Fight aging with social connectedness

(Larisa Lofitskaya)

A new study found a link between loneliness and elevated blood pressure (BP) published in the March edition of Psychology and Aging, a journal devoted to adult development and aging.

Louise Hawkley, PhD, the associate director of the Social Neuroscience Laboratory and a senior research scientist with the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, co-authored the study and explained to Relaxnews, "on average, blood pressure increases slowly but surely over the life course. Estimates of age-related increases in 50-plus year-olds average about 1 mm per year. The surprising effect in our study was ...that individuals at the highest end of the loneliness continuum saw their BP increase by 14 mm over 5 years, suggesting that loneliness accelerates aging, at least for this physiological outcome."

The research team found that "loneliness did not influence BP over short-term 1-year intervals. Rather, loneliness differences in the rate of BP increase were not evident until at least two years into the study, but then they continued to accrue over the rest of the study period. In addition, loneliness differences in the rate of BP increase did not stem from transient changes in feelings of loneliness from year to year, but were attributable to a chronic, persistent aspect of loneliness present when individuals first entered the study."

Loneliness doesn't only a predictor of high blood pressure levels but "has been associated with a variety of physical and mental health outcomes, and predicts an increase in depressive symptoms, poorer sleep quality, poorer regulation of cortisol (a stress hormone), and changes in gene expression consistent with heightened inflammation.  Inflammation contributes to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and other chronic conditions that may explain why loneliness is associated with a higher mortality rate," said Hawkley.
 
So what's the answer? Hawkley said, "interventions to reduce loneliness have met with mixed success, in part because most interventions do not take into consideration the fact that loneliness is a problem of biased thinking about social experiences and not just a problem of lack of social opportunity."

Unfortunately addressing loneliness is not enough to regulate BP. Diet, physical activity, smoking, genetics, chronic health conditions and medications all play a role and pinpointing any one intervention on a single factor would not lead to BP control.
Hawkley believes, "Medications will continue to play a large part in controlling BP, but our data show that improving a sense of social connectedness could have additional BP-lowering effects."

Perhaps chronic loneliness can be combated with more family, social and physical interactions in an attempt to foster social connectedness. Since loneliness is based on a perception of isolation, virtual connectedness may offer some sort of solace. Two popular 50+ online social networking sites are Eons and Saga Zone.
 
Full study, "Loneliness predicts increased blood pressure: 5-year cross-lagged analyses in middle-aged and older adults": http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2010-04859-012&CFID=7034410&CFTOKEN=48648289