(Photo : McCarthy|Hulton Archive)

Being lonely isn’t only detrimental to your mental health.

Psychologists from Brigham Young University discovered that loneliness is actually a silent killer as it affects people both mentally and physically, causing people to die younger, according to the publication Empire State Tribune.

“The effect of this is comparable to obesity, something that public health takes very seriously,” stated lead author Julianne Holt-Lunstad.

For the recent study, researchers reportedly analyzed data from 70 studies conducted between 1980 and 2014, looking through the information of over 3 million participants. The data included information regarding loneliness, social isolation and living alone, according to the website Medical News Today.

After taking age, gender, socioeconomic status and pre-existing health conditions into consideration, researchers reportedly found that social isolation was linked to an increased risk of premature mortality.

Loneliness reportedly caused 26 percent of the participants to die prematurely while isolation caused 29 percent of participants to die prematurely. The risk of dying early for people living alone was reportedly 32 percent.

“Not only are we at the highest recorded rate of living alone across the entire century, but we’re at the highest recorded rates ever on the planet,” explained co-author Tim Smith.

He continued, “With loneliness on the rise, we are predicting a possible loneliness epidemic in the future.”

Being lonely doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is being alone. Those who are surrounded by people, but unable to make genuine connections still fall under the category of lonely people.

“We need to start taking our social relationships more seriously,” stated Holt-Lunstad.

She added, “So go out there and talk to a friend, hug your parents, kiss your child, or just be with someone, it may save your life.”