A new scientific research illustrated that social relationshipsis important for both physical and psychological status and it increases the brain size …
The researchers say that loneliness is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, viral infections, cancer and Changes in the immune system. They assure that a person’s social environment can affect their health, with those who are socially isolated are exposing to a high risk of mortality than people who are not.
Now, in the first study of its kind, published in the current issue of the journal Genome Biology, UCLA researchers have identified a distinct pattern of gene expression in immune cells from people who experience chronically high levels of loneliness. The findings suggest that feelings of social isolation are linked to alterations in the activity of genes that drive inflammation, the first response of the immune system. The study provides a molecular framework for understanding why social factors are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, viral infections and cancer.
The researchers are trying to determine whether that risk is a result of reduced social resources, such as physical or economic assistance, or from the biological impact of social isolation on the function of the human body.
“What this study shows is that the biological impact of social isolation reaches down into some of our most basic internal processes the activity of our genes.” said Steve Cole, an associate professor of medicine in the division of Hematology-Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, and a member of the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology.
“We found that changes in immune cell gene expression were specifically linked to the subjective experience of social distance,” said Cole, who is also a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “The differences we observed were independent of other known risk factors, such as health status, age, weight, and medication use. The changes were even independent of the objective size of a person’s social network.”added Cole.
Another study had showed that feelings of loneliness and social isolation can affect a human brain activity as well as people’s behavior. The researchers in the study have revealed over the time that loneliness leads to decreased activation of the ventral striatum.
The current study is the first one that used fMRI scans to measure activity in the brain in combination with data about social isolation, or loneliness. It is a new approach to psychology that can lead scientists to a better study of brain mechanisms and understanding the science of the brain.
The ventral striatum is a region of the brain associated with rewards, and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may stimulate the region.
Social relationships in Islam
Allah Almighty urges people to live with each othersnot to live in an isolated islands as He Almighty says :(O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another){ Sûrat Al-Hujurât – The Dwellings- verse13}
Also He Almighty orders us to move around earth as He Almighty says:(so travel through the earth){Sûrat Al-Imrân-The Family of Imran-verse137}
Prophet Mohamed peace be upon him hadreferred to that meaning as he says in the prophetic hadith: “The believer who communicate with people and is patient on them is better that the believer who doesn’t communicate with them and isn’t patient on them”{Narrated by al-Tirmidhi}.
Thanks Allah for the blessing of Islam
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By: Abduldaem Al-Kaheel
References:
- http://huehueteotl.wordpress.com/2007/09/17/being-lonely-breaks-the-immune-system-rather-than-heart/
- http://www.enotalone.com/article/19366.html
