A walk through the streets of New York during the pandemic echoes the loneliness and isolation many Americans are feeling in their battle against a virus that has brought multiple traumas — with no end in sight.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Updated: 2020-10-22 09:35:00
Smart Talk Thursday night; Social isolation’s damaging effects and the unique importance of Vitamin D
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Merideth Bucher/WITF
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
A walk through the streets of New York during the pandemic echoes the loneliness and isolation many Americans are feeling in their battle against a virus that has brought multiple traumas — with no end in sight.
Smart Talk will not air at 9am today, as the Senate Judiciary Committee finalizes hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
Social isolation impacts every facet of a person’s life. It not only affects one’s mental health, but it also raises the risk of disease progression in physical health.
Human beings are social by their very nature and when isolated, by geography or a global pandemic, negative things can happen on a profound scale.
Two social science researchers from Millersville University studied how poverty and social isolation in a rural area (Lancaster County) affects people with this experience. Now their research is expanding to include the impact of isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.
Appearing on Smart Talk to share their findings are Laura Brierton Granruth, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Master of Social Work director and Jennifer M. Frank, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work both at Millersville University.
Vitamin D is known to many as the vitamin that added to milk and other beverages because it works synergistically with calcium to strengthen bones. Adding Vitamin D to milk began in the United States in the 1930’s to help reduce rickets and bone deformities in children.
Health professionals now understand that the “sunshine vitamin” actually serves other important functions in the body, to include offering improved resistance to certain diseases and regulating mood.
Smart Talk is joined by Dr. Meena Venigalla, MD, Endocrinologist with Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health to offer more information about this important vitamin.
