31% Higher Risk of Dementia Linked to Loneliness!

31% Higher Risk of Dementia Linked to Loneliness!
31% Higher Risk of Dementia Linked to Loneliness!

United States: A new study shows that feeling lonely for a long time can hurt our brains and mental health as we age and ultimately increase the chances of getting dementia which is also called memory loss. This research basically funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, looked at how more than 600,000 people around the world reported their feelings of loneliness and how it affected their brain health.

The research established that loneliness increased the chance of any form of dementia by 31 percent for the individuals. Further, loneliness also increased the risk of developing loss of cognitive function by 15%.

As reported by HealthDay, In an interview Dr Páraic Ó Súilleabháin, a researcher at the University of Limerick in Ireland said, “These are very important findings and point out that loneliness is a critically important risk factor for development of dementia in the future.”

The study was published Oct. 9 in the Nature’s new open-access journal, Nature Mental Health.

In 2023 U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a report on loneliness and isolation in America, calling it a epidemic. The evidence on the implications of loneliness on health of body and mind is already out in the open.

“It is suggested longitudinally, cross-sectionally, as a risk factor and as a mediator-our laboratory has sought loneliness by asking ‘ ‘how does it matter for future health and in what ways’?” said Ó Súilleabháin, who directs the Personality, Individual Differences and Biobehavioral Health Laboratory at the Irish university.

“A weaker form of loneliness is very, very important for your cognition because loneliness causes, in the future, dementia, vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and more general cognitive dysfunction,” he said.

He referred to the new study as “a very important piece of research which will have far reaching consequences.”

The study was conducted at the College of Medicine, Florida State University, Tallahassee by the principal author Dr. Martina Luchetti.

Speaking in the University of Limerick news release, she said there’s one silver lining from the study: Actually, loneliness is one of the modifiable risk factors.

‘Cognitive symptoms can vary depending on the types or sources of loneliness, and these can be present at any stage of dementia,’ Luchetti added. It may therefore be possible for counteracting loneliness, or for creating a sense of connectedness, to have a protective effect on cognitive health in later life.”