Loneliness may not be as bad as thought: It has no direct impact on health problems
Although loneliness is seen as a state most people do not want, scientists are re-evaluating its impact on health issues. Jihui Zhang and his team from Guangzhou Medical University, in a study of 476 thousand 100 people, emphasized that loneliness is not a direct cause of health problems such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, but rather that these conditions may be a symptom of loneliness.
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Loneliness is a state that many people would not want at first glance. Since humans are social beings, they always need other people. At the same time, it is thought that loneliness negatively affects people's mental health as well as their physical health. Many people think that loneliness leads to depression, hopelessness, and melancholy. It is claimed that these established ideas are incorrect.
Scientists state that, contrary to popular belief, loneliness may not lead to health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.
Social and communal relationships are very important for mental health and development. Chinese researchers examined how the state of loneliness, which occurs with the breaking of social ties, affects health.
Jihui Zhang and his team from Guangzhou Medical University analyzed the medical data of 476 thousand 100 people from the UK, 16 thousand from China, and 14 thousand from the US in the study.
It was determined that people who stated they felt lonely were at higher risk for 30 out of 56 various diseases, ranging from cancer to digestive system disorders.
Later, scientists focused on a subset of participants whose genetic data was available and performed a second statistical analysis on 26 of these 30 diseases.
"LONELINESS EMERGES AS AN INDICATOR OF DISEASE"
The examination revealed that most of these health problems, including cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, were not actually caused by loneliness. It was stated that loneliness is an emotion that accompanies these diseases.
On the other hand, it was pointed out that loneliness could play a role in the emergence of conditions such as depression, hypothyroidism, asthma, sleep apnea, substance abuse, and hearing loss.
Jihui Zhang, who led the research published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour, says the following about the findings:
"Loneliness emerges as an indicator of disease rather than a direct cause. Instead, socioeconomic factors, lifestyle choices, and genetic predisposition may constitute the actual risk for conditions such as diabetes and heart disease."
Yu He, one of the scientists involved in the research, also says, "Addressing issues related to loneliness is important, but it is not the only factor in preventing diseases."