Obesity has reached epidemic proportions worldwide, with at least 2.8 million people dying each year from obesity or being overweight . Ironically, even more people die of obesity than starvation .
However, these figures are not as high as another factor that still kills more people, although it is not even considered a pathology: loneliness .
The problem of loneliness
According to a study conducted by Brigham Young University in Utah, the two greatest threats to people’s survival, above obesity, is loneliness and social isolation. And it is that two meta-analyzes revealed that loneliness and social isolation can increase the risk of premature death by up to 50% . The first meta-analysis included more than 300,000 adults in 148 studies, while the second included 70 studies with more than 3.4 million adults. As Julianne Holt-Lunstad , leader of the work, explains:
There is strong evidence that social isolation and loneliness significantly increase the risk of premature mortality, and the magnitude of the risk exceeds that of many leading health indicators.
According to the expert, these results are particularly worrying given that the aging of the population is increasing. Image | My name is randy