Lonely people die earlier

People suffering from extreme loneliness are more prone to serious health complications and early death, according to new research.

Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have discovered that those with "chronically high levels of subjective social isolation" have weaker immune systems, as expressed in their gene activity.

According to the study, which is published in eth journal Genome Biology, the date is the first of its kind to indicate that human genome-wide transcriptional activity is altered in association with a social epidemiological risk factor.

"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 the study's author Steve Cole, associate professor of medicine at the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"What counts at the level of gene expression is not how many people you know, it's how many you feel really close to over time."