[Meanwhile] What really matters is human relations

The report shows that men with satisfying human relationships not only live longer but also maintain brain function longer, while loneliness was pointed out as a “silent killer.”

AHN CHAK-HEEThe author is head of the global cooperation team of the JoongAng Ilbo. “Stay healthy and happy” is a frequently used phrase for New Year’s greetings. Health and happiness. What else could one hope for? The problem is that these two things don’t come automatically.

How do we become healthy and happy? This is why many are paying attention to the research by Harvard University. The secret to catching the two birds can be found in relationships. The project has been underway for 85 years.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development began in 1938. Two sample groups totaling 724 men were surveyed. They answered a questionnaire, got health examinations including blood tests and brain scans, and their family relationships also were observed. The researchers measured the effect of their human relationships on their health and happiness.

One group was 268 Harvard sophomores, and the other group included 456 teenagers living in apartments in Boston’s slums with a limited water supply, let alone hot water. The results were quite surprising. For instance, unsatisfying marital relationships had a far greater adverse effect in their 80s than the chronic cholesterol level measured in their 50s.

The report, in hundreds of thousands of pages, show that men with satisfying human relationships not only live longer but also maintain brain function longer. Overall, they had healthier and happier lives. The warm relationship based on mutual trust was the shortcut to health and happiness.

On the other hand, loneliness was pointed out as a “silent killer.” Lately, the vulnerable and elderly people around the world have been suffering from a deeper loneliness due to the Covid-19 pandemic than before. Social and economic isolations have intensified. When Covid-19 peaked in 2021, Japan appointed a so-called “loneliness minister” to help lower the surging suicide rate. The main cause of the sudden rise in suicide was the deepened depression triggered by loneliness from social restrictions for Covid-19.

Prior to this, the United Kingdom also established the office of a loneliness minister in 2018. Loneliness is said to be as destructive as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. A study was cited that 9 million Britons feel lonely often or always. The government had to step up and resolve the sense of isolation the people felt. That was a major policy shift.

Since then, the international community has begun to pay attention to loneliness. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) held a forum on loneliness in 2019. I hosted a special session there. While it was not a familiar topic, hundreds of people came to the conference hall. I vividly remember how even the hallways were filled with the audience. Looking back on the year, they must have all been lonely people.