"Poor quality relationships, which make you feel lonely, are definitively linked to a number of health problems. More specifically, research links loneliness to a number of dysfunctional immune responses and increased blood pressure. Researchers saw that people who were lonelier produced more inflammation-related proteins in response to stress than did people that were more socially connected. This means they reacted more strongly to stressful situations than those people that did not consider themselves to be lonely. Chronic inflammation is linked to numerous conditions including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease as well as the frailty and decline that can come with aging.
Feeling lonely, as distinct from being alone, not only affects our health, but also affects sleep, with more disruptions in the night. It affects the brain – fmri scans show a difference in people’s brains who feel lonely and isolated to those who don’t feel alone. Behavior is different as well. Loneliness has even been shown to spread like a virus amongst people!" Dr. Leaf
And the LORD God said,
It is not good that the man should be alone;
Genesis 2:18
