March 28, 2018.
In a study published in the medical journal Heart, Finnish researchers explain that loneliness increases the risk of dying from a heart attack.
Loneliness is bad for your health
What if living in isolation was bad for your health? This is what researchers say in a recent study. According to these works, theliving in isolation greatly increases the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke. To reach these conclusions, the researchers followed 479,000 Britons, and asked them about their feeling of loneliness and their degree of social isolation.
We know that living alone pushes the elderly to take other risks for the heart, such as tobacco, an unbalanced diet, a lack of physical activity. However, to carry out this work, the researchers only studied the impact of isolation on health. Excluding these other risks, they found that living alone increased mortality by 32% after a heart attack or stroke.
How to help single people?
“Social isolation and feelings of loneliness are associated with a higher risk of severe myocardial infarction or stroke », Note the authors of this work. ” Social isolation seems to remain an independent risk factor for death after a heart attack or stroke“. If we add the bad habits of single people as well as their possible poor mental health, we realize how harmful isolation can be.
It seems that British Prime Minister Theresa May is well aware of these issues, since she announced last January the appointment of a secretary of state responsible for isolated people. In 2016, a Crédoc study for the Fondation de France revealed thatone in ten French people suffered from loneliness. Do you know someone who is often isolated? Now is the time to call or visit him …
Marine Rondot
Read also: Loneliness is part of our genetic heritage
