How social isolation changes the brain - Inverse

As scholars at the Center for Healthy Aging at Penn State, we study the impact of stress on the aging body and brain, including how it can worsen cognitive decline and risk for dementia.

The health consequences of loneliness — The Covid-19 pandemic has put many older adults’ social lives on hold, leaving them at greater risk for loneliness.

Loneliness affects between 19% and 43% of adults ages 60 and older, and many adults ages 50 and over are at risk of poor health from prolonged loneliness.

Research has shown that prolonged loneliness is associated with increased risk for premature death, similar to smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity.

Other health consequences are also associated with loneliness, including elevated risk for heart disease and stroke, and it is associated with increased physician visits and emergency room visits.

In fact, loneliness has an influence similar to other more well-established dementia risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, physical inactivity and hearing loss.

In healthy older people, loneliness is related to a stress hormone pattern similar to that of people who are under chronic stress.

Social activity can buffer against the decline — Maintaining high quality relationships may be a key for protecting brain health from the negative impacts of loneliness.

One reason for these benefits to brain health is that maintaining strong social ties and cultivating satisfying relationships may help people to cope better with stress; people who feel better able to cope with difficulties or bounce back after a stressful event show less buildup of tau protein in their brains.

This is good news because, with the importance of social distancing for controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, how people manage their feelings and relationships is likely more important for brain health than the fact that they are spending time physically apart.