Loneliness Kills
Loneliness stinks. But did you know it's as bad as obesity, high blood pressure, lack of exercise or smoking when it comes to illness and early death, Jane Brody reports today in The New York Times. Brody quotes a doctor who has studied this, John T. Cacioppo , an award-winning psychologist at the University of Chicago, who says loneliness is so detrimental and harmful because it "undermines people’s ability to self-regulate." In one study done in Chicago, people who scored high on a test to determine loneliness ate far more fatty foods than people whose score was lower. In another study, people made to feel disconnected from others ate many more cookies than those who felt more connected. Cacioppo told Brody that lonely people will do whatever they can to make themselves feel better -- eat, smoke, drink, (in my case) shop, even have indiscriminate sex -- all to get rid of that clammy, awful feeling. Loneliness can also hurt us by increasing stress hormone...