Although scientific and medical research is rapidly demonstrating a clear and direct connection between social wellness and its impact on emotional and physical health, the scientific community has yet to publish anything universally accepted as a definitive cause. Not being either a scientist of doctor I can venture where they cannot. I offer the following as a theory for your consideration.
I believe the reason we get sick as a result of social isolation is because we are social animals and that feeling isolated causes us to experience chronic stress. The symptoms of chronic stress and social isolation are identical. It is the stress, or rather the harmful hormones associates with stress, that makes us sick.
Scientific and medical researchers have investigated the question regarding why social isolation has such a negative impact on our mental and physical health, for many years. That it does have a negative impact on our mental and physical health is now generally accepted but not why it does. The question has been investigated by professionals in the fields of psychology, neurology, oncology, cardiology, and every other field of medicine and science you can imagine except the one which I believe provides the answer – zoology.
In every case scientists have investigated the problem as if the answer was to be found in the individual, despite the obvious paradox of this approach to a social issue. Professionals have poked and prodded countless individuals to try to find the answer without ever stepping back to see the bigger picture the way a zoologist would, looking at an animals entire ecosphere.
No researcher I am aware of has yet examined the detrimental effects of social isolation from the zoological perspective. Yet if a zoologist was called to a zoo to diagnose a health problem with one of the animals, what are the first few basic questions he or she is going to ask the zookeeper?
- Is their diet appropriate?
- Is their physical environment appropriate i.e. is it the right size, temperature, etc?
- Are their emotional needs being met i.e. are there things they like to do or need to have? Do they have the right living space?
- Are their social needs being met? Are there others of their own kind they can interact with?
Notice how doctors dealing with you may investigate various forms of the first three questions, but rarely the fourth.
Why would this disconnection from others have such an impact?
Social animals can be defined by two primary characteristics – they depend on each other to get food and to defend themselves. In other words, they depend on each other for their survival. Some predators, such as wolves or lions, use a coordinated attack. They cannot execute such an attack alone and thus alone cannot acquire food. Other social animals defend themselves from predators by grouping closely together and uniformly facing the threat or by using alarm calls. Social animals will defend their food resources as well as themselves and weaker animals in the group.
Social animals are evolved or designed in such a way that the survival of the individual depends on the other members of the group, whether that be a pod of whales, a pack of wolves, a pride of lions or a herd of elephants. They literally cannot survive alone.
Therefore individuals feeling cut off from their group will naturally be in a state of high anxiety. In physiological terms they are highly stressed, meaning specific physiological and emotional changes will be taking place.
These changes are made to happen when the hypothalamus, a small region of the brain that links the nervous systems to the endocrine system raises the alarm. The job of the hypothalamus is to maintain stasis, that is, the status quo, the normal function of the body. It’s like a thermostat. If things change too much, the hypothalamus directs the endocrine system to try to correct the situation. The endocrine system then produces biochemicals, or hormones, to affect the changes required.
One of the main hormones produced when the endocrine system tries to restore the bodies normal function is Cortisol. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone. It increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances the brain’s use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.
Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.
The complex alarm system also communicates with regions of the brain that control mood, motivation and fear.
Higher and more prolonged levels of stress, and therefore cortisol in the bloodstream, have been shown to have the following negative effects:
- Impaired cognitive performance
- Suppressed thyroid function
- Blood sugar imbalances
- Decreased bone density
- Decrease in muscle tissue
- Higher blood pressure
- Lowered immune system function
- Systemic inflammation
- Increased abdominal fat
Compare the above changes in the body due to the presence of cortisol as a result of long term stress with the symptoms I listed earlier common to social isolation:
- Generally decreased feeling of vitality, less energy and feeling tired more often.
- Greater likelihood of chronic illness such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.
- More frequent bouts of sickness, such as colds or flu, and longer recovery times.
- Longer recovery times from injury.
- Regular feelings of loneliness.
- Increased likelihood of depression.
- Decreased level of happiness and satisfaction with life in general.
- Shorter life spans
Social isolation causes chronic stress, which causes systemic inflammation, which causes severe, long term tissue damage and has a negative effect on emotional well being.
That is how social isolation makes us sick and shortens our lives.
