Joel Salinas, MD, is a behavioral neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, and social epidemiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Brain Health. To learn more about his research, please visit his lab website.

When we make social connections with other people, we live better and have healthier brains for longer.

This might mean re-connecting with old friends, making new friends, joining a group or a class, teaching someone something new, volunteering or offering to help others, or using technology to keep in touch, getting a pet, or simply sharing a smile.

Studying over 3,000 members of the Framingham, MA, community since 1948, and across multiple generations, we found that people who are the most socially isolated have lower blood levels of a molecule known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (or BDNF) which is critical for keeping brain cells healthy and forming new connections between cells.

However, people who have someone available to listen to them or receive emotional support from someone else most or all of the time not only seem to have increased levels of BDNF, but they also have a lower risk of developing stroke and dementia.

There is no cure yet for many age-related brain diseases, but there is a cure for social isolation.

By addressing what we can change in our life to reduce our risk for brain disease, there may be a way to delay and eventually prevent these diseases and prolong the span of our brain health.

About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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