Denis Santos
- Single and lonely people die quicker than people with obesity.
- Study proves that being single increases chances of early death.
“Loneliness is deadlier than obesity.”
Fact check
Excessive feeling of longings is a mental risk that needs to be taken into consideration. According to reports, people with bad social life have a 50% increased risk to early death.
Researchers across the globe were formed to theorize a total of 218 studies about health effects of loneliness and social isolation.
The results?
They discovered that social isolation can increase the chance of a person’s death by 50% compared to people with obesity. In earlier reports, obese people’s death risk is just 30%, 20% lower than the risk of those who are emotionally unstable.
Doctors say
A professor from Brigham Young University and a leading author of Psychology Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad approves the claims. She said,
“Being connected to others socially is widely considered a fundamental human need, crucial to both well-being and survival. Extreme examples show infants in custodial care who lack human contact fail to thrive and often die, and indeed, social isolation or solitary confinement has been used as a form of punishment.”
Lunstad also said that the feeling of loneliness caused by being single makes people feel worse mentally and physically. Lonely people also tend to suffer ‘worse symptoms when they are unwell than those who are not’.
She sheds light on this mental instability by suggesting greater priority be placed on research and resources to tackle loneliness such as social skills for children in schools.
On the other hand, previous researches have suggested that solitary adults are much more prone to this condition.
So, if you are feeling lonely, it’s okay to admit it and ask help from your loved ones.
