Isolation Is Not Good for You. So Make a Friend. Or Reconnect With an Old Friend.  Serve.

Being socially isolated is just as bad for your stress levels as smoking researchers claim.  (Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)

by Paul Gallagher

Having a small social network is as bad for your health as smoking, according to a new study. Researchers from Yale University showed that a person’s position in the social network is associated with blood markers of stress. They discovered that the more people who would call you a friend the lower the levels of fibrinogen, a predictor of heart attack and stroke, in your blood. However, reeling off a long list of those we consider friends does not have the same effect. The number of friends and relatives named by an individual, reflecting the perceived social network, is only weakly related to fibrinogen levels. The association between social isolation and fibrinogen is comparable to the effect of smoking, and greater than that of low education, a conventional measure of socioeconomic disadvantage, the scientists said. What matters is how others see us, not how we see them. Biggest health risks Ischaemic heart disease, also known as coronary heart disease, and stroke are the biggest health risks of social isolation and thes conditions are also the two leading causes of death worldwide.  

Keep reading . . .   You will have to be your own judge on this.  I do know that not knowing anybody hurts.  I know that being homeless or the feeling of homelessness is stressful.  No doubt.  But if you're tied into people, even on the periphery or even online helps.  We often overestimate the number and the quality of our friendships and as do our friends do about us.  And then there is production.  What about production?  We have to produce and create things of value in order to feel, well, valuable and to have a meaningful life.  And, of course, what people can do is up to them.  I drove a truck and ran deliveries with sometimes 50 to 100 miles between stops in the mountain towns of Colorado. That drive can be lonely.  Sitting for long periods with my legs bent at the knees for an hour or more can be stressful.  In fact, it was stressful.  It is why I left that position for more mobile work.  Yet, the folks in the mountain towns relied on me.  They needed their equipment, particularly if they ordered it before the snow storm and could only have it delivered weeks after the storm ended.