Friends, family may protect against heart attack, stroke and more, says study
New research is emphasizing that socializing with friends and family may help protect people against heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes and other conditions and illnesses.
The study suggests that social interactions may keep people healthy because these interactions boost the immune system and reduce the risk of disease.
Cambridge University researchers, along with colleagues in China, came to these conclusions after studying protein in blood samples taken from over 42,000 adults recruited to the U.K. Biobank, news agency SWNS reported.
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The study team said social relationships play a key role in well-being.
Professor Barbara Sahakian of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge said, “These findings drive home the importance of social contact in keeping us well. More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely,” as SWNS noted.
Socializing with friends and family may help protect people against heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes and other conditions and illnesses, a new study suggests. (iStock courtesy of user skynesher)
“That’s why the World Health Organization has described social isolation and loneliness as a global public health concern … We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy.”
Evidence increasingly shows that both social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health and an early death, the same source reported. But the underlying mechanisms through which social relationships impact health apparently have remained elusive until now, the news agency also said.
“We need to find ways to keep people connected to help them stay healthy.”
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy previously warned against the health risks of loneliness, as Fox News Digital reported earlier.
“Loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience,” he said when issuing an advisory nearly two years ago on the topic, per The Associated Press. “It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing.”
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“Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that’s not right,” he also said at the time. “That’s why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.”
The researchers connected to the new study said that one way to explore biological mechanisms is to look at proteins circulating in the blood, SWNS noted. Proteins, which are molecules produced by genes, are essential for helping the human body function properly.
They can also serve as useful drug targets, allowing scientists to develop new treatments to tackle diseases.
“Social relationships play an important part in keeping us healthy,” said one of the scientists connected to a new study. (iStock)
The Cambridge team and scientists at Fudan University, China, examined the “proteomes,” or the suite of proteins, in blood samples donated by more than 42,000 British adults aged 40 to 69.
That allowed them to see which proteins were present at higher levels among people who were socially isolated or lonely — and how these proteins were connected to poorer health, SWNS said.
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The team calculated social isolation and loneliness scores for individuals in the study, which was published in Nature Human Behaviour, a monthly peer-reviewed journal.
Social isolation is an objective measure based on, for example, whether people live alone, how frequently they have contact with others and whether they take part in social activities, the team said.
“We know that social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health, but we’ve never understood why.”
