Lonely people are often sick

Know the ‘side effects’ of loneliness and of being unsociable. It’s more serious than you ever thought.

Psychologists are convinced of the fact that loneliness is not less harmful for people than smoking or overweight.

The lack of relation with other people not only makes us unhappy, but has a negative influence on the health of our body and soul. This conclusion was drawn during a scientific research.

The feeling of seizure and isolation increase the blood pressure, the stress and the general level of tiredness and increase the chances to get Alzheimer disease.

Besides, this feeling decrease the strength of will and persistence, a fact that influence the health, the capacity of body to follow a healthy way of life.

The result of the researches in this sense were presented by professor John Cacciopo from the Chicago University on the yearly conference of the American Association of Science Development.

According to professor Cacciopo loneliness not only lead to a change of mood, but is also connected with the development of resistibility of normal blood flow through cardiovascular system.

Loneliness lead to the increase of the stress hormone called cortisol which influence the immune system and lead to the increase of the arterial pressure and development of depression.

Loneliness or social isolation leads to the disturbance of deep sleep and fast progress of Alzheimer disease.

As the professor states in many cases the difference between a lonely person and a popular one is equivalent to the difference between “a smoker and a non-smoker”.

Professor said: “This discovery overwhelmed us.  My colleagues and I were surprised to find out the consequences of the social isolation. It proved how important is the communication for each of us”.

Lonely people are usually weak. They make less physical exercises, consume more calories. In order to fill their sensation of comfort these people eat much fat and sweet food.

John Cacciopo explains that loneliness decrease the capacity of control. After a difficult day lonely people may serve one or two glasses of scotch. The third will give total relaxation.

Professor Cacciopo is one of the founders of the new science called social neurology. According to him the human need in communication with other people has deep evolutionary roots.

In the past, in order to survive people had to cooperate, besides, it cooperation it was easier to raise the children. In order to develop people had to increase their altruism and cooperation.

The physical pain serve as a prompting to change our behavior, for example, we don’t put our hands into fire as a reflex. In the same manner, during the evolution the loneliness led us to certain actions – it is a signal from our ancestors for the necessity of “building” social connections.

References:

http://just-healthy.net/identifying-diseases

http://just-healthy.net/lack-of-sleep-effects

http://usehealthguide.com/effects-of-alcohol

http://stress-self-help.com/get-rid-of-depression

http://stress-self-help.com/laughter-reduce-stress