Lonely people are more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease

More than a quarter of Dutch adults sometimes feel lonely. Loneliness not only makes you unhappy, it is also harmful to your health. It has previously been linked to an increased risk of dementia, but for the first time a link has been found with Parkinson’s disease.

Loneliness is not about the amount of social contact you have, but how you feel about it. You can define it as a negative feeling that arises from the discrepancy between the amount of social contact you want and the amount of contact you have. Lonely people are more likely to live unhealthy lives and get sick more often. This is partly because they suffer more from depression, exercise less, and are more likely to develop other health problems, such as diabetes.

More and more Parkinson’s disease
Loneliness increases the risk of all types of diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and dementia. This is largely due to the unhealthy lifestyle of lonely people. But now a link with Parkinson’s disease has been found. This is interesting, because the number of people with Parkinson’s disease is increasing rapidly. In fact, this condition is now the second most common neurodegenerative disease. In 2021, it is estimated that more than 6,000 people will be diagnosed in the Netherlands, two-thirds of whom are men. In all, nearly 53,000 people lived with the condition that year, which goes beyond just shaking hands. Parkinson’s patients also suffer from fatigue, difficulty speaking, depression, cognitive decline, and gastrointestinal problems. The causes are largely unknown, although there is an increasing link between exposure to pesticides in people who work in agriculture or horticulture, for example.

The only Brits
There now appears to be a connection to unity. To this conclusion Researchers came from Florida State University After analyzing data from the well-known British Biobank. says researcher Antonio Terracciano Scientias.nl“Between 2006 and 2010, the UK Biobank asked 500,000 UK adults to answer questions about health and lifestyle, including feelings of loneliness. In addition, we used data on dementia diagnoses from the UK National Health Service. For example, regarding loneliness, British adults had to answer the question: “Have you ever felt lonely?” and the answer was “yes” or “no.” So there was no scale of 1 to 5, for example. He followed the participants for fifteen years. The analysis yielded shocking results. “Compared with people who did not call themselves lonely, lonely participants were 37 percent more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease,” says Terracciano.

The researchers tried to correct for other factors as much as possible, such as age, gender and genetic risk, but also physical activity, depression and diabetes. “After correction, it turned out that lonely people were still 25% more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease,” the researcher said. This increased risk was the same for all ages and genders. It is unclear whether loneliness also has an effect on the severity or course of the disease.

Social isolation versus loneliness
Interestingly, there is a difference between social isolation and loneliness. Social isolation is actually more objective: it’s about how often you see people, while loneliness is more of a feeling: no matter how many people you see, you can still feel lonely. Surprisingly, it turns out that there is a link between loneliness and Parkinson’s disease. “The surprising finding was that social isolation was not associated with the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Social isolation is measured as a combination of living alone, the number of visits from family and friends, and the number of social activities a person engages in. The researcher concludes that while loneliness is an important predictor For Parkinson’s disease, social isolation, or a small social network, doesn’t seem to be the case at all.

This is special. You expect the amount of socializing to be more important than how you feel about it. It must be said that it is not clear what is the cause and what is the effect. No matter how successful attempts are to correct as many factors as possible, it is still possible for people who feel lonely to have other complaints that increase their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.