Loneliness And Cardiac Output

According to theoretical research by Hawkley et al. (2003) it was confirmed that loneliness predicted lower cardiac output during a normal day. Whereas, non-lonely individuals were characterized to have a higher cardiac output. Cardiac output is the volume of blood pumped by the heart per minute and is related to an individual’s heart rate and stroke volume. Within this research it was found that the stroke volume (the amount of blood the heart ejects per beat) was the variable that lowered the cardiac output of lonely individuals, causing the body to not get the sufficient amount of blood that is needed (Hawkley et al., 2003). In addition, lonely individuals predicted a higher total peripheral resistance within their blood vessels. Overtime, elevated total peripheral resistance creates the onset of hypertension, which will increase the risk of the various cardiovascular issues. In addition, lonely individuals appraise everyday events as a greater demand on themselves, with them believing they cannot accomplish these demands. Due to these stressors, lonely individual’s cardiovascular activity becomes chronically altered. Further, individuals who feel lonely continually adapt passive coping strategies for their everyday …show more content…
Individuals with depression experience greater perceived stressors, altered cardiovascular responses to lab stressors and poorer health behavior. While individuals with neuroticism also experience greater perceived stress and risky health behaviors. Both these types of personality traits further lead to cardiovascular decline, due to the high perceived stress and threat rate lonely individuals experience. Moreover, within this theoretical research it was concluded that lonely individuals act in health compromising behavior by consuming more calories than needed, having a greater chance of suffering from alcohol