welcome to you in good shape coming up on today's show. what to do when medicine makes you gain weight. why exercise is really good for your brain. and why loneliness can be very bad for your health. and here's your host dr castilla. do you know the feeling the feeling of loneliness although you're surrounded by other people in britain they even created a new ministry for this in ministry for loneliness when looking this becomes a problem this is what i'm going to talk about with dr lee he's

a psychotherapist and the head of the feeder clinic in the heart of prelim welcome to in good shape. you know you know. what i'm saying it's. not often. our world is becoming faster more digital and more urban and that comes with an increased risk for no nest and therefore it's high time to put loneliness on the topic health agenda. if you are chronically feeling lonely you are at a higher risk for developing certain dangerous diseases like cancer or a heart attack this is what several studies show worldwide. loneliness a new epidemic. the new smoking. and insidious diagnosis. killer number one.

what's behind these dramatic headlines scientists have been warning about the health risks of loneliness for fifteen years in twenty ten researchers co they did one hundred forty eight studies from around the world and the result was eyeopening . it showed loneliness and social isolation to have the biggest negative effect on life expectancy even greater than alcoholism and obesity. loneliness has been on the rise for years. but it's just a feeling how can it have such a big impact on our physical health. scientists suspect the answer to this question lies in our past when living in communities was crucial to our survival it was much easier to find food in

a group which would help ensure reproduction and the survival of the offspring it also helped to protect against danger such as attacks from other animals. expulsion from the group would mean living in permanent mortal danger under constant stress. researchers think we may have a mechanism that puts the body on alert when we lose the protection of the group. and experiment shows if and how this ancient mechanism still affects us in stressful situations today. thank you i have think i'm well qualified for the office assistant job because i like doing research. this interview is actually

a stress test in disguise the unsuspecting person is deliberately put under pressure. in our concentration exercise. three thousand and seventy nine wrong try again from the top three thousand and one thousand. little faster. the test was conducted with two groups of people and the stress hormone cortisol was measured in their saliva subjects with a lot of social contacts only had a moderate increase in cortisol. researchers think this is because belonging to a group gives you security and may give the individual a feeling of support even if they're alone. on the other hand test subjects with few social contacts had higher cortisol levels. other studies show that the level often stays elevated throughout the whole day this puts

the body on alert mode which means worse sleep as well as raised blood pressure and blood sugar. cortisol can also weaken the activity of the immune system and that's obviously not healthy long term. lonely and isolated people are also at significantly higher risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease it's therefore important that we think of lower. as more than a purely socio psychological problem i'm here with dr at the gentleman marked and this is one of the most busiest places in berlin but nonetheless people can feel lonesome here. well. we normally feel lonely if there are a lot of people around us and we do not feel connected to them that's what loneliness. there's a new trend that people move into big cities so this is

a dangerous trend because they feel more lonely here cities. come with more anonymity and this is definitely a risk factor what's more social isolation and towards more loneliness. but when is it a problem to feel lonely we go to view a question from some about from a boss he writes i'm a creative person write to draw and any make pictures i don't feel the need to make friends or rely on to relationships so even if i spent days alone or told i don't feel lonely so it's normal. feeling lonely and being alone is not at all the same thing. we usually can have a very good time when we are alone it's. recreate time for many of us.

after a busy day but it's not the same as feel as feeling lonely. if we feel lonely we normally are not alone but have people around us and we do not feel related to them that's loneliness and that's a completely different thing than being alone we just saw in the report that feeling lonely can cause some diseases so could you say that loneliness is the new smoking. to have a lot of well made studies in the recent years that show that. or it's subjective. aside loneliness is a very negative predictor for physical or mental health total isolation. is. more related to premature mortality than be the tea and smoking. or alcohol abuse so if i do feel

lonely i should change. yes you should change something loneliness is in no way. emotional or mental pain and is an indicator that there is something. at risk in your mental health situation and that it's time to build up a social network and the social support system which is again a protector for all but what makes us literally is it more like a behavioral pattern or is it more the circumstances in life where it's usually both circumstances and our behavior a change in behavior can be helpful to counter act social isolation and loneliness if we try to open up

a bit more towards other people or to. get to know our neighbor. or find ourselves. around us in our neighborhoods that. well that's behavioral change which can help to build up social support system right so you wrote a book about mental health living in the city and you said that we all should build up our social capital what is it mean. basically you know. going through your address books every now and then. and check if there are people with you again relates to or. are there old friends that you can give a call and try to rebuild an old friendship have a hope to know build up your social network and that's something which is extremely

good for you. but the problem is if you move to another city you lose your old social contacts and you feel very lonely but perhaps there are people lonely close to you and you can find them on an internet platform. whoever looks behind the facade behind closed doors of people happy and sociable or are they lonely and isolated the true knot of fire in the worst thing about loneliness is that it happens within your own four walls which hides it from the outside. question filemon experienced it himself he lives in busy berlin despite having a happy family and professional success he felt miserable. he grew up in a village and the anonymity of the city bothered him he felt like a stranger in his neighborhood what could he do to change things what about ringing the neighbor's door bell as a foreigner i think when i stood there in front of the doorbell my heart was racing

i've never been so nervous in my life that it felt like such an unbelievable hurdle . he went on to found the internet platform navan and dot de it allows people who live around the corner but don't know one another to get in touch online and meet and network of people you don't know the opposite to facebook because. it's the ideal door opener for one i think we just want to lower the hurdle a bit so you can take the first step then you can break the ice and it all gets easier after that if i'm going for. i have over. the network now has eight hundred thousand members across germany including daniela maya from mannheim. the single mother was looking for new friendships and found the fire phonied in and out d. in her mailbox left that by a neighbor she signed up on the website. the network offers a wide range of services neighbors sell bicycles look for helpers all seek like

minded people for a common hobby once registered anyone can invite more neighbors. been most often spoke i'm not on facebook i don't like that at all but i found a note in the mailbox and i thought to myself i might as well go along with it because i can get to know people right away from like my neighbor across the street who i'd never seen before. so that's really great. and book out. now danielle as neighbors come to visit often she's become an important figure in her neighborhood she organizes game afternoons and living room concerts. new people join the platform all the time. as many ships but still does house and it is only eight of us in my building but it's so anonymous. even if i do meet

someone on the stand while we exchange two sentences and that's it. house. people meet up people with the same goal to get away from the anonymity. devotedly want to see who's living three houses away on a retreat house i didn't know that there was this really nice lady living five minutes away from it's been a really nice experience for me. but for me she doesn't want to touch an afghan. man is confident that the online network will help many more people fight loneliness. people finding social connections via an internet platform so how important is complete infrastructure in real life or such an internet platform can be helpful at least for those who have easy access to the digital world such an app or an internet perform can help us to

understand the neighborhood too to learn about the new living environment. and to help us to find first to do the first steps of building up a source parts of them absolutely is there an age group which is especially prone to loneliness well normally we assume that it's the. old age people who suffer from isolation and loneliness but recent studies show that isolation and the feeling of loneliness can be present in all age groups we even find. a pic of loneliness. around the age of thirty. and we find. particularly load loneliness scores in people aged about seventy five but in the old age eighty

and older and loneliness is a very very common problem if we focus on younger people we see that they're constantly active in social networks like facebook or whatsapp so do those social networks make us lonely well there is at least a risk for loneliness. if someone loses himself or herself into the digital world if we isolate from friends in the real world but sometimes this is difficult over the last years many people fled to germany losing the social contacts in their home country so is this a big danger of becoming lonely yes absolutely. people with a migration background and especially people. who have made the experience of flight under. complicated or dangerous circumstances are at an

increased risk of feeling lonely or feeling isolated. and that is again. related to an increased risk of mental health problems so is there something like an antidote against looking as. the best antidote is true for yourselves a peer group to find. another person who shares the same background to share the same values or share the same experience. and such a peer is absolutely help for against the feelings of loneliness and mental health problems which can arise from that is their way to feel connected to the road even if i don't have so many social contacts. well the number of social contacts is a is not the criterion for feeling lonely or not because we're all very different by

our nature and by our personalities and there are some who. just have enough social contacts if they have if they have one good friend to share their everyday life with and there are others who needs a whole bunch of people around them too to feel sufficiently socially connected so it's not the it's not the quantity it's the quantity of social contacts which counteracts isolation thank you so much for this interesting talk your work on and if you've got any questions you like me to ask our experts we should rush meaning. on an upcoming show you will be looking at happiness everyone wants to be happy for how can we make it happen is there happiness formula if you have a question about that in good shape at d w dot com don't forget to write happiness

in the subject line we look forward to hearing from you. do you want to overcome loneliness then get off your chair and start exercising. preferably in a group. the chances of making a connection here are great and exercise is not only good for your body it's good for your brain to. get a good muscle started working out every tuesday she wanted to energize her body and her mind. if i'm doing something and i get interrupted. by a phone call i sometimes can't remember what it was i was doing. i want to combat that to stop it from getting too bad or even stop it altogether yeah that's.

why. she works out with a passable trainer today she's doing exercises for her abs legs and back. mostly sometimes i get sore muscles but that's as it should be obvious a scientist on. the seventy one year old isn't just doing it for herself though this is also for research purposes. she into round fifty other senior citizens are taking part in an exercise project it's about boosting stamina strength and coordination and also establishing what kind of exercise is best for maintaining mental capacities. smok there's also the from also game it's reasonable to assume that a complex training program yields the best results that's what we want to prove. the project lasts for eighteen months initial results indicate that many of the

participants have improved their long term memory and their working memory. to a shopping list or a phone number read out to you a new name when you're introduced to someone being able to store more of these things in your working memory makes every day life easier. the distance. exercise goes to your head but what processes does it trigger that that's a question for the brain researchers at dresden stec nickel university they discovered that the brains of sporty mice had a better blood supply and improved so growth. there's a region in the brain that's responsible for learning and memory new neurons are formed there throughout your life and this increases when mice are more active physically and mentally. activity it turns out stimulates the growth of neurons

in the brains of mice the hypothesis is that since humans are genetically similar to mice such increased neuron growth could well occur in the brains of active humans too. remaining active in old age has a huge effect but it's even bigger when you're younger so start early you'll definitely get more out of it than starting at the last minute. of. noise and. doing nothing as an option it doesn't help you at all. exercise really is good for the body and the mind and a little bit of effort goes a long way. not all people who suddenly gain weight too much sometimes prescribed medication is to blame. before being prescribed cortisone doctor's assistant suzanne agreed to wait fifty five kilos after taking

the medicine she gained almost twenty she's now three sizes bigger than she used to be. this is fun it's terrible you can see it in my face it said round and a little bit puffy i never used to look this way in twenty eleven she was diagnosed with crohn's disease and inflammatory bowel disorder she was prescribed cortisone it successfully reduce the inflammation but her weight went up after a few months it was clear that the cortisone was to blame. rheumatologist gabriella green cast and is familiar with the problem when romantic information needs to be fought quickly cortisone is the best treatment but she uses it sparingly and inflammation uses up a lot of energy and if you reduce it or eliminate it completely then you can be eating the same amount you always have but if you're taking cortisone you're going to gain weight because the body isn't using up as much energy. cortizone is

a stress hormone that signals to the body to eat more to be ready for hard times suzanne a beeper tries to counter that effect by eating less she's now taking different medications but she still hasn't got her trim figure back. the rheumatologist suggests a smaller dose of cortisone if it can't be avoided completely. even we were very giving the patient high doses to begin with but pretty quickly switching to very small amounts like ten milligrams and then tapering it. gaining weight on medicine the same can happen with insulin. ten years ago hildegarde's or come up was diagnosed with type two diabetes or specialist prescribed insulin but there were side effects. as anything good it wasn't like i went out every afternoon to eat cake or anything but i gained weight slowly but

surely. that's why insulin is a problem because it rules out weight reduction insulin makes you gain weight. hildegarde decided to stop taking insulin she doesn't have to check her blood sugar anymore because her new medications work differently. one of them works on the intestines and the other removes the sugar from the blood and expels it through the year and she's lost twenty kilos. then does it need we want to prescribe these new medicines which reduce diabetes to a mild form we would not only prevent patients from gaining weight and help them avoid complicated incident therapy we could also of the other side effects of each of our p.'s and on some patients even lose weight to the point that their diabetes is gone the committees and put up the study a bit to. give to god so comp one stops diabetes hasn't gone away but her

metabolism has improved and her blood pressure has stabilized it's not just the medication the lawyer also changed her eating habits eating fewer carbohydrates and more vegetables and protein. that's it for today see you next week and i'm so then let's stay together in good shape.

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