There is a link between social isolation, loneliness and poor health. Scientists from the University of Cambridge in the UK and Fudan University in China have found possible reasons for this.
To conduct a new study, experts took data from the UK Biobank. They used information from 42,062 participants. Their average age was 54 years, and just over 50% were women. On average, people were followed for 14 years.
As a result, scientists identified 175 proteins that are associated with social isolation and 26 with loneliness. There was also protein overlap, where about 85% of the proteins associated with loneliness were also associated with social isolation. Many of certain proteins are part of our immune response that trigger an inflammatory response as the body fights disease.
Certain proteins were also isolated and their effect on the body was studied. For example, ADM. It helps regulate the body’s response to stress and stress hormones, and is responsible for the functioning of oxytocin, the hormone of love and affection. Lonely people had higher ADM levels. This means their immune system was fighting off the infection—or what it perceived as an infection—due to loneliness.
More than half of the proteins associated with social isolation and loneliness also showed significant associations with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and death. For example, a one-unit increase in ADM level is associated with a 58% increased risk of death over 14 years.
Another protein, ASGR1, was associated with higher cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease.
The results of the study were published in the January 2025 issue of Nature Human Behavior.
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