HEALTH SABOTEURS

SURPRISING ways our immunity is undermined. This week: Feeling lonely

LONELINESS makes us feel sad, but it also has a negative effect on the immune system, causing white blood cells that normally protect us against infection to be released from the bone marrow too early.

These immature cells aren’t as effective at fighting viruses such as colds and flu as they should be. ‘On top of this, loneliness increases levels of cortisol in the system, and when levels of this are high the immune system is partially shut down,’ says Professor Sabine Brennan, a neuroscientist at Trinity College in Dublin. ‘Much of the work on loneliness is done in older people, but it can affect us at any time — for example, when children leave home or after divorce.’