After two stints as the nation’s top doctor, Vivek Murthy has written hundreds, maybe thousands, of prescriptions.
Measles, mumps, a pandemic that shuttered global economies and killed millions — Murthy is a veteran of medical disasters. Which makes his final prescription as surgeon general under President Joe Biden’s administration notable.
Murthy, after eight years of traveling the world and guiding the nation’s health policies, decided the last public health issue he’d identify would be one you can’t fix with medicine or surgery: loneliness.
“A lot of people I realized are feeling that, and if you can pull the curtain back, let people talk honestly about what many of us are struggling with, then not only can we help reduce some of that shame, but we can start to prioritize our investments in community and in connection,” Murthy said.
Loneliness was something Murthy was intimate with as a youth. He had a hard time making friends, he said, and he used to fake stomachaches to skip elementary school. Once he started getting older, he found an identity in academic success, but even that came with a cost. Tying his identity to his academics, he said, made his worth conditional on his success.
He thinks this is the case for a lot of folks experiencing loneliness.
Loneliness can come in many shapes. Sometimes, like Murthy, it’s the shy young student. Other times it’s the successful CEO who has all the money in the world but few confidantes. Older people can experience loneliness too, and this can lead to an increased risk for dementia.
“We’re talking about a 29% increase in the risk of heart disease, 31 [percent] stroke, and a 50% increase in the risk of dementia among older people who are struggling with social disconnection,” Murthy said. “When I looked at the overall mortality impact associated with social disconnection, it was comparable to smoking and obesity.”
Since departing the federal government, he’s toured the nation, promoting his organization, The Together Project, discussing the value of building community, his solution for curbing the health impacts of this quiet pandemic.
One of those stops was Akron, where Murthy visited Quaker Station this week as a keynote speaker for the Akron Roundtable.
“Not only did the data speak to how common loneliness was, with one in three adults being affected by loneliness, and one in two young people actually struggling with loneliness, but it turned out that it was also consequential for our health,” Murthy said Tuesday.
Murthy’s final prescription: Lean into the ‘triad of fulfillment’
During Murthy’s appearance in Akron, he spoke at length about how the current “triad for modern day success” — namely the pursuit of money, power and fame — does little to fulfill people.
Instead, Murthy implored the audience to pursue a different path, what he called the triad for fulfillment.
“It turns out, the triad of modern day success does not guarantee your happiness,” Murthy said during the event moderated by Jeremy Lile, the chief of leadership and learning with the Center for Immersive Leadership. “It does not guarantee that you will be fulfilled.
“To understand what that was, I actually did tons of research, talked to experts across many fields, read a lot of Scripture across traditions, and realized that there was a consistent theme that kept coming up, which is that the triad of fulfillment is rooted in relationships, purpose and service.”
How can relationships, purpose and service make Akron a less lonely place?
The beauty of Murthy’s prescription to cure loneliness is that anyone can access it. It doesn’t take money to check in on neighbors or to show up for a friend experiencing hardship. You don’t have to be rich to volunteer your time or lend a kind ear. One of the simplest solutions is also one of the oldest: breaking bread.
“The community is a place where we know each other, where we help each other, and where we find purpose in lifting each other up,” Murthy said. “It’s where what motivates our actions fundamentally is love and not fear.”
He also believes his prescription can counter some of the worst impacts of a divisive political climate, social media and artificial intelligence, all of which can lessen our human connections. And, as he accurately noted, a more connected community is a healthier one. According to a Health and Human Services study published in 2023, the health impacts of social disconnection are akin to smoking 15 cigarettes daily.
“The challenge right now is people are being defined by their differences,” Murthy said. “They’re defining other people based on their views on the most controversial political topics.”
Murthy said that in his travels across the country, two common things that some cities get right in promoting social connections are food and music.
“We’ve seen more efforts to do small potlucks, for example, in neighborhoods, as ways of consistently bringing people out and bringing them together,” Murthy said.
He noted that when talking to leaders in Akron during his trip, they mentioned that young people don’t often have structured places to socialize outside of school, a topic Signal Akron previously reported on.
“How do we create spaces where young people can interact with each other in the semi-structured and unstructured time without technology, so that they can learn how to start conversations, how to build and foster relationships, how to build friendships?” Murthy asked rhetorically. “That, turns out, is incredibly important.”