Lonely? You May Be More Likely to Get Sick

Loneliness may be a health risk and can even increase a person’s risk of premature death, studies have shown, but the reason for the link hasn’t been clear. Now, researchers have found one way that loneliness may affect a person’s health: It may trigger cellular changes that might lower a person’s ability to fight viral infections.

In a study of 141 older adults, researchers looked at the relationship between loneliness and patterns of gene expression in white blood cells, which are involved in protecting the body against viruses and bacteria. Among the people in the study, 36 were classified as chronically lonely.

The researchers found that, in the chronically lonely people, the cells showed signs of an increased expression of the genes involved in inflammation and fighting potential bacterial infections, compared with the cells of people who were not chronically lonely. But the cells also had a lower level of expression of the genes involved in fighting viral infections.

This pattern of gene expression “is changing the body to be more likely to show an inflammatory response,” said study author John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago. Although this response “puts the organism in a state of preparation for bacterial infection,” he said. This, however, appears to occur at the cost of the ability to fight potential viral infections.

In other words, in lonely people, there is a shift “away from protecting against viruses, and more towards protection against bacteria,” Cacioppo told Live Science.[9 DIY Ways to Improve Your Mental Health]

Moreover, the findings suggested that loneliness and the pro-inflammatory pattern of gene expression go hand in hand, and can propagate each other over time: The people who were chronically lonely at the beginning of the study were likely to still have this pro-inflammatory pattern of gene expression a year later, and those with this pattern of gene expression at the beginning of the study were also still lonely a year later, the researchers found.

 

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