If this week's headlines have left you lonely and worried, here is what the study found, a step for this week, and a prayer for tonight. The paper, by Wang, Ma, Heianza, Liang, Franco and Qi, appeared in Nature Communications on 20 August 2026, and Tulane University's release followed on 22 September. It followed 277,489 adults in the UK Biobank, aged 40 to 69 when they joined between 2006 and 2010, for a median of about 13 years. Compared with people who reported neither, those who reported both loneliness and social isolation had an estimated 3.0 fewer years free of seven major diseases from age 50 if they were women, and 2.2 fewer if they were men. For loneliness alone the figures were 2.2 and 1.3. The "six years" in the headlines is the largest single figure, 5.8 fewer years free of depression and anxiety, for men who reported both.
In the authors' words, "given the observational nature of this study," they cannot say that loneliness causes any of it. Loneliness was measured once, at the start, with a short questionnaire, and the figures are averages that describe large groups; your own week is still yours to shape.
If you only have a minute
Tonight
Read Psalm 25:16-17 aloud once.
This week
One message to one person, with a day in it.
Psalm 25:16-17, for this evening
Bible Nudge's passage for loneliness is a short prayer:
Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses.
Psalm 25 is a prayer of David asking God for attention, guidance and mercy. Here he describes his own condition and asks God to look at him, and the psalm keeps asking. John Calvin, Reformed, writes that David had to contend "outwardly with his enemies" and "inwardly with sorrow and anguish of heart." Enduring Word, an evangelical commentary, calls these verses "a season of agony for David."
It gives you words for loneliness in your own voice, the plain word desolate already in the Bible, and a request to be turned toward. Read it aloud once tonight, then hold its question: "If you could ask for one thing to be noticed today, what would it be?" You can read Psalm 25:16-17 with the verses around it, and Bible verses for loneliness and sadness stays with this prayer at more length.
An evening with the television on low.
Two different things
The National Institute on Aging separates them: "Loneliness is the distressing feeling of being alone or separated. Social isolation is the lack of social contacts and having few people to interact with regularly." It adds, "You can live alone and not feel lonely or socially isolated, and you can feel lonely while being with other people." The WHO Commission on Social Connection says loneliness arises "when there is a gap between the social connections one has and those one wants or needs." Somebody posted on Reddit's r/lonely, "sometimes just being heard and acknowledged by another person can help so much." A 2010 review of 148 studies by Holt-Lunstad, Smith and Layton found stronger social relationships associated with better survival, "comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality."
Small steps for this week
NHS Every Mind Matters suggests "Messaging old friends and colleagues, or creating a group chat," joining a group around an interest, "Share your feelings," volunteering, and "If you pass someone you recognise, try smiling and saying hello." The National Institute on Aging names family, friends, social activities and volunteering.
On Reddit's r/AskOldPeople, people said what helped: "So I started calling up old friends I had neglected and found they were happy to hear from me." Another wrote, "It sucks living alone, but I walk 3X each day and pick up litter." In a third Reddit thread, someone wrote, "We’ve made good friends with our next door neighbor who is in their 30s. That helps a lot." and a widower goes to "our local senior citizens center and to a couple of the book clubs at the public library." Pick one and give it a day: one message to one old friend on Tuesday, one hello to a neighbor on Saturday.
If you have nobody to call
In the United Kingdom, Age UK's Silver Line Helpline, for people aged 55 and over, is on 0800 4 70 80 90, and its information and advice line is 0800 678 1602. In the United States, AARP Friendly Voice takes requests for a friendly call through a form. In Canada, A Friendly Voice is on 1 (855) 892-9992 for adults 55 and over in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces, and 211 connects anyone in Canada with local community and social services. In Australia, My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 is the gateway to local help for older people, and the same page lists Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Medicare Mental Health on 1800 595 212. Calling one counts as this week's step, and a first call can be short.
Where Scripture reaches the one alone
In John 5, a man sick for thirty-eight years says a sentence many lonely people know:
The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
Jesus saw him lying there, asked, "Do you want to be made well?" and told him to rise. The man with no one was noticed. In Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 the Teacher, watching work, falling and keeping warm, says "Two are better than one," "if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow," and "a threefold cord is not quickly broken," a plain reason to let one other person in. In Mark 1:40-42 a man with leprosy kneels, and Jesus "stretched out his hand, and touched him," somebody others kept at a distance; who in the Bible was lonely reads him among people put outside.
If you are worried about somebody who lives alone
The NHS suggests that after a conversation you might "swap phone numbers or suggest joining or setting up a local group together," and says somebody lonely for a while may take time to respond, so keep going gently. The Silver Line describes callers wanting "to say good morning or good night to someone, or to have a chat about how their day’s been." Call on the same day each week, ask about their day rather than their health, and visit with something to do together, a walk or a cup of tea.
A walk is easier to say yes to than a talk.
For a pastor or church member
James, writing to believers about hearing and doing the word, calls it pure religion "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction." Hebrews asks a gathered church, "Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together." The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2447, counts "visiting the sick and imprisoned" among the corporal works of mercy. Linking Lives UK, a Christian charity working through churches and community organizations, runs "Telephone Befriending, Weekly telephone calls of around 30 minutes by a volunteer" and "Home Visiting, Weekly volunteer home visits of around 1 hour," with training for churches, on 0300 302 0225. Pick one name on the church list who has stopped coming, and call this week to ask after them.
Kind lines that land hard
On Reddit's r/lonely, in a thread titled "just join a club", one person wrote, "Join the club and then I’m still the outcast in the corner." Another: "I did it, and unfortunately you’re absolutely right. Ended up even more dejected and scared with putting myself out there." Another Reddit post in r/lonely said, "Hobbies don’t replace human connection." Instead, try "Would you come with me on Thursday? I would like the company too," or "I've missed talking to you. Can I ring on Sunday afternoon?"
On Reddit's r/Christianity, a reply to somebody asking why faith felt lonely said, "if u only have God, He’s the only one u will be needing," a question what the Bible says about loneliness takes up. A poster on Reddit's r/lonely, facing a medical scare, wrote, "I contain it because I don’t want to ruin anyone else’s happy times with my loneliness." To either, try: "Tell me about your week. I have time."
Where to go next
If tonight is harder than loneliness, please reach a person. In the United States, call or text 988 for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. In Canada, call or text 9-8-8. In the UK and Republic of Ireland, Samaritans is on 116 123. In Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14. Anywhere else, Find A Helpline lists lines by country.
This week, send one message to one person, with a day in it. Tonight, read Psalm 25:16-17 aloud once with its question. Or describe it in your own words, and Bible Nudge can suggest one passage. Find a passage.
Words that come up here
Tap a term to see what it means.
Observational study. Research that watches groups as they are; it shows associations, not causes.