Loneliness risks your heart

You may want to avoid being a loner as a recent study has suggested that loneliness can actually break your heart.

The findings from the universities of York, Liverpool and Newcastle linked loneliness and social isolation to a 30 percent increase in the risk of having a stroke or coronary artery disease.

In findings which compared the effects of loneliness with recognised risk factors, such as anxiety and a stressful job, researchers said that their analysis backed up public health concerns about the importance of social contacts for health and wellbeing.

The researchers stated that the work suggests that addressing loneliness and social isolation may have an important role in the prevention of two of the leading causes of morbidity in high-income countries.

The study appears in the journal Heart.