Just What I Needed To Hear…
I just have to face it…I’m doomed…
Loneliness Boosts Blood Pressure in Older Adults
TUESDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) — Loneliness has now joined obesity and lack of exercise as a potential risk factor for hypertension.
New research shows that loneliness can add 30 points to a blood pressure reading for adults over the age of 50.
The study’s results have surprised everyone involved.
"The take-home message is that feelings of loneliness are a health risk, in that the lonelier you are, the higher your blood pressure. And we know that high blood pressure has all kinds of negative consequences," said lead researcher Louise Hawkley, a research scientist at the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago.
Her team published its findings in the April issue of Psychology and Aging.
Thing is…my blood pressure is just fine. If anything it’s on the low side of just fine. But then, they always take my blood pressure reading after I’ve spent about a half hour to an hour quietly zoning out in the waiting room. I hate sitting around waiting, and when it’s an inevitable thing I’ll just stare off into space and zone out. It’s either that or climb the walls. When I finally get called in to see the doctor I’m actually in a very mellow state. But that’s not typically me.
I had a long AIM conversation with a certain someone a few weeks ago…that might have been a good time to take my blood pressure reading…
March 29th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
I skimmed the story and chuckled. I may be more doomed than you: my ex and I exed in ’92. Nothing since. I’ve been busy with “life happens” kinds of things. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy it again…
Actually, my BP has recently become slightly higher than it used to be (always the low side of normal), but I know where that comes from: the job and the constant fight not to commit felonies at work.
March 29th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
A quick afterthought. I think there would be a difference between “aloners” who enjoy their own company, and those who MUST constantly have an other [sic].
March 29th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
I agree with the previous commenter; not everyone who spends a lot of time alone is necessarily lonely. I live alone (well, with two cats, so maybe that doesn’t count, since you’re never really alone when cats live with you :-). Anyway, my blood pressure is fine, but pets can actually lower it, I think. But then again, it was fine when I lived alone with no pets.
It seems like everyone is in some sort of bad health-risk category no matter what. I read in the paper the other day that parents have a greater risk of depression than non-parents; this is true whether the children are young or grown and moved away. So it seems like everyone is doomed, one way or another. Oh well. Kind of takes the pressure off.
March 29th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
Of course, I’m also under 50–so we’ll see how I do if I’m still living alone then (I missed the 50 and over part in my first reading of this).
March 29th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
I think there would be a difference between “aloners†who enjoy their own company, and those who MUST constantly have an other…
I think you’re right. I was an only child. My brother in California is actually my half brother, and we did not grow up together (my one major life regret actually, because he and I get along so well). Always had my own room, and generally just grew up used to having my own private space, and keeping my own company on rainy days. I actually need that private space, maybe more then others. I don’t think I’d ever get used to Not having my own private space. It’d feel suffocating.
I’ve wondered a lot if this isn’t partly why I’m still so damn single too, because the guys I tend to fall for tend to be from rather large families for some strange reason…usually the middle sibling, and I wonder if my sense of what companionship is, isn’t skewed all wrong for that kind of person. I had a cat once who absolutely hated being in someone’s lap. You put him in yours at your peril. But he would sit next to you and purr contentedly. Mom, who was the youngest of three, just didn’t understand that cat. But he and I got along perfectly. Make no mistake…I wanted a lap cat. But once I recognized what contentment was to him, then I was content too. He didn’t have to be a lap cat. I wonder now if some guys I’ve dated didn’t mistake that ‘letting you have your own space’ thing for indifference. See…to me that’s affection.
But…anyway…nowadays I just don’t have any company most of the time in my life at all, except when I’m at work. Once I moved up here to Baltimore, my life became very isolated. That can’t be good either. But no, it doesn’t really seem to have affected my blood pressure. Solitude probably doesn’t physically stress out onlies and people who actually do just fine keeping their own company like it does people who can’t.
And…actually…I do socialize a lot on the Internet. I wonder if they even took that into account when they did their study…?
March 29th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
It seems like everyone is in some sort of bad health-risk category no matter what.
Yeah…that was why I was trying to be a little ironic there. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Life seems to be an unhealthy activity.
I’m struggling with the over-fifty part now…but I’m really not sure if it’s because I’m still single or because I’m overdue on this mid-life crisis thing everyone is suppose to have. I think I’m supposed to go buy an expensive motorcycle, grow a beard change careers and get a trophy wife now or something. Except I’m gay, so that won’t work. And they’ll have to drag me out of the Institute because I’m not leaving Hubble…
March 30th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
I’m surprised you don’t take a book or a sketchpad when you know you have to wait. The last time I went to a doctor’s office without a book, I ended up having to watch 20 minutes of Dr. Phil. ::shudder::
March 30th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
I should, try harder to relax that way. But I stop listening for my name being called and get my head concentrating on something else and swear to god there’s a good chance I won’t even hear it. It’s easier to street sketch when I don’t have to be anywhere at any particular moment.
Waiting room TVs are about the worst thing. Particularly when someone’s got it turned up way loud.