For Valentine’s Day, the Federation of Cardiology warns about the harmful effects of loneliness for the heart. Often more sedentary, single people are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease.
According to the 2013 report on the loneliness of the French from the Fondation de France, isolation affects 5 million people in France. So on this Valentine’s Day, the French Federation of Cardiology (FFC) wishes to alert the French to the harmful effects of the absence of social interactions for the heart. Indeed, according to recent studies, people alone or deprived of social relations are more likely to develop certain pathologies, in particular those related to the heart.
Single people have higher blood pressure
Loneliness can indeed have long-term harmful consequences for health, and lead for example to a sedentary lifestyle. This inactivity often leads to weight gain, increased stress itself responsible for smoking, as well as poor diet and high blood pressure. The result: single people have higher blood pressure. Another consequence is that their risk of prematurely suffering from cardiovascular disease is also doubled compared to accompanied people, according to an American study from Ohio State University published in January 2013. To make matters worse, about 36% of these people isolated unaware of their condition and therefore go untreated.
For Professor Claude Le Feuvre, cardiologist and president of the FFC, “cardiac prevention is very focused on the fight against obesity, tobacco and cholesterol. In contrast, few doctors ask their patients about the quality of their social interactions, and even if they did, they could not prescribe them on prescription! The task therefore does not seem easy for the doctors.
Sex is good for the heart
The solution may be to advise regular physical activity, as advised by all cardiologists. And on the occasion of the feast of lovers, the FFC recalls that sexual activity is a physical activity like any other. Moderate in intensity, it “solicits the heart muscle and activates the arterial and venous circulation, strengthens the heart and releases relaxing hormones (endorphins).”
In addition, when practiced regularly, it makes the heart more resistant to stress. Men and women who have at least two intercourse per week have a 45% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease than those who have only one per month or less.
“The benefits of sexual activity could be due to both emotional and physical effects”, confides Professor Claire Mounier Vehier, cardiologist and 1st Vice-President of the FFC. And the latter adds that “men and women who have regular sexual activity are also more involved in an intimate relationship, which can radically improve health by reducing stress.”
The Federation’s “love” advice
Faced with this observation, the French Federation of Cardiology therefore provides some advice to get out of loneliness and preserve a healthy heart! Among them, turn to others, give their time, have a rich emotional life …
“Sharing, the desire to improve the well-being of others such as volunteering, empathy … clearly improves heart health. These are factors of development, it is good to feel useful ”, such is the prescription of Professor Claire Mounier Vehier.
(1) Studies by researchers from Ohio State University (USA), January 2013
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