Social isolation leads to lowered immunity

Two new studies done at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US, reveal that social isolation can lead to a lowered immune system and affect the heart and general health. The first study shows that first-year college students who had fewer friends and mixed with less people had a lower immune response to influenza vaccination than their classmates who were more outgoing and socially mobile. The second study found that socially isolated men were likely to be more susceptible to atherosclerosis due to the presence of a blood marker for inflammation, interleukin-6.