HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Loneliness Alters Genes Related to Immunity

AlaskaAngel · 09-27-2007, 10:50 AM

I'm just one person interpreting what I read, but one bit extracted from the info provided helped to clarify my impressions:

"In the present study, the functional genomic correlates of subjective social isolation were found to be largely independent of the objective size of an individual’s social network. This result underscores the key role of subjective perceptual processes in transmitting the effects of social factors into physical biology via neuroendocrine alterations, and their subsequent impact on cellular gene expression [4,28,51,52]."

So what does that mean to me? The amount of actual social interaction isn't what is important (so if you are a loner and happen to enjoy being one, you're probably just fine). It is the personal perception of loneliness that is important in this study. I would still have to say that the issue is probably not loneliness per se, but I speculate that if there is an effect generated by a person's perception of their situation it relates to the degree of control the subjects feel they have over their life, and not limited in particular to "loneliness".

Because these measurements were not taken before the individuals became lonely I would still question whether it is cause or effect, which is acknowledged in the article. But the interesting thing about the article is that there is some actual genetic difference that relates to inflammation, whether it is there by cause or effect. Thanks for posting such intriguing information, Hopeful.

A.A.

09-27-2007, 10:50 AM	#8
AlaskaAngel Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Alaska Posts: 2,018	I'm just one person interpreting what I read, but one bit extracted from the info provided helped to clarify my impressions: "In the present study, the functional genomic correlates of subjective social isolation were found to be largely independent of the objective size of an individual’s social network. This result underscores the key role of subjective perceptual processes in transmitting the effects of social factors into physical biology via neuroendocrine alterations, and their subsequent impact on cellular gene expression [4,28,51,52]." So what does that mean to me? The amount of actual social interaction isn't what is important (so if you are a loner and happen to enjoy being one, you're probably just fine). It is the personal perception of loneliness that is important in this study. I would still have to say that the issue is probably not loneliness per se, but I speculate that if there is an effect generated by a person's perception of their situation it relates to the degree of control the subjects feel they have over their life, and not limited in particular to "loneliness". Because these measurements were not taken before the individuals became lonely I would still question whether it is cause or effect, which is acknowledged in the article. But the interesting thing about the article is that there is some actual genetic difference that relates to inflammation, whether it is there by cause or effect. Thanks for posting such intriguing information, Hopeful. A.A.