Feeling lonely can make you sick. Doctors have long known that loneliness can cause many health problems and even death. What they didn’t know is 16 this feeling causes illness. A study in the online magazine Genome Biology 17 that loneliness actually influences the important part of our bodies—our genes.
In a small population of patients, researchers 18 more than 20,000 genes to compare how the genes of lonely and non-lonely individuals (个体) express themselves in molecular processes (分子过程) and in personal health. They found that gene expression is 19 in chronically (长期地) lonely people. “We now have a new way for understanding the relationship 20 social experience and physical health,” explains the study’s lead author, Steve Cole of University of California, Los Angeles.
“This study—the first to link (联系) 21 with gene changes—is special and exciting,” says Emma Adam, a professor of human development at Northwestern University. “It 22 in the black box.”
According to John Cacioppo, an author of the study from the University of Chicago, the
work suggests that loneliness is a warning 23 , much like physical pain. “This feeling is so bad because 24 of us wants to be forgotten; that’ s also what human means,” he says. “It makes us 25 for other people and want to be with friends when we’re lonely.”
A.when B.where C.how D.if
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