Use Holidays To Beat Loneliness. + Socializing Increases Lifespan

loneliness socializing lifespan holiday champagne toast

Photo: Artem Kniaz, Unsplash

The 5th Element Is The Social Chemistry Of Good People In Your Life:

With all the things we have to worry about, there are many that can just fall through the cracks.

For entrepreneurs, the two main things they neglect are their social lives and their health.

And regular people might have their own share of things that get overlooked and end up in the category of “Stealth Health”.

Just like the previous group, one of those omissions can be the social element.

Now if you haven’t read How To Live To 100 yet, this might seem a bit out of left field.

But some new work by The University of Michigan suggests it’s not…

The Short Answer:

Sometimes it’s easy to overlook parts of our health picture.
High-quality social connections are one of them.
Less tangible things in an individualistic society also make it easy to forget.
A U.Mich. team followed 9,000 subjects aged 50+ for 8 years.
They were categorized by how much loneliness they’d experienced.
Those who experienced more seemed to have shorter lifespans.
There may also be something called, “Cumulative Loneliness”.
Loneliness affects young people as well as old.
The Surgeon General’s report found people aged 15-24 were socializing 70% less than before.
That report also found 50% of adults experienced loneliness even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also showed increased rates of Heart Disease, Dementia, Depression, Anxiety, and all-cause mortality.
Some numbers were even more stark than the 1.65 million Americans expected to pass away too early due to loneliness.
But not everyone who is alone is lonely.
There are many possibilities as to why loneliness seems to shorten lifespan.
The holidays can also give us a good excuse to get out, socialize, and create new relationships.

Read on to find out the details…

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Virtual Insanity Can’t Be Shown On A Nutrition Facts Label:

It’s often easy to dismiss wisdom from a prior age; like every time your grandma told you that a full life has equal parts Financial, Physical, Spiritual, and Social in it.

This seems even easier than before because we already live in a very individualistic society that loves to trade memes about introversion.

Even more difficulties present themselves when you try to read a Nutrition Facts label for the more intangible stuff.

You can see how much protein, fats, carbs, sugar, and calories there are in a box of Cheez-Its, but taken out of context, things like meditation and in-person high-fives seem a little airy by comparison.

Real Numbers Show The Power Of The Social Component:

That is, up until now!

Because not only did we tell you The New England Centenarian Study found that high-quality social networks were part of living longer,

The U.M. team is putting some real numbers to the idea.

Because they looked at about 9,000 subjects, all aged 50 or older across an 8 year period.

The team then categorized them into 4 groups:
1) Never experienced loneliness
2) Experienced Loneliness 1x
3) Experienced Loneliness 2x
4) Experienced Loneliness 3+ times

Avoidable Deaths And The Concept Of Cumulative Loneliness:

For those groups, and after controlling for other factors, excess deaths not related to anything else were observed:

1) 106x (1.2%) for those experiencing it once
2) 202x (2.2%) for those at twice
3) 288x (3.2%) for those at 3x or more

Not only that, but chief researcher Linday Kobayashi introduced the idea of “Cumulative Loneliness” to account for the idea that things may get worse as they progress.

All groups she examined with prior reported events had significantly greater mortality risk.

The worst part of which is that it seems to be a social disease that can be treated ahead of time to prevent the downside.

Loneliness Isn’t Just For People Eleanor Rigby’s Age:

While this may initially be seen as an epidemic related to The Police and older people who lose a sense of purpose after life-changes,

Loneliness affects younger people as well, and is important to keep a watch on in all segments of the population.

According to US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy’s report on it earlier this year, people between the ages of 15-24 are socializing 70% less than they used to.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 50% of adults reported feeling measurable episodes of loneliness.

The Estimates Could Equate To Grim Numbers In The Real World:

So if you extrapolate even the most optimistic of the UM numbers, that means as few as 1.65 million Americans could be victims of a more silent type of pandemic.

Stealth-Health, indeed!

To put even more meat on the bone, the Surgeon General’s report also suggested the following stats for the perils of loneliness:

1) 29% Increased Risk of Heart Disease
2) 32% Increased Risk of Stroke
3) 50% Increased Risk of Dementia for older adults
4) 2x Risk of Developing Depression
5) Increased risk Anxiety & Depression for those lonely in childhood
6) 60% Increased Risk of All-Cause Early Mortality

There Are A Few Qualifiers Based on Temperament:

But there are a few lights at the end of the tunnel.

Not everybody who is alone is lonely.

Solitude and introversion are not necessarily unhealthy.

Dr. Lindsay suggests that it’s the needing other people and purpose that seems to be bad for health.

Who knows what forms this takes? Maybe it’s something like:

1) Extended broken-heart syndrome
2) Sustained intra-personal Stress
3) Lack of exercise
4) Bad eating habits
5) Poor self-care

-Or perhaps all five?

The Holiday Calendar Can Also Be A Big Help:

But luckily, at this time of year, we get a few breaks.

We all have the good fortune of being presented with at least a few great holidays that encourage gathering together, connection, positivity, and maybe a little bit of generosity or altruism.

So maybe there’s a way to take advantage of the times to get yourself out there to make some new friendships or rekindle old ones.

The holdays can be stressful, but they can also be great.

And as long as you avoid flying champagne corks that could blind you, maybe they’re a great reminder of that “Stealth Health” grandma tried to teach us all about so long ago.

Happy Holidays!