The Surprising Impact of Social Connections

How often do you see your friends and family?

The Answer Could Save Your Life.

Research from Britain suggests loneliness can increase the risk of an early death in a much bigger way than previously thought.

Scientists from the University of Glasgow investigated how your social connections - or the lack of them - impact your health and longevity. You can find the study link here.

They used a massive data set of 450,000 people from the United Kingdom's Biobank - a database of more than half a million people.

What researchers wanted to understand was the impact of living alone as well as the impact of social connection on your risk of dying, particularly from cardiovascular disease (CVD).

They examined deaths from cardiovascular disease over 12 years..

They dug into issues such as how we connect socially, how often we confide in someone close, how often we feel lonely, our frequency of visiting friends or family, participating in group activities weekly, and living alone.

What Did They Find?

Each Of These Factors Mattered

Not catching up with friends or family at least monthly raises your risk of dying.

And here's an interesting twist: living alone had a unique impact.

People who lived alone but had daily visits from friends or family still faced a higher risk of death compared to those who had daily visits and didn't live alone.

But the real red flag appeared when all these factors were combined.

People who felt lonely or didn’t have someone to confide in and those who lived alone and didn’t participate in group activities had a significantly higher risk of dying from CVD.

So, What Lesson Can You Take From All This?

Humans are social creatures and it seems there’s a minimum threshold for how often we need to see friends and family to keep healthy.

If you are living alone, especially when combined with other forms of social isolation, it could mean a higher risk for health issues.

And finally, you need to look at the whole picture of someone's social life to fully understand their risk.

The lesson for me is that we need to see the whole person and their whole social world.

Connection Is The Antidote To Loneliness.

We are coming up to the holiday season which can be a lonely time for some.

Is there someone you could reach out to so they don’t feel so isolated?

You can find lots more resources on emotional wellbeing on my YouTube channel. I would love you to subscribe! 

Hearing from readers helps me to know what subjects you are interested in, so please get in touch.

Take care, Soph x