And you can get rid of social isolation with the help of weight loss.
“Loneliness is the lot of the strong. The weak always cling to the crowd! - used to say the German writer Jean Paul, a sentimentalist, somewhat romanticizing singles. However, a group of physicians at the University of Cambridge (UK) led by John Perry decided to find out what really leads people to loneliness.
“In the UK, one in four people over the age of 65 experiences a sense of social isolation,” the researchers say. - This is partly due to life circumstances or previous personal experience. But it turned out that this is not the only problem. The penchant for a secluded lifestyle is inherent in us genetically.
Scientists from Cambridge studied the UK Biobank database. It contains DNA samples and detailed medical records of about half a million inhabitants of Foggy Albion. Perry and colleagues analyzed the genetic information of a total of 452,302 people. The DNA structure of people who indicated a high level of social isolation in the questionnaires was compared with the DNA of those who did not complain about the lack of contact with the outside world. A lonely person was considered if he lived alone at home, and friends and relatives dropped in to visit him less often than once a week.
The researchers found 15 genetic variations that were common to single people. The most paradoxical is that the location of the "loneliness genes" on the chromosome coincided with the geography of the genes that were responsible for the tendency of people to be overweight! Thus, it turned out that loneliness and excess weight are closely related to each other.
“Human behavior and health are determined by the complex interaction of genes and the environment,” says John Perry. - Heritability from parents of such a trait as a tendency to loneliness can be estimated at 4-5 percent. But it is amazing that with one shot we can kill two birds with one stone: by stimulating people to lose excess weight, thereby fighting the epidemic of loneliness!
In the meantime, loneliness is known to shorten life expectancy. The “detachment from the team” in terms of the detrimental effect on health is comparable to smoking and exceeds such recognized factors of increased mortality as physical inactivity and obesity.
In addition to the loneliness gene, scientists have made a number of other discoveries. So, studying the degree of involvement of single people in social interaction, doctors found that there are sections of the genetic code that encourage us to regularly visit the pub (the probability of inheritance is 4%), the gym (3.4%) and the church (4.6%).
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The question arises: is it worth trying to change your destiny if our habits are encoded in genes? However, the influence of genetic predisposition in all cases does not exceed 5 percent. To a much greater extent, our behavior is determined by other factors: this is the environment in which we live, the influence of authoritative people and willpower, finally! Thus, we are still the masters of our own destiny. And attempts to justify their inaction with the "heavy legacy of the past" are just pathetic excuses.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV