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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> "I was surprised by the magnitude of the effect," said Richard Suzman, associate director of Behavioral and Social Research at the U.S. National Institute on Aging, which helped fund the study.
Hawkley agreed, noting that the effect of loneliness on blood pressure in older individuals is similar to that of physical risk factors long targeted by physicians, such as obesity or sedentary lifestyles.
Hawkley and Suzman were also surprised by the "specificity" of the findings -- that it was loneliness, per se, and not attendant states such as depression or anger, that appeared to be responsible for the boost in blood pressure.
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And what about stress?
"Lonely people are stressed, we know that," Hawkley said. However, her team found that stress boosted blood pressure in a way that was distinct from loneliness.
"Its effect was additive," Hawkley noted. "So, that means that people who are lonely have a double whammy -- they are feeling the stress and they are lonely," both of which send blood pressure skyward, she said.
If loneliness can raise blood pressure, then the solution seems easy: strengthen existing relationships and make new ones. But Hawkley -- who has studied loneliness for years -- said it's usually not that simple.
"Remember, people can feel lonely even if they are with a lot of people," she said. "You can think of Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana -- there was certainly nothing lacking in their social lives, yet they claimed to have felt intensely lonely."
Chronically lonely people also tend to have conflicted emotions when it comes to reaching out to others, Hawkley said.
"They may want to go out and make friends, and yet they have a nagging lack of trust with whomever they want to interact with, or they may feel hostile. So they end up behaving in ways that force the potential partner away," she added.
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