Coming up on this mini episode of the doctor's pharmacy.

Being socially isolated is as harmful to your physical health as being an alcoholic and twice as harmful as obesity.

Because, cellularly, right, we end up storing, and again, you're the doctor here, but is there so much sort of knowledge around and studies around when you don't belong.

All of a sudden, your cellular reactions become slower, your the tabolizing food less fast.

And there's actually a lot of studies that I've read around that.

Maybe you're depressed and anxious and using food as your source of food.

Well, that too, of course, that too.

But it actually sets off a cellular chain reaction, our lack of belonging and isolation, sets off this sort of cellular chain reaction that sort of slows down our armetabolism as well.

Hi, I'm Kaye Apporowett, one of the producers of the doctor's pharmacy podcast.

Emerging science is beginning to unveil that social isolation is a serious cause of illness.

In fact, social separation is a larger cause of disease and death than poor nutrition, lack of exercise, or smoking.

Dr. Hyman discussed this topic in two recent conversations on the doctor's pharmacy podcast.

Let's listen in, starting with his interview with author, co-founder, and CEO of Gay Breaker, Rada Agrawal.

We all have this longing to belong.

We all came out of an evolutionary history that was tribal.

We are born in community.

We are literally born inside of a mother's womb.

So we are born in, right, we're born in community and without it, we cannot survive or thrive, right?

It's so clear that our lack of belonging or isolation is the actual essential issue that ladders down to every other societal problem that we are facing today.

The most generous act we can do as human beings is to create community.

The most generous thing we can do for ourselves and for each other is to extend our hand and say, hey, will you be my friend?

So in Okinawa, which is one of the longest of people in the world, they form a community at birth of babies that are connected by their parents that go through life together and go through all the ups and downs and trials and tribulations from birth to 100 years old, and it builds this sense of, and it's not like 100 people, it's like five people or four people.

...