Why loneliness may be a greater public health hazard than obesity

"Researchers believe loneliness is so deadly because it can lead to a number of issues, including disrupted sleep patterns, high levels of stress hormones, increased inflammation, and worsening immune systems. Any one of those risk factors puts people at a greater risk for disease and life-threatening injury. "Based on the evidence, Holt-Lunstad doesn't think the loneliness problem is going away anytime soon. The latest AARP Loneliness Study found 42.6 million adults over the age of 45 suffer from chronic loneliness. With an aging baby boomer population, that number is expected to rise in the coming decades."

Just finshed Kunstler's World Made by Hand: it opens in an upstate NY town that has fallen into a deep state of apathy. And all its occupants live in single family homes; many of them are alone because their family members all died from epidemics. It's a community frozen in grief. Kunstler also shows us four close-knit communities that are thriving. Two of them full of brigands, one's a religious community, and one a "plantation" operated by "serfs."

It's an interesting story and well-constructed from a writer viewpoint.