Diabetes is now known to be caused by feed weight, smoking and little exercise. Loneliness is now added to that list. “If you live alone and have little support around you, you have to make choices yourself to live a healthy life,” researcher Miranda Schram of Maastricht UMC+ explains to EditieNL. “If you live together, you also make those choices for someone else and it is easier to make healthier choices.”
–
–
To exercise or eat healthy, you often need someone to convince you. When you have a small social network, that is more difficult. Even once you have diabetes, a social network is important, according to Schram. GPs should also pay more attention to it. “Once you have diabetes, the network around you is also very important to prevent you from getting more complaints.” According to Schram, a social network is not just about having a partner. “It’s all the people you meet one day with whom you can have a conversation. That can also be the neighbor who comes to water your plants.”
Regulate sugar levels
“If you have diabetes you are working twenty-four hours a day to regulate your sugar level,” she continues. “Having a social network is important to stimulate you in this.”
–
–
Diabetes type 2
In the Netherlands, 1.2 million people currently have type 2 diabetes. Every day 150 new patients are added.
Source: Maastricht UMC+
–
–
Maastricht UMC+ will further investigate whether missing a social network has an effect on other diseases. For example, a preliminary conclusion also shows that people with little support have a higher risk of depression.
According to sociologist Beate Volker of Utrecht University, the lack of a social network plays a very important role in the feeling of loneliness. “As a person you need to know that you can go somewhere if you have a problem,” she tells EditieNL. “That you know that you are being looked after and that you are being seen. The size of such a network varies per person. Most people have a close network of three people.”
–
–
But in addition to those few people who are very close to you, it is also important, according to Volker, to have a somewhat broader network. “So that you have the feeling that you belong. In a neighborhood where everyone greets each other, everyone feels included. Without much interaction.”
It can be difficult for people who are lonely to increase the network. “A chat with a cashier can already help you get a different mindset, or someone who walks a dog on the street. That helps you get out of that feeling. Then you get a moment of happiness. But you have to take that step yourself . That’s the hard part.”
–
–
