Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking?
More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes per day? That’s the claim circulating on social media.
We trace this stat back to its source and speak the scientist behind the original research on which it is based, Professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad.
Presenter / series producer: Tom Colls Reporter: Perisha Kudhail Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound Mix: Graham Puddifoot Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading the more or less podcast. |
| 0:39.0 | We're your weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life and I'm Tom Coles. |
| 0:45.0 | This week is loneliness as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. |
| 0:54.0 | Tic-Toc seems to think so. |
| 0:56.0 | Loneliness has the same negative consequences to your health |
| 1:00.0 | as smoking 15 cigarettes. |
| 1:02.0 | The loneliness epidemic today is as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. |
| 1:07.0 | This is a claim that's circulating on social media and also features in headlines in major newspapers. But where did it come from? |
| 1:15.7 | And is it true? Our reporter, Parisha Kedale, saw this on her social media pages and has been |
| 1:21.9 | looking into it for us. |
| 1:23.0 | Hey Bresha. |
| 1:24.0 | Hi Tom. |
| 1:25.0 | So if Tik-Toc is the source, I'm pretty skeptical. |
| 1:28.0 | No, I would be too. |
| 1:30.0 | So you'll be happy to hear that this claim actually comes from the US Surgeon General |
... |
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