Loneliness in old age is DEADLIER than smoking 15 cigarettes a day

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]There's a study that shook the medical community and it found that chronic loneliness in older adults is deadlier than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day and most adult children have no idea that their aging parent is experiencing it. The research comes from Brigham Young University and has been replicated dozens of times. A 2023 PNAS study of over 9,000 older adults found that people who reported loneliness at three or more life checkpoints had 288 excess deaths compared to those who didn't. But here's the part that should stop you from scrolling. UCSF researchers found 43% of surveyed older adults felt lonely, but only 18% lived alone. So I think loneliness isn't just about being alone. It's about being unseen. Which means this, your mom in an assisted living facility can have 200 neighbors and still be dying of loneliness in a crowd. Your dad who has lunch with his buddy once a week can still come home to a silence that is really shortening his life. So here's three things that can measure measurably help from the research. One, have a real conversation, even one real conversation a week. Not just how are you doing fine, love you, bye, but a real one, 15 minutes. Studies show this alone can significantly reduce mortality risk. Two, ask about the past, not the present. You know, things like, "Tell me how you met dad. What was your first job like?" Older adults report feeling lonely because nobody asked them to be themselves anymore. They're only asked about pills, doctor's appointments, and bathroom visits.

[00:01:27]Three, physical presence significantly beats phone calls. An in-person visit is worth five phone calls in terms of measured well-being. One study even found that handholding alone lowered cortisol for 24 hours thereafter. So, your presence is really medicine. Follow along for more and share with a sibling out there who hasn't visited in a