Here’s a crucial, yet often overlooked, truth about being and keeping healthy: people with few and loose social connections are more vulnerable to disease.
You hardly have to be a physician to understand why: The human body is a complex organism, and because we’re social animals, to be fully healthy and robust our bodies need us to enjoy the warmth and reassurance that can only come from being surrounded by people who love us and care about us, and whom we love and care for in return.
Which, as another very divisive election is upon us, means we have a very big problem — it’s hard to keep connected to other people when half of the country, roughly, believes one thing and the other half its exact opposite.
All available data suggests that the split is very real and that it has very real impact on our daily lives: According to a 2020 Pew Survey, nearly 80 percent of Americans now have only a few or no friends who support the opposite political party. That same year, a YouGov-Economist poll found that most Americans were unwilling to date across the aisle. It’s not hard to imagine that the sentiment has only grown stronger since.
How, then, might we survive this election without succumbing to alienation, loneliness and despair? How might we get past........