Though stress plays a major role as a risk factor in disease, UCLA epigeneticist Cole, who was one of the earliest researchers to bring the study of whole genome expression into the realm of social psychology, has concluded that social isolation is an even more potent and underestimated risk factor. “If you actually measure stress, using our best available instruments, it can’t hold a candle to social isolation. Social isolation is the best-established, most robust social or psychological risk factor for disease out there. Nothing can compete,” he told Pacific Standard magazine. (Dobbs 2013)
