Nothere is only the epidemic caused by viruses and bacteria to raise the risk of premature death. In the age we live in, there is another equally serious one which is becoming alarming: it is the epidemic of loneliness.
Loneliness Epidemic: The Modern Evil
We still don’t talk much about it because it’s a silent phenomenon, which leaves us on the sidelines and of which we are often ashamed. But the stories of deceased people in your own home without anyone noticingare unfortunately a very sad reality, here as in many other Western societies today.
The alarm from the United States
someone, however, wanted to raise a cry of alarm and it has done so where the phenomenon is growing dramatically. Vivek Murthy“Surgeon general of the United States”, or the highest US health authority, stated that “half of American adults are already affected”.
Loneliness is a problem of modern societies especially western ones. It should not be neglected because the consequences can be dramatic. (Getty Images)
The epidemic of loneliness is bad for the body
And how this is extremely worrying given that, as demonstrated by the scientific discoveries of recent years, being isolated has not only psychological consequencesbut it also has it directly on the body who is in this condition.
The topic is very dear to Murthy, so much so that he would like the Biden administration to put more effort into creating plans to better support the mental health emergency. In a relationship of about eighty Murthy pages tells what is going on.
Half of Americans affected
In other words, that about half of adult Americans live in the psychic condition that he denounces and that in the last 60 years single-person households have almost doubled. Not to mention the “insulating” effects of Covid 19 pandemic, which has forced millions of Americans into isolation.
“We know – said Murthy – that loneliness is a feeling common to many people. It’s like hunger or thirst. It is a sensation that the body sends us when something we need for survival goes missing. Millions of Americans struggle in the shadows. It’s not right.”
Risk of premature death
But the alarm for Murthy must also be sounded because research shows that loneliness and isolation trigger multiple physical health problems: insomnia, immune alterations, cardiac pathologies, food, anxiety, depression, alcohol and substance addictions. So much so that some experts estimate that the risk of premature death may increase by 30%.
We need to do more
Murthy knows perfectly well that it would take radical actions and political, economic and social visions and large allocations of funds to deal with the problem, but he also knows that at the moment none of this is on the horizon. And so he is content at least with sensitize citizens and to perhaps make the people to whom it refers feel a little less alone.
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