How Loneliness Can Impact a Person's Health and Wellbeing

Unmasking the hidden epidemic of isolation in the U.S. Learn how loneliness can impact your health and how to combat it.

By Elizabeth Svoboda
Dec 8, 2023 9:00 PM
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(Credit: WoodenheadWorld/E+ VIA Getty Images)

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The standard public health threats are all-too familiar: Smoking. High blood pressure. Cancer. More recently, COVID-19. But a new government advisory made headlines in 2023 by adding an unexpected major player to that list. Loneliness, stated the report from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, is a widely underrecognized U.S. health crisis.

In recent years, about 50 percent of Americans have experienced loneliness, which comes with a hefty dose of adverse effects. Lonely people, as Murthy’s report warns, run the same mortality risk as people who smoke 15 cigarettes a day.

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