We all know that loneliness is bad for your mental health, but you may not know it, but it can also be very harmful to your physical health. Loneliness creates a chronic, persistent state of distress that may activate the body’s physiological stress response, and a growing body of research points to a link between psychological stress and an individual’s risk of developing diabetes.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects more than 460 million people worldwide. With changes in living and eating habits, diabetes has become the third largest factor affecting human health after cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and malignant tumors. In China, there are more than 114 million adults with diabetes, accounting for one quarter of the world’s diabetes patients.
Recently, researchers from Norway’s Western University of Applied Sciences published a study titled “Loneliness increases in the journal Diabetology” The risk of type 2 diabetes: a 20 year follow-up-results from the HUNT study” research paper.
This study shows that loneliness increases a person’s risk of developing diabetes, with people who feel very lonely double the risk of diabetes compared to people who don’t feel lonely.
In this study, researchers analyzed 24,024 participants in the Norwegian HUNT Health Research Database, collecting participants’ loneliness through questionnaires: no, A little, a lot and a lot. Diabetic status was determined by measuring participants’ glycated hemoglobin. The association between loneliness and the incidence of type 2 diabetes was assessed.
In addition, the researchers analyzed the effects of depression and insomnia on diabetes.
During 20 years of follow-up, 1179 (4.9%) participants developed type 2 diabetes. 12.6% of participants reported varying degrees of loneliness.
Study found that people who felt the most lonely had a 219% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to people who did not feel lonely, doubling the risk.
Higher loneliness is associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes
Further analysis found that the relationship was not altered by the presence of depression or insomnia, although the researchers found evidence of a weak relationship with insomnia.
The exact mechanism has not been identified, but the response may play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes through mechanisms such as insulin resistance caused by elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, the researchers say core role.
Potential mechanisms of the relationship between loneliness and type 2 diabetes
Editor | Alaska Treasure