by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext
What the mainstream media is hiding
Loneliness makes you sick in the long run – not just mentally but also physically. Studies show that it is even more harmful to health than obesity and smoking. No good doctor fails to ask about it when exploring the cause of certain symptoms.
What are you missing?” Actually, these are two questions in one. And they always have to be put together. One is aimed at health problems. The other asks about a deficit: What are you lacking? Often, an essential part of the answer is social closeness and warmth, attention, understanding and appreciation, belonging and inclusion, friendship, and love. In short, you are lonely.
How many doctors bother to find out whether such a deficiency exists – and how much it affects the patient? You should. Because loneliness makes you sick in the long run. As long as it lasts, pills and injections are of little use.
It’s not just about being alone or socially isolated: some people like to be alone, occasionally or most of the time and actually enjoy it. “It’s a beautiful thing about loneliness when you live in peace with yourself and have something specific to do,” said Goethe. (1) Franz Kafka confessed: “I have to be alone a lot. What I have achieved is just a success of being alone.” (2) Conversely, many people feel lonely, even though they seem to be integrated into a large social network. Something emotional is crucial: the suffering that arises when one perceives one’s social relationships as deeply inadequate.
Almost one in three adults in the United States admits to feeling lonely at least once a week. 72 percent have done it at least once in their lives. (3) In Germany, one in ten people say they feel lonely. (4)
Most of the time, the misery evaporates as quickly as it comes. But if it lasts? As people get older, the number of those affected increases: 20 to 40% of people over 55 describe themselves as constantly lonely. Then, there is a risk of chronic stress, from depression to alcohol abuse to drug addiction. The risk of suicide is growing. (6)
But loneliness, like any negative emotion, inevitably affects physical well-being. (7) Neurologists detect the beginning of structural changes in the brains of people who suffer from social isolation after just 24 hours. (8) The inner tension increases (9) – Loneliness is “equivalent to permanent stress,” states the German Medical Journal. (10) You sleep worse. (11) Inflammation levels increase. (12) The immune system weakens. (13)
Loneliness can increase blood pressure by up to 14 points – even more so the longer it lasts. This increases the risk of heart disease. Heart attacks and strokes are more likely to occur. (14)
But dementia is also becoming more likely (15), including Alzheimer’s. (16) Starting in 2002, American researchers observed 823 elderly people from retirement homes in Chicago and the surrounding area for four years. Initially, none of those involved had Alzheimer’s dementia. As the study progressed, however, those who felt lonely experienced mental decline much more quickly than those who were more socially active.
Yes, loneliness is even life-threatening. This is shown by two meta-analyses (17) that were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in 2017. Together, they covered 218 studies involving more than 3.7 million people. Loneliness was correlated with up to a 50% increased risk of dying prematurely. This makes it no less deadly than obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day. (18)
Loneliness reduces survival rates in breast cancer patients (19), as does heart surgery. (20)
Lesson from Methuselah
What is the secret of Methuselah? How do some people manage to live to be over a hundred years old in excellent health – without doctors, without medication, without operations? Aging researchers agree: Such old people have not only won the genetic lottery, but they eat well, are physically active, avoid environmental toxins, and drink and smoke at best in moderation. In addition, almost all long-lived people are integrated into social networks until the end: the family, the circle of friends, the neighborhood, and the club. You maintain and enjoy contacts. They don’t feel pushed away, excluded, or left alone but instead noticed, needed, valued, popular, and loved. When asked what they attribute their longevity to, one of the things they hear most often is: They have never felt lonely for a long period of time. (21)
Since 1938, American elite Harvard University researchers have been collecting data on the question: What is the key to a good life? What does it have to be like to make people fulfilled and happy? Functioning relationships have proven to be the most critical factor. People are social creatures, which is why friendships, family, and relationships mean a lot to them, explains Robert Waldinger, professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and currently head of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, in his interim report, The Good Life. (22) What remarkably astonished him: Relationships have an enormous influence on health. And more than that: “What surprised me was how strongly the warmth of relationships predicts how long we are healthy, how long we live and how happy we are.” (23)
Epigenetics provides explanations – and gives hope.
Every experience, every thought, every belief, every feeling, every action that banishes loneliness also has a healing effect on the physical level. How is that even possible? More and more scientists are finding evidence of this in epigenetics, a young field of research that promises surprising insights into how environmental factors – but also the way we process them – influence our cells and the activity of our genes.
The American consciousness researcher and science author Dawson Church, founder and director of the National Institute for Integrative Healthcare, has dedicated an illuminating book to this fascinating interaction: The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention. Drawing on hundreds of studies, he explains how beliefs and emotions can influence the expression of DNA strands. He focuses on a particular class of genes, the so-called immediate early genes, or IEGs for short: These switch on within a few seconds of a stimulus. Thoughts or feelings can also activate them. (“I was very happy about my neighbor’s unexpected gift” or “It makes me sad and angry what my sister said at the Christmas party.”) Many IEGs are regulatory: they turn on other genes that control certain aspects of our immune system influence, for example, the production of white blood cells that destroy attacking bacteria and viruses. We may be able to avoid years of therapy, harmful drugs, and invasive surgeries by taking control of our consciousness and using it to influence our genetic expression – and thus continuously genetically modify our own bodies. This can lead to immediate relief from long-standing fears and neuroses as well as an almost miraculous healing of persistent physical complaints.
What is wrong with the patient the doctor sees? What does he need most? In many cases, the recipe should say: Encounters. Links. Each other. Community. Epigenetics then helps to do the rest.
(Harald Wiesendanger)
Remarks
1 J. W. Goethe: Briefe. An Charlotte von Stein, Dornburg, 4. März 1779.
2 Franz Kafka: Tagebücher, 21. Juli 1913.
3 Nach dem Harris Poll, einer US-Umfrage aus dem Jahr 2016, siehe American Osteopathic Association, 11. Oktober 2016, https://osteopathic.org/2016/10/11/survey-finds-nearly-three-quarters-72-of-americans-feel-lonely/
4 Theresa Eyerund, Anja Katrin Orth: Einsamkeit in Deutschland: Aktuelle Entwicklung und soziodemographische Zusammenhänge. IW-Report, Nr. 22. Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW), Köln 2019, https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/198005/1/1667352865.pdf
5 M. Aartsen, M. Jylhä: “Onset of loneliness in older adults “, European Journal of Ageing 8 (3) 2011, S. 31–38; C. Luanaigh, B. Lawlor: “Loneliness and the health of older people “, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 23 (12) 2008, S. 1213–1221.
6 American Osteopathic Association, 11. Oktober 2016, https://osteopathic.org/2016/10/11/survey-finds-nearly-three-quarters-72-of-americans-feel-lonely/
7 G. Miller: “Why loneliness is hazardous to your health “, Science 331 (6014) 2011, S. 138–140, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.331.6014.138; A. Shankar u.a.: “Loneliness, social isolation, and behavioral and biological health indicators in older adults “, Health Psychology 30 (4) 2011, S. 377–385, https://lateadulthoodstage.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/0/5/15050912/biological_health_indicators_pdf.pdf
8 New York Times, 5. September 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/health/lonliness-aging-health-effects.html
9 Psychology Today 9. Juni 2016, https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200308/the-dangers-loneliness; Psychological Bulletin 140 (6) 2014, S. 1464-1504, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25222636/
10 “Einsamkeit – Einfluss auf den Therapieerfolg”, www.aerzteblatt.de. PP 1/2012, https://www.aerzteblatt.de/pdf.asp?id=118236
11 Social Science and Medicine, 74 (6) März 2012, S. 907-914, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612000275
12 PNAS 19. Januar 2016; 113 (3), S. 578-583, https://www.pnas.org/content/113/3/578.abstract
13 Washington Post, 31. Januar 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/loneliness-grows-from-individual-ache-to-public-health-hazard/2016/01/31/cf246c56-ba20-11e5-99f3-184bc379b12d_story.html?utm_term=.2ddaa25cc6df
14 The Telegraph 24. August 2016, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/08/24/having-no-friends-could-be-as-deadly-as-smoking-harvard-universi/
15 Archives of General Psychiatry, February 2007;64, S. 234-240, https://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/64/2/234
16 Medical News Today, 2. November 2016, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/313858.php
17 Business Insider, 7. August 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/loneliness-greater-public-health-hazard-than-obesity-2017-8; APA.org, 5. August 2017, https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/08/lonely-die.aspx
18 Forbes, 18. Januar 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/01/18/loneliness-might-be-a-bigger-health-risk-than-smoking-or-obesity/
19 Medical News Today, 12. Dezember 2016, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314675.php
20 Nach Dawson Church: The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention (2007).
21 Näheres in Dan Buettner: Das Geheimnis der 100-Jährigen: Entdeckungsreise in die Blue Zones der Welt. Wie man es schafft gesund und länger zu leben (2023).
22 Robert Waldinger/Marc Schulz: The Good Life … und wie es gelingen kann: Erkenntnisse aus der weltweit längsten Studie über ein erfülltes Leben (2023).
23 Zit. nach dem Podcast “The Written Word” der Harvard-Universität, siehe https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/good-life: “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger, MD, and Marc Schulz, PhD”
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Titelbild: Freepik.
Harald Wiesendanger, Loneliness, lonely, Epigenetics, Dawson Church, Robert Waldinger, Harvard Study of Adult Development, Longevity, social isolation, Being alone