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StillnessWellbeing fact

People with strong social relationships tend to live longer. A 2010 review of 148 studies, covering more than 300,000 people followed for seven and a half years on average, found that they had a 50 per cent greater likelihood of survival than people with weaker ties.

Public-health research

Health

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The review was led by the psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad and published in the journal PLOS Medicine. Researchers separate two ideas: social isolation means having few contacts, while loneliness is the painful feeling that your relationships fall short of what you need. Both are linked with poorer health. Friends and family may help by easing stress, encouraging healthier habits and noticing when something is wrong. Studies like these show a link rather than proof of cause, but the pattern has been found again and again. In 2023 the US Surgeon General, the country's leading public-health official, described loneliness as a public-health concern, and in June 2025 a World Health Organization commission estimated that loneliness is linked to about 871,000 deaths a year and affects one person in six worldwide.

Türkçe oku
Güçlü sosyal ilişkileri olan insanlar genellikle daha uzun yaşar. 2010'da 148 araştırmayı bir araya getiren bir incelemede, ortalama yedi buçuk yıl izlenen 300.000'i aşkın kişi arasında ilişkileri güçlü olanların hayatta kalma olasılığı, zayıf olanlardan yüzde 50 daha yüksek çıktı.

İncelemeyi psikolog Julianne Holt-Lunstad yönetti; sonuçlar PLOS Medicine dergisinde yayımlandı. Araştırmacılar iki kavramı birbirinden ayırır: Sosyal izolasyon, insanın çok az kişiyle görüşmesidir; yalnızlık ise ilişkilerinin ihtiyacını karşılamadığını hissetmenin verdiği acıdır. İkisi de sağlığın kötüleşmesiyle bağlantılıdır. Aile ve arkadaşlar stresi hafifletebilir, sağlıklı alışkanlıkları teşvik edebilir ve bir şeyler ters gittiğinde bunu fark edebilir. Bu tür araştırmalar bir bağlantı gösterir, kesin bir neden-sonuç ilişkisini kanıtlamaz; ama aynı tablo farklı çalışmalarda defalarca ortaya çıkmıştır. ABD'nin halk sağlığından sorumlu en üst yetkilisi Surgeon General, 2023'te yalnızlığı bir halk sağlığı sorunu olarak nitelendirdi. Dünya Sağlık Örgütü'nün bir komisyonu da Haziran 2025'te yalnızlığın yılda yaklaşık 871.000 ölümle bağlantılı olduğunu ve dünyada her altı kişiden birini etkilediğini açıkladı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Social support
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He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.

English quotation books have called this an “Arabian proverb” since at least the 1860s; Tryon Edwards's A Dictionary of Thoughts (1891) is one, but these books give no Arabic original, so the label is best taken loosely. The idea is widely shared: good health gives people the strength to plan and to recover from setbacks. Turkish says “Her şeyin başı sağlık”, health comes first, and when a glass breaks people say “Sağlık olsun”: never mind, as long as everyone is well.

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