, which is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day and more dangerous than obesity, lack of physical activity, and air pollution.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic.
Social isolation has a profound impact on health: It's as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, or having six drinks a day. Loneliness increases the risk of heart disease and stroke by about 30%. Chronic loneliness can increase the risk of dementia by 50%. It is also the strongest predictor of suicidality.
Recent studies found that: Social isolation significantly increased a person's risk of premature death from all causes, a risk that may rival those of smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity. Social isolation was associated with about a 50% increased risk of dementia.
Studies since the 1980s have shown that if you haven't got friends, family or community ties, your chance of dying early may be 50% higher than if you did. Social isolation is now being touted as similarly detrimental to health as smoking or not taking exercise.
Research suggests that social isolation is a greater risk factor for health than loneliness.
We all know that quitting smoking improves physical health. But it's also proven to boost your mental health and wellbeing: it can improve mood and help relieve stress, anxiety and depression.
“The worst kind of loneliness in the world is isolation that comes from being misunderstood. It can make people lose their grasp on reality.”
What is chronic loneliness? Chronic loneliness occurs when feelings of loneliness and uncomfortable social isolation go on for a long period of time. It's characterized by constant and unrelenting feelings of being alone, separated or divided from others, and an inability to connect on a deeper level.
Biologists have shown that feelings of loneliness trigger the release of stress hormones that in turn are associated with higher blood pressure, decreased resistance to infection and increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Background: Heavy smokers (those who smoke greater than or equal to 25 or more cigarettes a day) are a subgroup who place themselves and others at risk for harmful health consequences and also are those least likely to achieve cessation.
Lung and Other Cancers
For daily smokers (> 20 cig/day), the risk of dying from lung cancer is more than 23 times higher in men and about 13 times higher in women than nonsmokers (1). The risks for light smokers, while lower, are still substantial.
The study found that feelings of sadness and loneliness alone could increase a person's biological age by up to 1.65 years.
For example: a person who has smoked 15 cigarettes a day for 40 years has a (15/20) x 40 = 30 pack-year smoking history. One pack-year is smoking 20 cigarettes a day for one year. If someone has smoked 10 cigarettes a day for 6 years they would have a 3 pack-year history.
The intensity of nicotine addiction increased the more often a person smoked. The study found 35% of people who smoked one to four cigarettes per day were considered to be moderately or severely addicted to nicotine, compared to 74% of those who smoked 21 cigarettes or more each day.
Never smokers tended to be significantly more happy than smokers, both in terms of life enjoyment (B = 0.39, 95%CI 0.30–0.48) and life satisfaction (B = 0.32, 95%CI 0.27–0.37). However, the impact of smoking cessation on self-reported happiness varied as a function of the length of abstinence.
What causes loneliness? There is not one single cause of loneliness. Loneliness can often be a result of life changes or circumstances that include living alone, changing your living arrangements, having financial problems, or death of a loved one.
Loneliness is toxic
Loneliness has clear consequences for mental health, aggravating anxiety, depression, and stress-related symptoms. Additionally, it sabotages our physical health. According to two leading researchers, loneliness triggers an inflammatory response and threatens our immune system.
Most notably, researchers found that loneliness rates peak among people in their 20s, and reach their lowest point among those in their 60s. Many people also experience a spike in lonely feelings around their mid-40s.
There are different types of loneliness: emotional, and social and existential loneliness.
Loneliness affects people in different ways, and for this reason there are four distinct types of loneliness identified by psychologists: emotional, social, situational and chronic.
For most people, quitting before the age of 35 enables the body to recover from the harms of smoking, though this can depend on genetic susceptibility to the harms of tobacco smoke. Smoking affects almost every organ in the body, particularly the lungs and heart.
But, did you know the third day after you quit smoking is often the hardest one? This is because day three is when the nicotine levels in your body are depleted which can cause moodiness and irritability, severe headaches, and cravings as your body adjusts.
After 15 years of having quit smoking, the likelihood of developing coronary heart disease is the equivalent of a non-smoker. Similarly, the risk of developing pancreatic cancer has reduced to the same level as a non-smoker.