ArcaMax

Loneliness has reached epidemic levels in this country. "No news here," some might say. Stories about this public health problem are constantly in the news. I have written about it myself. But I must admit that I was surprised by a story that appeared last week. As reported by NBC News, San Mateo County in California has declared loneliness to be an officially declared "public health emergency." In doing so, it has become the first county in the U.S. to make such a declaration.

According to NBC News health reporter Aria Bendix, the measure was partly inspired by recent efforts in the U.K. and Japan to address this serious health issue by proclamation. Each of these two nations appointed national ministers to address loneliness. San Mateo County's decision was also influenced by an advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in May urging governments to prioritize "strategies to promote social connection."

As if we needed any further markers showing the mental challenges facing the nation, as reported by CNN last June, a Gallup poll revealed that workers in this country and around the world "are historically stressed, disengaged with their work and increasingly fighting with their bosses." Results revealed that "59% of workers are 'quiet quitting,' i.e. are not engaged; and 18% are 'loud quitting,' described as the act of being actively disengaged (but still employed)."

"Gallup estimated that low engagement is costing the global economy nearly $9 trillion," writes Bendix.

Approximately 44% of employees surveyed said they experienced a lot of stress at work, while more than half (51%) of all respondents said they're actively looking for a new job. In response, many businesses have begun to provide things like employee fitness programs to create a more positive company culture and to elevate employee morale.

By now, we all should know the benefits that can be derived from exercise. It has become an industry by and of itself. According to statista.com, the fitness industry contributed more than $35 billion to the U.S. economy in 2021. That year, the share of men and women engaged in sports and exercise per day in the U.S. was 21.5%, a decrease over the previous year. According to a survey conducted in 2023, the most popular sports activity in the U.S. (at 35% of respondents) was not a physical fitness program or sporting games, but hiking.

The idea of a rise of fitness in the U.S. can be somewhat misleading. As recently reported by Forbes, only 28% of Americans are meeting physical activity guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While we are in the process of looking at and evaluating the "head space" of people, it is worth looking at this question of why folks continue to avoid doing something -- physical activity -- that can improve their health, even when it is readily available.

"Why is it so tough to get people to do something so good for and accessible to them?" asks TIME magazine's Jamie Ducharme in a recent featured story. "Physical limitations and health problems are certainly a factor for many people, since more than half of U.S. adults have some kind of chronic condition. Modern life deserves much of the blame, too, with long, sedentary workdays and infrastructure that often makes it easier to hop in the car than walk or bike somewhere. ... But research suggests there's another obstacle that affects all of us: our brains don't want us to exercise."

"As a society, we no longer move much in the course of daily life, but the evolutionary instinct to conserve energy remains," explains Daniel Lieberman, a human evolutionary biologist and author of "Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding." "That disinclination, that reluctance, that voice that says, 'I don't want to [exercise],' is completely normal and natural," he says.

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