Loneliness leaves women heartbroken

Posted on Mon, 8 Mar 10

Compared to men, women may be particularly susceptible to the effects of poor quality relationships. Whereas men have a lower heart disease simply because they are in a relationship, the quality of the relationship is much more important to the health of women. Feelings of loneliness have an important effect on health and, interestingly, are not determined by the amount of social interactions but their quality.

Feeling alone

Loneliness is the negative emotional experience of isolation, and is unrelated to how social you are. People who have regular social contact, live with a partner or have a large social circle can still experience loneliness. Loneliness is therefore a perceived deficiency in your social environment, and like many negative feelings, loneliness can have important health effects.

Broken hearted women

People who feel lonely have been shown to have important differences their nervous, immune and cardiovascular systems, which collectively may increase risk for heart disease over time (1). Independent of feelings of depression, loneliness has been associated with high blood pressure, poor immunity, poor sleep and increased risk of premature death. In a large study it was found that over a 19 year period, women who reported high feelings of loneliness had a greatly increased risk of heart disease, independent of factors such as exercise and smoking. There was no association for men, though men were much less likely to report feeling lonely (2).

Loneliness and the quality of social relationships plays an important role in the mind-body connection, and it seems the connection may be particularly important to women’s cardiovascular health.

References

1.Steptoe A, Owen N, Kunz-Ebrecht SR, Brydon L. Loneliness and neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and inflammatory stress responses in middle-aged men and women. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2004 Jun;29(5):593-611.

2. Thurston RC, Kubzansky LD. Women, loneliness, and incident coronary heart disease. Psychosom Med. 2009 Oct;71(8):836-42.