A Stressful Marriage Can Be as Bad for the Heart as Regular Smoking
Generally, marriage lowers the risk of pneumonia, cancer, the need for surgery, and heart attacks. So overall, you might think that since you are married, you are naturally going to be more healthy than you would be if you were single. However, new research, reported in the NY Times, tells a different story.
Living in a stressful marriage can be as dangerous to your health as smoking regularly. In fact, a stressful marriage can lead to poorer health than if you were not married at all. In a study of over 300 hundred women, those who were experiencing the highest levels of stress were three times more vulnerable to a heart attack or to have the need for a by-pass surgery.
However, couples who touch each other during their conflicts or even use a caring term for the other like, “Honey,” showed less impact of stress. Those couples who knew how to make up after a fight faired much better.
Clearly the take-away from this new research indicates that marriage can be good for your health. However if you are in a marriage where conflicts are unresolved, you will not reap the benefit unless your and your partner learn how to lower the intensity of the hostility and name-calling and to develop rituals of making up and reconnecting.
