Feelings of loneliness and depression increase a person’s biological age by about 1.7 years. This is shown by research by psychologists from Stanford University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, published in the journal Aging-US.
These feelings – loneliness and depression – accelerate the aging process, according to scientists, more than smoking and some diseases.
Scientific minds came to this conclusion by creating a digital model of human aging. Data from the China Health Study was collected from 4,846 adults in 2015. The summary included 16 blood biomarkers, including cholesterol and glucose levels, blood pressure, body mass index, lung function measures, and more.
Next, the researchers at the two universities compared the chronological age of people predicted by the model with their actual age.
