When couple arguments are part of everyday life, the induced stress could be responsible for the development of certain inflammations, or even diseases. This is what the results of a new study suggest.
Married life is never a smooth river, and when the relationship gets a little too hectic, your health can take a hit. American researchers have found a link between frequent marital disputes and the risk of developing certain diseases. The results of the study were published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
43 couples analyzed
Tensions, arguments and other bickering increase stress. Researchers at Ohio University wanted to understand what the potential health consequences were. For this, they recruited 43 healthy married couples. The latter responded to questionnaires about their romantic relationship and were then encouraged to talk to each other about their issues of argument. The researchers left them alone for 20 minutes but filmed their exchanges. Then they viewed this footage, analyzing for marks of hostility like criticism, or when one of them rolled their eyes in disagreement. Blood tests were taken before and after the discussions.
Leaky gut syndrome
The researchers studied the level of a biomarker associated with leaky gut syndrome: the LBP protein. Not all doctors around the world agree on whether this syndrome exists or not, but for those who believe it is responsible for diseases such as chronic fatigue or multiple sclerosis. According to them, bacteria and other toxins pass into the blood through the porous intestine and cause disease.
A higher risk of inflammation
The people who behaved the most hostile during the discussion had the highest levels of LBP protein. This rate was even higher in patients with previous depression or with mood disorders. According to scientists, the LBP protein is also linked to the level of inflammation. The patients with the highest levels of LPB had on average a level of C-reactive protein, that which attests to inflammation, 79% higher. Couples arguing often would therefore be more at risk of being affected by the syndrome of the intestine permeable and therefore by certain diseases.
These findings did not really surprise Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, one of the lead authors of this study: “marital stress is particularly strong because your partner is often your main support, and during a complicated marriage, it becomes. your main source of stress “. With these results, the expression “to marry for better or for worse” takes on its full meaning.
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