According to newly presented research, social contact and regular exercise are fundamental to aging well and living a longer life.
Dr John Cacioppo, psychology professor at the University of Chicago says that something known to be true that feeling extremely lonely can increase an older person's chances of premature death by 14 per cent, an impact nearly as strong as that of a disadvantaged socioeconomic status.
Additionally, he emphasized that a meta-analysis of several studies published in 2010 showed that social isolation had twice the impact on the risk of death as obesity. Dr Cacioppo presented the findings during Sunday at an annual conference in Chicago of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
(AW:SB)
