Westend61 via Getty Images People who reported chronic loneliness were 56% more likely to have a stroke. If you feel consistently lonely, you certainly aren’t the only one. Last year, U.
S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H.
Murthy declared a loneliness epidemic in the United States because of the high prevalence of loneliness among adults and youth. Loneliness plays a role in health for a multitude of reasons: It’s linked to mental and physical health issues, including depression , heart disease and dementia, making it an important issue to manage. Now, a new study out of Harvard T.
H. Chan School of Public Health has found that people who are chronically lonely are also more likely to have a stroke . Advertisement Researchers used data from 8,936 people in the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement study; all were 50 and older with no stroke history.
Participants reported their loneliness level via a loneliness scale at two points — between 2006 and 2008 and 2010 and 2012. Researchers established four groups based on this data — “consistently low” for people who reported low loneliness at both times; “remitting” for folks who reported high loneliness the first time and low loneliness the second; “recent onset” for those who reported low loneliness first and high loneliness the second time; and “consistently high” for those who reported high levels of loneliness at both times. Advertisement People who reported loneliness at both times were 56% more .
