Headline October 17, 2016/ ''' ALONE LI NESS - *LONELINESS* '''

''' ALONE LI NESS - *LONELINESS* '''

*WHAT ALL  -HAVE YOU ALL DONE  -in the recent past,  for peace and happiness in the world?  And so many other questions come to mind.

15th of October found me enmeshed in my own birthday. I am grateful to the students all over, for their wishes, graces, and every honour. And on 16th, today, we all celebrate Rabo's birthday. 

*LONELINESS, WHICH EMILY DICKINSON  once described as  ''the horror not to be surveyed,'' is a quiet devastation.

But there in Britain, it is increasingly being viewed as something more  - a serious public heath issue deserving  public funds and national attention.

The woman on the other end of the phone spoke lightheartedly of spring and her 81st birthday the previous week.

''Who did you celebrate with, Beryl?'' asked Allison, whose job it is to offer a kind ear.......''No one, I............''

And with that Beryl's cheer turned to despair. Her voice began to quaver as she acknowledged that she had been alone at home not just on her birthday, but for days and days.

*The telephone conversation was the first time spoken in more than a week*. And that by any measure, is something very, very sad.

     

*ABOUT 10,000 SIMILAR CALLS COME IN WEEKLY  -to an unassuming office building in the seaside town at the northwest reaches of England-

Which houses   'The Silver Line Helpline*, a 24 hour call center for older adults seeking to fill a basic need,  'contact with other people*.  

Working with the local governments and the  National Health Service , programs aimed at mitigating loneliness have sprung up in dozens of cities and towns. Even fire brigades have been trained to inspect homes not just for fire safety but for signs of social isolation.

''There's been an explosion of public awareness here, from local authorities to the Department of Health to the media,'' said Paul Cann, the chief executive of  Age UK Oxfordshire   and a founder of the Campaign to End Loneliness, a five-year old group based in London. ''Loneliness has to be everybody's business.''

Researchers have found mounting evidence linking  Loneliness  to physical illness and to  financial and cognitive  decline. As a predictor of early death, loneliness eclipses obesity.

''The profound effects of loneliness on health and independence are a critical public health problem ,'' said Carla M . Perissinotto, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco. ''It is no longer medically or ethically acceptable to ignore older adults who feel lonely and marginalized.''

In Britain and the United States, roughly  one in three  people older than 65 live alone, and in the united States, half of those older than 85 live alone. Studies in both countries show the prevalence of  loneliness among people older than 60 ranging from  *10 percent to 46 percent*.

While the public, private and volunteer sectors in Britain are mobilising to address  loneliness,  researchers, primarily in the United States, are deepening  their understanding of its biological underpinnings.

In a paper published this year in the  journal cell,  neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology identified a region of the brain they believed generates feelings of loneliness.

The region, known as the  dorsal raphe nucleus, or  D.R.N., is best known for its link to depression 

Kay M. Tye an assistant professor at the Picower Institute for   Learning and  Memory at  M.I.T, and a senior author of the paper, and her colleagues found that when-

Mice were housed together,  dopamine neurons  in the  D.R.N. we're relatively inactive. But after the mice were isolated for a short period, the activity in those neurons surged when these mice were reunited with other mice.

''This is the first time that we've found a cellular substrate for this experience,'' said Dr. Tye. ''And we saw the change  after 24 hours of isolation.''

The Honour and Serving of the latest operational research on  ''Life and Living' continues. Thank Ya all for reading and sharing forward and see you all on the following one.

With most respectful dedication to the Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Healing '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless