As if Loneliness weren’t bad enough, according to CMU grad student Sarah Pressman,
-It turns out it could affect your immune system negatively.
It is disturbing that this study neglected to count the number of inverted keg-stands or fraternity indoctrination rituals in the lives of the subjects.
The first semester away can really effect your immune-system, and loneliness makes it worse.
If those don’t kill your defenses in a week, nothing will.
Much the same way scientists do experiments on mice for eventual application to humans.
This study was done on college freshmen for eventual application to humans.
An interesting quirk came up because Pressman measured both:
a) Degree of Loneliness Felt
and b) Size of Social Network,
In-addition to patient-response to Flu Vaccine.
Interesting hack: Loneliness effects on immune system can be measured with innoculations!
-And part b) of the results showed, counterintuitively, that size of network had zero correlation to amount of loneliness.
So it was very possible to be in the middle of a crowd but still experience the same feelings, regardless.
So, get out there and build quality social networks instead! You can fix loneliness and your immune system with just 1 or 2 good friends, instead of the other kind on social media…
Photo Credits: “Shadow”, by Tijmen Van Dobbenburgh
Links:
• Source: [Archive]APA-First-Year College Students Who Feel Lonely Have a Weaker Immune Response to the Flu Shot
• via: WebMD-Loneliness
• Source Study: PSY-CMU-Loneliness, Social Network Size, and Immune Response to Influenza Vaccination in College Freshmen[PDF]
Leave a Reply