4 Health Conditions That Social Isolation Worsens

Do you prefer to stay at home instead of meeting up with friends? Are you a loner who prefers to get lost down rabbit holes online than talk on the phone? Don’t go to church or belong to active social groups? 

If so, you may be risking your health. Even for the otherwise healthy, lack of social connection has the same impact on your overall health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

That’s according to the U.S. Surgeon General, who recently reviewed reams of research on the health effects of isolation and declared social disconnection a pandemic.

You may be tempted to blame the pandemic for these health results, but pre-pandemic data shows increasing numbers of people suffering from a lack of social connection causing worsening health issues, negative progression of existing ones and increased risk for disease.

The Importance of Our Social Connections
Humans are wired to connect from Day 1. A newborn baby’s first wail prompts a mother’s increased production of the bonding hormone oxytocin. Holding hands, sexual intimacy, even petting animals has the same effect. Studies have shown that if you look at someone else’s face, oxytocin goes up. Looking at a car or other nonsocial stimuli don’t produce the same effects.

When our happy hormones are rarely or never stimulated due to lack of social connection, it can have an impact on our health. From increased weight to raising the risk and severity of existing diseases, including type 2 diabetes, depression, cardiovascular disease and cancer, not having strong social connections can be deadly.

A Brigham Young University meta-analysis found that human interactions boosted the survival odds of patients with cardiovascular disease by 50 percent. Numerous findings on social connection’s correlations to specific health issues come to similar conclusions.

Diabetes
In patients with diabetes, multiple studies have demonstrated that satisfying social interactions decreased blood glucose and A1c levels in patients with diabetes. They also helped with weight loss. Social connections have been shown to reduce the risk diabetes and obesity.

Cardiovascular Disease
Studies have also connected high blood pressure and cardiovascular mortality with low levels of social interaction. Other studies have drilled down further, specifically finding that socially isolated (who don’t belong to community groups or a church and have fewer than 6 friends or relatives with whom they connect regularly), unmarried male cardiovascular patients have a high-level risk of dying from a heart attack. Strong, active and frequent social connections? Lower risk for cardiovascular issues.

Cancer
Strong connections to family, friends and healthcare providers are a constant theme for cancer patients who outlive their prognosis. It’s theorized that social connectivity increases the will to live. In one study, the survivial rate women with metastatic breast cancer was twice as high for those who benefited from social connection intervention programs. They lived 36 months from diagnosis compared to 18 months for the control group. Another found that levels of interleukin-6 – an inflammatory cytokine that promotes cancer cell activity – were lower in patients who experienced connection, closeness and intimacy.

Body Mass Index
An astounding 100 million Americans are considered obese today, up almost 42 percent from four years ago, and 22 million are considered severely obese. At the same time, temporal trend analysis shows time spent alone is increasing and time with friends, family and companions is decreasing, meaning social connectedness as a national experience is in decline. Chicken and egg? Maybe. More research is needed. We do know, however, that when it comes to social connection and BMI, the stronger your social network the lower your BMI (that’s good) and vice versa.