HEALTH WATCH : Lonely Hearts

Down to Gehenna

Or up to the throne

He travels the fastest

Who travels alone.

Unfortunately, he may be dead on arrival. According to new research on the effect of isolation on the human heart, reported by Times medical writer Janny Scott, “living alone is ‘a major independent risk factor’ comparable to physiological factors” for heart attack.

Is it just that if you live with somebody you’re more likely to take your medicine, keep to your diet and stop smoking? Apparently not: Love is also healthy for the heart.

A tourist we know commented sadly on some otherwise pleasant photos she had brought back from Europe. A Madrid street scene: “Look,” she says, “nobody is walking alone. Everyone is in groups of two, three. Five or six is common. I see so many solitary walkers on our streets.” Another snapshot, a schoolyard in Ireland, the children posing with arms around each other, several cheek to cheek: “My own students keep their distance from each other,” the tourist says with a small sigh.

And then there are the French. What they eat would put a cardiologist into heart arrest, but they never eat it alone, and their hearts, mysteriously, hold up a lot better than ours do.

Styne and Merrill wrote it, Streisand sang it: “We’re children, needing other children, and yet letting our grown-up pride hide all the hurt inside, acting more like children than children.”

Loneliness can kill you. It really can. Fortunately, the remedy is cheap and available everywhere. We recommend it--heartily.