14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study shows that loneliness is a risk factor for hypertension, obesity and lack of exercise. Apparently, lonely, sad, stressed or hostile middle-age and older adults had blood pressure levels 30 mm Hg higher than those less lonely.
As the study went to analyzing older people, loneliness seemed to have the same effect on blood pressure as obesity or sedentary lifestyles. The team of researchers interviewed 229 people aged 50 to 68 years of age, using questionnaires to determine the level of loneliness, psychosocial and cardiovascular risk factors each patient perceives.
Lead researcher Louise Hawkley stated "The take-home message is that feelings of loneliness are a health risk, in that the lonelier you are, the higher your blood pressure. And we know that high blood pressure has all kinds of negative consequences."
Hawkley said that strengthening current relationships and making new ones, which will get rid people of loneliness, is not an easy thing to do. "Remember, people can feel lonely even if they are with a lot of people. You can think of Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana -- there was certainly nothing lacking in their social lives, yet they claimed to have felt intensely lonely."
"They may want to go out and make friends, and yet they have a nagging lack of trust with whomever they want to interact with, or they may feel hostile. So they end up behaving in ways that force the potential partner away."