Genes Get Lonely Too

[Guest guest]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com:80/id/20762868/site/newsweek/page/0/

 

Sept. 13, 2007 - We all know about heartache. For some, feeling alone can be

physically painful. And a strong body of recent research has established that

it's not just in our minds. Chronic social isolation is linked to heart

disease-it stresses the entire cardiovascular system-and can also hurt our

ability to fend off colds and other viruses. But the cause of those connections

has been unclear. Is it that lonely people have fewer social resources, meaning

no one to rely on when they fall ill, or can the sensation of loneliness change

their biology?

 

A study out this week suggests that it's the latter: loneliness actually changes

how the body functions at a molecular level. The research links feelings of

social isolation to an alteration in the activity of specific genes-ones that

put lonely people at higher risk for serious disease. And the study, published

in the current issue of Genome Biology, also points to the startling fact that

it is the perception of loneliness that triggers the adverse health conditions,

independent of how much social interaction an individual actually has. Even

someone with hundreds of " friends " on Facebook or at the office might think of

herself as a lonely person.

 

So how can feeling lonely translate into poor health? Researchers believe that

chronic social isolation sets off a biological chain reaction that causes normal

immune responses to malfunction. It starts with the lonely individual's outlook

on the world, in which, typically, other people are perceived as threatening.

This makes social interactions-going to a party, for example-more stressful.

" Chronically lonely people have a subjective theory of the world that says that

people can't be trusted, " says Steven Cole, assistant professor at the UCLA

School of Medicine and the study's lead author. " It's not that they're hostile;

they just perceive the world as somewhat more threatening. "

 

That perception cues the body to produce a stress hormone called cortisol. In a

healthy immune system, cortisol tells a group of genes to shut down the body's

inflammatory response. But in a person who's chronically stressed or anxious due

to loneliness, that process is altered. Here's how it works: for most people a

low level of inflammation is normal; it means the body is performing general

maintenance and responding to minor, sometimes unnoticeable threats. However,

high levels of inflammation are worrisome. In autoimmune diseases, for example,

the body attacks its own tissues and causes an increase in inflammation.

Inflammation is also linked to a number of serious health risks, including

cancer. Cole and his colleagues found that lonely individuals consistently had

higher levels of inflammation even though they were producing a slightly higher

level of cortisol-the hormone that should be shutting down the inflammatory

response. The receptors, Cole says, were not responding properly, probably

because they were receiving a constant stream of cortisol. " If you send a signal

to a receptor all day long it will stop listening, " says Cole. " Essentially,

it's like the immune system saying that cortisol is crying wolf. "

 

That accounts for the higher levels of inflammation the researchers observed in

chronically lonely individuals. But they also found other faulty immune

responses: lonely people produced fewer antibodies, which the body uses to tag

pathogens, like bacteria and viruses. They also had a lower antiviral response;

a group of genes involved in fighting viruses were not expressing themselves as

much. " The risky parts of the immune system are going too hard, and the

health-protective parts are not going hard enough, " says Cole.

 

Interestingly, what causes that imbalance isn't how many pals an individual has

or the number of social interactions. Rather, the loneliness that leads to these

adverse health conditions is tied to how individuals perceive their social

situations. " Loneliness is inherently subjective, " says Steven Asher, a

psychology professor at Duke University who was not affiliated with the study.

Asher has spent decades studying friendship and loneliness and says that an

individual's level of social interaction does not necessarily say anything about

his or her loneliness.

 

" You can measure how many friends they have, and whether they provide support,

but the only way you can know if somebody is lonely is to ask them, " says Asher.

He has observed individuals with many friends who will report being lonely and,

on the opposite side, those with few friends who do not. And, like Cole, Asher

has found that lonely individuals tend to have a distinctly different outlook on

social interactions. " We find that people who are lonely are more socially

anxious, " Asher says. " They're definitely feeling more stress and more anxiety. "

 

So what should lonely guys and gals do if they're worried about their health?

Harvard Medical School experts suggest talk therapy. For those who want to

tackle the loneliness head on, helping others can be a fantastic way to make

essential social connections. Tutoring in a subject you know at a local school

or any kind of volunteer work can provide all-around benefits and bring you

close to people of like mind. Even just one new but meaningful contact can make

all the difference. And to manage creeping stress, you can take some basic

relaxation measures like meditation or paced breathing.