Loneliness

In Beating the Dementia Monster, we discussed the role of social activity in fighting Alzheimer's disease.  Studies have found that, for whatever reason, lonely people decline faster than people with rich social lives.  It's not clear that lonely people are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, but the evidence is that one's capacity to oppose neurodegeneration, once it has begun, is impeded by loneliness.

In May, I posted about a friend with dementia who died in a senior living facility.  The lockdown had been in place for a couple of months, and he would have been very lonely.  His dementia was serious, but he still responded strongly to me when I visited him.  He was very much an extrovert, and we enjoyed time together -- I as much as he.

The Lancet is perhaps the oldest medical journal publishing peer-reviewed medical research.  In February 2018 they published some research on the physiological effects of loneliness -- "The Growing Problem of Loneliness."  The research found a 26% increase in the risk of premature death among lonely people, although they acknowledged difficulties in measuring who is lonely.  And it expressed alarm with how pervasive loneliness is becoming in our culture.

I was directed to the Lancet by an article in c|net regarding how loneliness affects us physiologically -- "How loneliness could be changing your brain and body."  The article explored several aspects of loneliness and the brain, including its relationship to Alzheimer's disease.  It's well known that sources of stress, such as loneliness, change the chemistry of the body, usually in negative ways.

According to the article, loneliness and the hormones it promotes do not appear to initiate events leading to the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's disease.  Nevertheless, chemistry changes resulting from loneliness can change which genes are "expressed," meaning which genes will be used to produce different proteins.  Some of the proteins promoted by the chemistry of loneliness may be involved in inflammation.  As we have said so often before, inflammation can encourage an existing case of Alzheimer's disease to proceed more rapidly.