Couple problems influence the health of the heart
When we talk about heart problems, in addition to referring to the ailments of the main organ of the circulatory system, we speak metaphorically of sentimental problems. Now, the study National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, has shown that the quality of the relationship in marriage influences the health of the heart, increasing the adverse effects on women and the elderly.
The study, funded by the US National Institutes of Health and published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, analyzed for five years data of about 1,200 married men and women who participated in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project and that they were between 57-85 years old at the beginning of the analysis.
The poor quality of the relationship, a risk to the heart
The objective of this project was to find out if a relationship could be established between the quality of marriage and the risk of heart disease over a long period of time. In addition, it was intended to determine if this relationship could vary according to sex and age, that is, if it influenced women more than men or vice versa and if older marriages had a greater or lesser risk of suffering them.
For this, the study included a survey with questions about the quality of marriage and laboratory tests, in addition to the information on cardiovascular health given by the participants themselves, such as:
- Heart attacks.
- Stroke.
- Hypertension.
- High levels of C-reactive protein in the blood.
Thus, the results indicated that indeed, a marriage with problems, which could be considered to have a "bad quality", has a greater effect on the health of the heart than a positive marriage. That is, a marriage where, for example, the spouses are intolerant or excessively demanding one with the other, will form a marriage more detrimental to cardiac health than beneficial can be a marriage in which the two support and complement each other.
The quality of the relationship, more important in advanced ages
This is also the first study to conduct a health assessment in older people. In this sense, and after the results obtained in the study, it is suggested the need for counseling and programs aimed at promoting the marital quality and well-being of older couples, aged 70-80 years.
Along the same lines, Hui Liu, a sociologist at Michigan State University (USA) points out that, although couples counseling currently focuses mostly on younger couples, "these results show that the quality of marriage is equal of important in the most advanced ages, even though the couple has been married for 40 or 50 years ".
Thus, the importance of the quality of marriage when getting older is the same as in young people or even more important, at least for the health of the heart. In fact, according to the results, the effect of marital quality on cardiovascular risk becomes much stronger at older ages. Therefore, progressively, as Hui Liu points out, with the passage of time, the stress of a bad marriage can stimulate more cardiovascular and more intense responses due to the decrease in the immune function and the increase in the fragility that usually appears in old age
The heart of the woman, the one who suffers the most
On the other hand, being male or female also determines how the quality of marriage influences the health of the heart. Specifically, the quality of marriage has a greater effect on women's heart health than on men's, possibly because men tend to internalize negative feelings and, therefore, are more likely to feel depressed and develop cardiovascular problems.
However, in the case of men, heart disease does not lead to a decrease in the quality of marriage, something that, as we have seen, does happen with women. Thus, while wives have been observed to be more likely to support and care for their husbands if they are nursing, on the contrary, men are less likely to take care of their wives if they fall ill.
Patricia Núñez de Arenas
