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Loneliness increases risk of hypertension: Study

In addition to obesity and lack of exercise, a recent study has found that loneliness also poses a potential risk factor for hypertension. 

The new research, conducted by scientists at the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, shows that loneliness can add 30 points to a blood pressure reading for adults over the age of 50.

The researchers found that lonely older people had blood pressure readings that were as much as 30 points higher than others -- even after other negative emotive states, like sadness, stress or hostility, were taken into account.

A 30-point spread in blood pressure is equal to the difference between a normal diastolic pressure of 120 mm/Hg and stage 1 hypertension, measured at 150 mm/Hg, the researchers pointed out.

What`s more, the effect of loneliness in increasing hypertension appeared to get stronger with age, and the effect of loneliness on blood pressure in older individuals is similar to that of physical risk factors long targeted by physicians, such as obesity or sedentary lifestyles. the team found. 

"The take-home message is that feelings of loneliness are a health risk, in that the lonelier you are, the higher your blood pressure. And we know that high blood pressure has all kinds of negative consequences," said lead researcher Louise Hawkley, whose team published its findings in the April issue of Psychology and Aging.

Hawkley`s study was inspired by previous work, published in 2002, that discovered profound and lingering effects of loneliness on the blood pressure of undergraduate college students.

In this latest study, Hawkley`s group interviewed 229 people aged 50 to 68 years of age. They used standard questionnaires to determine each participant`s perceived level of loneliness, as well as other psychosocial and cardiovascular risk factors.

If loneliness can raise blood pressure, then the solution seems easy: strengthen existing relationships and make new ones. But Hawkley -- who has studied loneliness for years -- said it`s usually not that simple.

"Remember, people can feel lonely even if they are with a lot of people," she said. "You can think of Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana -- there was certainly nothing lacking in their social lives, yet they claimed to have felt intensely lonely."

"They may want to go out and make friends, and yet they have a nagging lack of trust with whomever they want to interact with, or they may feel hostile. So they end up behaving in ways that force the potential partner away," Hawkley said.    

Targeted interventions that break that cycle might help change things, she said.