Canada Global (Web News) An American doctor says that loneliness is more dangerous than depression, inactivity and smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy this week joined the UN Commission on Social Communication, which aims to tackle global loneliness and the resulting high rates of stroke, anxiety, dementia, depression and suicide. The severity of isolation has increased over the years, but the situation has worsened during the Covid lockdown.
Two decades ago, Americans spent an hour a day with their friends, which is down to about 20 minutes in 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the problem extends beyond US borders. A study According to about one fourth of the elderly suffer from social isolation, while five to fifteen percent of the youth suffer from this problem.
Dr Vivek (who will co-chair the 11-member UN panel) said social isolation has health and social consequences, including a 30 per cent increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease. He said that we need to invest in social restructuring to solve this problem as we do for other global health problems like smoking, drug addiction.