Science Confirms: Side Effects of Social Isolation

The Imperial College Covid 19 Response Team and other health officials are suggesting that population-wide social distancing and isolation may need to continue until a vaccine is available, which could take 18 months or longer. This strategy aims to reduce burden on the medical system, overall cases, and deaths.

However, the impact of social isolation on death rates and health outcomes has not been evaluated. 

Based on recent data, the overall death rate from Covid 19 has been estimated at 0.66%. The majority of deaths are in those 80 years and older or with a comorbidity such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, hypertension, or cancer.

BUT WHAT ABOUT DEATH AND DISEASE FROM SOCIAL ISOLATION?

A review from The Institute for Mind and Biology concludes that “Social isolation predicts morbidity and mortality from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and a host of other causes”. 

A meta analysis by BYU Scholars Archive cumulated data from 70 independent studies, with 3 million participants followed for an average of 7 years. After accounting for multiple covariates, the increased likelihood of death was 26% for reported loneliness, 29% for social isolation, and 32% for living alone. 

The American Journal of Epidemiology looked at data over a 30 year period and found that socially isolated black men and women had more than a 2-fold (100%) higher risk of death from all causes, and white men and women had 60% and 84% higher risk, respectively.

Other studies have looked at the health risks associated with social isolation, and found that young people show an extraordinary high prevalence of depressive disorders, at 48%. For other age groups, the risk for poor health outcomes varied between 13% and 30%.

Yet another research review found that loneliness and social isolation increase the risk of heart disease and stroke by 29% and 32% respectively.

THESE ARE BIG NUMBERS that must be taken into the risk vs benefit analysis of nationwide lockdown strategies. 

Steve Cole, Ph.D., director of the Social Genomics Core Laboratory at the University of California, says “Loneliness acts as a fertilizer for other diseases. The biology of loneliness can accelerate the buildup of plaque in arteries, help cancer cells grow and spread, and promote inflammation in the brain leading to Alzheimer’s disease. Loneliness promotes several different types of wear and tear on the body.”

His research shows that social isolation up-regulates the inflammatory response (via stress) and down-regulates antiviral response (our defense against viruses), contributing to increased health risks and susceptibility to infection. 

Social isolation and excessive hygiene also reduce our exposure to beneficial microbes, which play an important role in health. Low microbial diversity has been reproducibly observed in people with inflammatory bowel disease, psoriatic arthritis, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, eczema, coeliac disease, obesity, and arterial stiffness. 

These reports don’t even touch on the rise in alcoholism, domestic violence, childhood abuse, financial stress, business closures, divorce, or other serious consequences that isolation imposes. 

For example, a meta analysis by Social Science and Medicine included 20 million participants and found that the risk of death among those who experienced unemployment was 63% higher than those who did not. CNBC reported 47 million jobs could be lost due to Covid 19 in the US alone.

Terri Kupers, a medical doctor and psychiatrist who studies the effects of isolation in prisons, concludes that “isolated confinement is likely to cause psychiatric symptoms such as severe anxiety, depression and aggression in relatively healthy prisoners, and cause psychotic breakdowns, severe affective disorders and suicide crises in prisoners who have histories of serious mental illness or are prone to mental illness.” This was found in both long term (more than 3 months) and short term confinement situations.

Social isolation will indeed save lives. But at what cost?

How long are we willing to 

• Keep children away from other children
• Increase depression and other mental conditions
• Increase disease across all age groups
• Increase death rates caused by loneliness and isolation 
• Increase domestic violence and childhood abuse
• Increase poverty, food insecurity, divorce, business closures
• Increase death from unemployment 

A review posted in the journal Cell concludes that “coronaviruses clearly have the capacity to jump species boundaries and adapt to new hosts, making it straightforward to predict that more will emerge in the future.” 

CDC reports show that the average effectiveness of influenza vaccines is below 50%. In addition, the FDA has never approved a vaccine for humans that is effective against any member of the coronavirus family, including SARS, MERS, or several others that cause the common cold.

There is no current evidence that a vaccine will fix this. 

So we need to consider some important questions:

What can we do now to reduce the risks of social isolation on our health?

If a vaccine fails to be effective, what other measures can we take to reduce Covid 19 complications and deaths?

What can we do in the longterm to mitigate Covid 19 and future viruses, WITHOUT the negative  impact of social isolation?

SOME OPTIONS:

• Address feelings of depression and loneliness
• Seek out support through online or telehealth services
• Reduce stress and inflammation through diet and lifestyle strategies 
• Address risk factors like CVD, diabetes, respiratory diseases, hypertension, cancer
• A review by the Journal of Medical Virology states that “to fulfill the pressing need, we should propose effective therapeutic measures using the accumulated knowledge of the innate immune response system”.  

Sweden avoided lockdown since the beginning, allowing businesses and primary schools to remain open, and advising the public to implement strategic measures. 

The outcome? Our World In Data has been tracking Covid 19 daily for all countries, and shows that Sweden is flattening the curve alongside everybody else. (See HERE for a more details and graphs) 

The bottom line is: we need more testing in order to determine exactly how fatal Covid 19 is, and compare those numbers to the risk of lockdown and isolation. 

And we need to consider: do we want a perpetual state of lockdown? Do we want to return to this strategy each time a pandemic occurs? Are we really saving more lives than lockdown puts at risk?

It’s the best moment to take your health into your own hands. Support your immune system and reduce inflammation, improve your overall health, get support in this time of need, and address feelings of depression and loneliness by scheduling a call. On special for a limited time.