Men living alone suffer from pain... Study finds long-term living alone, too many breakups are associated with elevated levels of inflammation

▎WuXi AppTec Content Team Editor Men who live alone for a long time or who often break up in love need to pay attention, you may face the possibility of increased inflammation in the body for a long time
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Loneliness in men is strongly linked to elevated levels of inflammatory markers in the blood, according to a study by the University of Copenhagen
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 Several past studies have found that divorce or the end of a relationship is often associated with poor mental health, weakened immunity, and even an increased risk of death
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But most studies focus only on the impact of the event of a relationship ending.
In reality, many people live alone for extended periods of time after a divorce, and others may experience a breakup more than once
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 In the new study, the research team explored the impact of these two factors in more depth, including whether gender differences and education levels would change the impact differences
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 They obtained data from a sample of 4,835 volunteers from the Copenhagen Biobank on Ageing and Middle Age, of whom 4,612 provided information on dating or marriage, and all provided information on the number of years they lived alone between 1986 and 2011
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 Based on the overall amount of information, the researchers included people who lived alone for less than a year as a control group because they believed that living alone for a year was very common and normal
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In addition, those who have lived alone for 2-6 years are a group, and those who have lived alone for 7 years or more are a group
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 To judge the level of inflammation, the research team listed interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein, which are closely related to inflammation, in blood samples as reference markers
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In comparison, people who had experienced the most breakups had the highest levels of inflammatory markers in their bodies, 17 percent higher than those in the control group
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People who lived alone for more than seven years also had 12 percent higher levels of inflammation than the control group
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 Image source: 123RF When researchers introduced gender into the analysis, they unexpectedly found that only men seemed to be more sensitive to the number of breakups.
The more men broke up or divorced, the higher the level of C-reactive protein in the body.
It doesn't seem to be affected
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 Although a single breakup or brief periods of being alone were not associated with elevated levels of inflammation, in the long term, many years of being alone and several breakups can be combined to affect markers of inflammation in the body
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 The study pointed out that the reason for this may be that men and women treat breakups differently.
Men will be more external, such as using alcohol to eliminate their injured minds, while women are more internal, which will produce depression and anxiety.
Silently resolved, these two types of behavior affect the level of inflammation in the body in different ways
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 Image credit: 123RF In addition, the consequences of this chronically low level of inflammation have not yet been fully revealed, since the average age of the volunteers was around 54
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The weakening of the immune system as the body ages can also lead to low levels of inflammation in the body, an effect thought to be associated with cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
high, but not to be underestimated, it is likely to be associated with an increased risk of death," reads the paper, which has been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
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 Reference: [1] Years lived alone and/or serialbreak-ups strongly linked to inflammation in men.
Retrieved Jan 11th, 2022 from https://medicalxpress.
com/news/2022-01-years-andor-serial-break- ups-strongly.
html[2] Do partnership dissolutions and livingalone affect systemic chronic inflammation? The Journal of Epidemiology &Community Health, jech.
bmj.
com/lookup/doi/10.
1136//jech-2021-217422