Keeping loneliness at bay, even in the short term, can boost physical health Folks' physical symptoms went up and down and were often tied to fluctuations in loneliness There are ways to ease loneliness, researchers said THURSDAY, June 14, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- You don't consider yourself a lonely person generally, but sometimes have days where feelings of loneliness set in. If you're one of those people, even that transient loss of connection with others could be impacting your physical health, a new study finds. “A lot of research is focused on loneliness being a binary trait -- either you’re lonely or you’re not.
But based on our own anecdotal lives, we know that’s not the case. Some days are worse than others -- even some hours,” explained study lead author . “If we can understand variations in daily loneliness, we can begin to understand how it affects our daily and long-term health," said Witzel, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for Healthy Aging at Penn State University.
As Witzel's group noted, long term loneliness is a known health risk factor -- so much so that in 2023 U.S. labeled loneliness a public health crisis.
He noted raised rates of depression and other mental health troubles tied to loneliness, as well as a 29% higher risk of heart disease, a 32% increased risk of stroke and a 50% increased risk of developing in older adults. But what about more temporary moments or days of loneliness? In the study, Witzel's group looked at data o.