Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, in a Sunday interview, warned about the adverse effects of chronic loneliness, which could lead to a shorter lifespan.
Murthy, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” told host Kristen Welker that struggling with loneliness and isolation increases the risks of depression, anxiety and suicide, along with the risk of heart disease, stroke and dementia in older adults.
“The overall mortality increase that can be related to social disconnection is comparable to the mortality impact of smoking and obesity,” he said. “That’s how powerful and how important loneliness is.”
Welker noted that Murthy, in his 2020 book “Together,” found that chronic loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
“Well, it turns out that our connection with one another, this is not just a nice thing to have, it’s biologically an imperative for us,” he said. “It’s something we need for survival, just like we need food and water.”
Murthy added that being deprived of social connection can put the human body into a stress state that can cause increased inflammation, which can then increase the risk for heart disease and other conditions that ultimately shorten people’s lives.
He also said he was worried about the impact that technology is having on young people’s social connections.
“We tend to think, ‘Oh. Kids are on social media. That’s great because they’re connected to one another.’ But, no, we have to recognize there’s a difference between the connections you have online and the connections you have in person,” Murthy said.
“And as more relationships are shifted online, we’re realizing that, number one, more kids are struggling with this intense culture of self-comparison online, which is shredding their self-esteem. A lot of them are trying to be somebody that they’re not online. And they actually don’t have as many friendships in person as we all need. So you put this all together and what you see is escalating loneliness and isolation,” he added.
Recently, a Gallup study found that young American men are lonelier than their counterparts in other nations.
According to the study, 1 in 4 U.S. men under age 35 reported feeling lonely. Overall, 25 percent of men in the U.S. said they experienced bouts of loneliness the day before completing the survey.
