3 Ways Loneliness Can Negatively Affect Your Health (and what you can do about it)

Connection, community, and camaraderie are needed now more than ever -- thank goodness for my #MENtorshipMonday tribe!

A community of men, meeting on Zoom every Monday evening, to support, uplift and hold one another accountable to our continuous evolution to be better fathers, husbands, partners, brothers, uncles, cousins... being better MEN, period! 🙏

I'm reminded that being lonely is very different from being alone.

Thankfully, there are many opportunities for people to come together and support each other.

Do you have a community supporting you during the COVID19 pandemic? 🤔

On the subject of loneliness, here are:

🚀 3 Ways Loneliness Can Negatively Affect Your Health

Loneliness is more of a social condition, not caused by either bacteria or viruses, yet it can have some health implications.

Not only can loneliness affect your mental health, but it can affect your physical health as well.

Multiple studies have shown a biological link between ill physical health and loneliness.

In fact, it can be as dangerous to your health as smoking, excess use of alcohol or obesity. Social isolation -the fancy term for loneliness - tends to show up more in older people living alone either after retiring or suffering the loss of a mate, but in reality, it can show up in any age group. In general, loneliness can cause these three conditions to affect your mental or physical health.

🚀 Stress

Loneliness can bring on depression and that alone can increase your stress level (whether you know it or not).

Cortisol is the hormone released by our body in response to the “fight or flight” syndrome.

When under constant stress, the cortisol flowing through our veins and arteries remains too high for too long. While an occasional cortisol spike was necessary for survival back in the caveman days, constantly held at a high-level today causes cardiovascular health conditions, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and even heart attacks.

🚀 Poor Nutrition

Lonely people tend to not eat as healthy as those who are more socially connected. If you are cooking for more than just yourself, research has shown the meals you cook are better for you and better balanced.

Once you are just cooking for yourself and if you suffer from loneliness, your diet suffers from a lack of fresh vegetables. This can lead to sickness from a variety of diseases and illnesses.

NOTE: Sugar is a massive culprit preventing many of us from managing stress, anxiety, physical fitness and stress management. I'd like to offer up a free resource to help you with managing your sugar intake. You can grab the free resource guide here.

🚀 Weakened Immune System

When under stress, our immune system produces more inflammatory-related proteins.

These can lead not only heart disease as mentioned earlier but also Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Studies have shown that the feeling of loneliness alone can raise the risk of dementia by 64%.

And because our immune system has the limited fighting capability, it must choose between fighting bacteria or viruses – it can’t do both at the same time.

In people who see the world as a lonely threatening place, their immune system tends to focus on fighting bacteria, leaving them open to an increase in various virus-caused diseases, such as infections and cancer, in addition to the cardiovascular diseases mentioned earlier.

👉👉 The Remedy

Studies on loneliness have shown that most people showed physical improvements when they became more socially engaged. That can range anywhere from just having more contact with people online through the various social media or actual face-to-face contact by joining a class in something you have always wanted to learn or volunteering for a cause you support like at a hospital, school or food bank.

Try to participate in events supported by your church, organizations you belong to or just schedule recurring outings with friends or family.

While not viewed normally as something affecting physical health, loneliness can be dangerous.

Take the steps to engage with more people; you’ll not only be happier mentally but also healthier physically.

If you are a man and looking to connect with an amazing group of supporting men, hit me up and I can send you the details to join the MENtorship Monday community.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy. 🙏