How loneliness is breaking hearts in the most literal sense and what the research reveals about the risk

Loneliness has spent most of its history as a subject for poets and philosophers rather than cardiologists and epidemiologists. That is changing. A growing and increasingly rigorous body of research is documenting the physical health consequences of chronic social isolation with enough precision to reframe loneliness from a purely emotional experience into a significant and […]
Dangerous hearing loss habits that may raise dementia risk

A growing body of research is drawing a clearer line between how well people hear and how well their brains age. A new study found that two specific middle ear conditions cholesteatoma, an abnormal skin growth in the ear, and eardrum perforation are both associated with a meaningfully higher risk of developing dementia. While researchers are […]
Loneliness may quietly damage memory in older adults

Feeling lonely could be doing more damage to the aging brain than previously understood but perhaps not in the way most people would expect. A new study involving more than 10,000 older adults across 12 European countries found that those who reported higher levels of loneliness performed worse on memory tests from the outset. Notably, […]