Summary: Loneliness is the pain of feeling cut off from others. It is a big driver of chronic illness like obesity, chronic pain, depression, sleep problems, and substance abuse. Now a new study shows that loneliness may raise stroke risk by 56%.
Poor food choices and sitting too much are the top two causes of chronic disease. But there are many other causes. Those two alone cannot explain the epidemic of chronic illness.
Other factors include too little sleep, declining mental and brain health, social isolation and loneliness, and more. It is vital to understand each factor’s role in chronic illness. We need to know how each one raises the risk of obesity, heart disease, dementia, mental health problems, and more.
One of the less-discussed risk factors for chronic illness is loneliness. Loneliness is a feeling of distress and pain from too little human contact, or from being cut off from others. It is also vital to tell social isolation and loneliness apart. Loneliness is an emotional response that raises the risk of chronic illness. It often comes from too little social contact, but not always.
Loneliness raises the risk of many mental and brain disorders. So people who feel lonely are more likely to have sleep problems, depression, dementia, and even metabolic disorders like diabetes. Loneliness even raises the risk of immune problems like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
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Loneliness raises the risk of obesity, binge eating, high blood pressure, and much more. Studies also show that loneliness is one of the biggest causes of alcohol abuse. And that is not all. Loneliness raises the risk of addiction to many substances and weakens your ability to handle stress.
All this means loneliness is also a big cause of painful conditions. People who feel lonely are more likely to get chronic pain. They are also much more likely to harm themselves or die by suicide.
It is vital to see how these harmful factors link together, with one raising the risk of another. For example, loneliness raises the risk of obesity, mental health problems, and pain. But people in pain are also more likely to be cut off from others and feel lonely.
So many factors raise the risk of chronic illness. That explains why diet and exercise do not always help. People who feel lonely or have mental health problems are also less likely to stick with lifestyle changes.
Now a new study in a highly respected journal, eClinicalMedicine (The Lancet), shows that loneliness can raise stroke risk a lot.
This study looked at data on 12,161 people for stroke risk over a 10-12 year period. It split them into groups, such as people who felt very lonely and people who did not feel much loneliness. They found that loneliness raised stroke risk by as much as 56%.
It is also important that they adjusted their data for depression and social isolation. Loneliness is an emotional response, a feeling of distress. So it is different from social isolation. Not everyone with little social contact feels lonely. And many people living with family may still feel lonely, because they are not happy with their relationships or the quality of their contact with others. Telling social isolation and loneliness apart helps us understand how complex these problems are.
Finally, all this shows why a broad approach matters, such as an interventional pain management clinic in St. Louis. It helps prevent and manage chronic illness like depression, chronic pain, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. So beyond exercise and diet, think about better sleep, fighting loneliness, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can loneliness cause a stroke?
Loneliness raises the risk. A study in eClinicalMedicine (The Lancet) followed 12,161 people for 10 to 12 years. It compared people who felt very lonely with those who did not. Loneliness raised stroke risk by as much as 56%. The researchers adjusted their data for depression and social isolation. So the effect belongs to loneliness itself, not to those overlapping factors.
What is the difference between loneliness and social isolation?
Social isolation is a lack of contact with other people. Loneliness is the feeling of distress and pain that can come with it. The two do not always go together. Some people with little social contact never feel lonely. Others live in full households and still feel lonely because their relationships do not satisfy them. It is the emotional response that drives the health risk.
What health problems are linked to loneliness?
The list is long. Loneliness raises the risk of sleep problems, depression, dementia and diabetes. It feeds immune problems behind conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It is tied to obesity, binge eating and high blood pressure. It is one of the biggest causes of alcohol abuse. It raises addiction risk to other substances and weakens your ability to handle stress. And now stroke joins the list.
Can loneliness cause chronic pain?
Yes, and the link runs both ways. People who feel lonely are more likely to get chronic pain. And people in pain are more likely to become cut off and lonely. Each problem feeds the other. That loop is one reason diet and exercise alone do not always work. It is also why lonely people find it harder to stick with lifestyle changes. Fighting loneliness belongs in the treatment plan.
Source:
Soh, Y., Kawachi, I., Kubzansky, L. D., Berkman, L. F., & Tiemeier, H. (2024). Chronic loneliness and the risk of incident stroke in middle and late adulthood: A longitudinal cohort study of U.S. older adults. eClinicalMedicine, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102639
Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP
