Loneliness: Time for Medicine to Address This Risk Factors

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Loneliness time for medicines

Whenever we talk about loneliness, the one thing which always comes to our mind is that it is not something which we need medicine for or to be addressed. But when we say the statement

Loneliness time for medicines to address it’, we are somehow indicating that medical professionals now need to focus more actively on identifying and addressing issues related to loneliness. It is also considered a health risk.

Regardless of that, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and some other concerns get attention from everywhere and are addressed as we are aware it can impact our physical and mental health. However, concerns like loneliness never get their credit and never receive intervention to come back from this concern.

Linked to loneliness

Loneliness and its impact on health and how it is impacting our brain health and physical well-being were discussed by Dr. Indu Subramanian, who is a neurologist at UCLA. She interviewed Juliana Holt Lunstad.

She is a pioneer when it comes to research in the field of loneliness, and she has extensively studied mobility across various diseases and how it is linked to loneliness.

Correlates with an increased mortality risk

Dr. Juliana talks about how her research is able to find out that loneliness becomes one of the major and most dangerous harmful and recognized health issues, which is not yet talked about.

If it takes an example from her research, where a seminal meta-analysis of 148 studies took place, the phenomenal thing was found out that there is a 50% increased likelihood of survival when there is a connection to social relations and a lack of loneliness. The absence of connection correlates with an increased mortality risk.

In Order to develop a correlation and highlight the security of loneliness, Dr. Juliana benchmark the impact which is related to social isolation on other health risks, where obesity, alcohol consumption, smoking, and air pollution are there. The perplexing thing about this research is that they concluded that loneliness has a risk equivalent to or even greater than these above-mentioned risks, and the sad part is that the medical field does not provide proper attention to it.

Global State of Social Connection Survey,

For the research has highlighted that loneliness is not about a specific population or age group. Dr. Juliana discusses the Global State of Social Connection Survey, which underscores that 25% of the global population at some points feel lonely. Countries such as Africa have the highest prevalence of people who feel lonely.

If we take data from the US, the signal data reveal that more than half of the Americans have experienced loneliness. The highest rate was found among young adults and adults. This pattern can also be seen in the marginally employed or struggling individuals who are at risk of financial concerns.

Worse with loneliness.

Scene that how stigma is related to loneliness and the perception is that it only affects certain populations such as older individuals usually have this issue but the broad spectrum covers and affects almost all populations. However, Dr. Juliana pointed out that even poor health outcomes also become serious and of loneliness, creating a vicious cycle of physical and mental concerns, which also further contributes to loneliness.

If you are suffering from any other health issues, it can exacerbate those health issues. If you are someone who has conditions such as dementia, cardiovascular disease, or major depression, this situation can be worse with loneliness.

Recognition of social connection

Global phantomy we have seen the amplified version of loneliness at the global scale nandaless this time also open the gate for discussion of the topic of loneliness. Many people experience the first-hand effect of what happens behind the curtain if social isolation takes over on you. Now, the increase and recognition of social connection and vitality have played a role in human life by making your mental and physical health much more reliable.

Moreover,we have seen a discourse by the patient, the health care provider, and the journal public acknowledging that addressing loneliness is systemically quite important, and we need more and more effort towards it.

The EAR framework.

Practical solution provided by Dr. Juliana, which is called the EAR framework. E stands for educate, A stands for assess, and R stands for respond, which is given to clinical settings.

The first step should be that doctors and healthcare experts should inform patients that they should get involved in significant social connections for their well-being. Just as many doctors discuss lifestyle factors and risks, such as how to have a better diet and stop smoking and drinking, they can also mention loneliness.

Secondly, healthcare providers should assess patients‘ social health. Sometimes there is research that highlights that loneliness is not always visible. You have to assess whether there is isolation, social support, and delve into a clinical assessment. Use some tools and records like Epic.

Alternatively, if you have highlighted and the healthcare experts have understood, they can respond according to the situation. They can utilize social prescribing, a practice where they encourage a patient to participate in some type of social engagement and social activities to manage their health.

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