I now know why I gained more than 13 kilograms in my early 20s: I was lonely.
I had left for school and a job in the Upper Midwest and I knew no one.
I filled my lonely nights and days with food, especially candy, cookies and ice cream.
I could not rein in my eating until I returned to New York
and my family, and began dating my future husband.
Loneliness, says John T. Cacioppo, an award-winning psychologist at the University ofChicago,
undermines people's ability to self-regulate.
In one experiment he cites, participantsmade to feel socially disconnected
ate many more cookies than those made to feel socially accepted.
In a real-life study of middle-aged and older adults in the Chicago area,
Dr. Cacioppo andcolleagues found that those who scored high on the University of California,
Los Angeles, Loneliness Scale, a widely used assessment,
ate more fatty foods than those who scored low.
"Is it any wonder that we turn to ice cream or other fatty foods
when we're sitting at homefeeling all alone in the world?"
Dr. Cacioppo said in his well-documented book,
"Loneliness,"written with William Patrick.
He said lonely individuals tend to do whatever they can to make themselves feel better,
if onlyfor the moment.
They may overeat, drink too much, smoke, speed or engage in indiscriminate sex.
A review of research published in 1988 found that "social isolation
is on a par with high bloodpressure, obesity, lack of exercise or smoking
as a risk factor for illness and early death," Dr.Cacioppo wrote.
Even without the presence of unwholesome behaviors,
Dr. Cacioppo and others have shown that loneliness can impair health
by raising levels of stress hormones and increasinginflammation.
The damage can be widespread, affecting every bodily system and brain function.
Lisa Jaremka of Ohio State University reported in January that people who are lonely
have higher levels of antibodies to certain herpes viruses,
indicating more activated viruses in their systems.
In another study, she found higher levels of inflammation-inducing substances
in the blood of lonely people.
Chronic inflammation has been linked to heart disease, arthritis,
Type 2 diabetes, and evensuicide attempts, Dr. Jaremka noted.
Loneliness has also been linked to cognitive decline.
A Dutch study published last year in The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
found that participants who reported feeling lonely
were more likely to develop dementia than those who lived on their own but were not lonely.
The Dutch study suggests that how people perceive their situation
may have a stronger impacton health than whether they live alone
and lack social connections.
Divorced people have reported feeling lonelier in a bad marriage than they do being single.
And people who live alone may still have a large network of friends and family
that helps to keep loneliness at bay.
People are fundamentally social beings
who require meaningful connections with others
to maximize health and well-being.
Dr. Cacioppo suggests reaching out to others with "random acts of kindness":
doing something that helps them physically or emotionally,
may be something as simple as complimenting a stranger's outfit
or helping an old person cross the street.
"What's required," he wrote, "is to step outside the pain of our own situation
long enough to'feed' others.
Real change begins with doing."
