Weekly Article: Connect with people and not your phone

by Sonny Tat
Children's National

This week’s installment of the Weekly Article comes from the New York Times and addresses how our ability to connect with other people may actually influence our overall health in a physiologically measurable way. Using an “ancient mind-training practice known as metta” to teach skills for warmer interpersonal connections, researchers at the University of North Carolina found that participants increased their vagal tone at the end of the 6week course compared to the control group, which was composed of people left on the metta waiting list. The authors suggest that since increased vagal tone is associated with better overall health, we should be striving for warmer interpersonal connections to not only have more friends but to improve our health.

They also infer that if you don’t regularly connect with other people, then you not only become awkward (guilty), you can also negatively affect your health. Isolation can apparently affect how genes are expressed in our immune system and this gene expression is plastic. So if you spend a little too much time on your smartphone, computer, or—ironically enough—reading this article, you might be setting yourself up for cardiovascular, metabolic, and immunological dysfunction. At least that’s the unscientific leap I made from this article. Also, I'd be willing to participate in an RCT for metta if anyone is asking.