Living alone ‘bad for the heart’
26 June 2012
Loneliness could well lead to poor health, according to
researchers who have found people who live on their own or lack a
close companion have a higher risk of heart
problems.
The discovery, which is published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, was made by two
separate teams - one in Boston and the other in San
Francisco.
The Boston team at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical
School, studied over 44,000 middle-aged people and found living
alone increased the risk of death from heart disease and stroke by nearly three per cent.
Similarly, the group from the University of California, who
studied 1,604 people who were aged 60 or older, found loneliness
took its toll on both health and lifespan.
An explanation might be that people who do not have a close friend
or family member to talk to may ignore their own worsening health,
with grave consequences, say experts.
But living alone doesn't mean you need to cope alone. If you do
have worrying symptoms, you should see a doctor.
If you do have concerns about heart health, log in to our live web chat with Dr
Martin Bell on Wednesday 27 June, 2-5pm
Source © Trio Media 2012