Marriages and Heart Disease - 10/9/07

Tue Oct 9 12:13:44 EDT 2007

Here is a google link to dozens of articles announcing new study out of the
UK on marriage and heart health. I'll print two articles and give you the
google link http://tinyurl.com/yuaynw so you can read all that's being
written (if you're curious).  I find the different interpretations
fascinating - some headlines say "Bad Marriages Hurt the Heart" and others
"Good Marriages Help the Heart". Some cautioning not to divorce if you're in
a troubled marriage pointing out that other studies show living single is
also shown to be bad for heart disease. Others offer suggestions for
learning how to improve a lousy marriage.  Some point out contradictions in
various heart health/marriage studies.  Some note that this particular study
controlled for smoking and several physical factors but didn't control for
personality traits  maybe there are personalities that have the 34%
increased risk whether married or single - and, some allow that the study
looked at 'close relationships' of these married folks, not just the
relationship with their spouse. No one is claiming that there was random
assignment or that this was a controlled study.  Which is all to say, think
how confused this must leave the public.  And, think of the many ways this
research can be used - "I need to get divorced before I drop dead". - d

################
- BAD MARRIAGE MAY LITERALLY HURT HEART

Bad Marriage May Literally Hurt Heart
Associated Press 
By LINDSEY TANNER - 10/09/07

CHICAGO (AP) - A lousy marriage might literally make you sick. Marital
strife and other bad personal relationships can raise your risk for heart
disease, researchers reported Monday.

What it likely boils down to is stress - a well-known contributor to health
problems, as well as a potential byproduct of troubled relationships, the
scientists said.

In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, those with
the worst close relationships were 34 percent more likely to have heart
attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with
good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends.

The study, in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, follows previous
research that has linked health problems with being single and having few
close relationships. In the new study, researchers focused more on the
quality of marriage and other important relationships.

"What we add here is that, 'OK, being married is in general good, but be
careful about the kind of person you have married.' The quality of the
relationship matters," said lead author Roberto De Vogli, a researcher with
University College in London.

De Vogli said his research team is doing tests to see if study participants
with bad relationships have any biological evidence of stress that could
contribute to heart disease. That includes inflammation and elevated levels
of stress hormones.

Another recent study also looked at quality of relationships but had
different results. There was no association between marital woes in general
and risks for heart disease or early death. But it did find, over a 10-year
follow-up, that women who keep silent during marital arguments had an
increased risk of dying compared with wives who expressed their feelings
during fights. What appeared to matter more for men was just being married;
married men were less likely to die during the follow-up than single men.

That study, of nearly 4,000 men and women, was published online in July in
the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

In De Vogli's study, men and women with bad relationships faced equal risks.
Volunteers filled out questionnaires asking them to rate the person to whom
they felt closest on several measures. These included questions about to
what extent does that person "give you worries, problems and stress?"

They also were asked about whether they felt they could confide in that
person, or whether talking with that person made them feel worse.

Over the following 12 years, 589 participants had heart attacks or other
heart problems. Those with the highest negative scores on the questionnaire
had the highest risks, even taking into account other factors related to
heart disease such as obesity, high blood pressure and smoking.

James Coyne, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor who also has
examined the health impact of social relationships, said De Vogli's results
"make intuitive sense." But he said the study found only a weak association
that doesn't prove bad relationships can cause heart disease.

"It is still not clear what to recommend," Coyne said.

"Do we tell people who have negative relationships to get therapy? They may
have other reasons to do so, but I see no basis for them doing so only to
avoid a heart attack," Coyne said.

Ending a bad marriage is not necessarily the answer either, he said, given
evidence that being unmarried also could be a risk.

########################
- HEART TROUBLE LIKELY BEGINS AT HOME
The Washington Times
Oct 9, 2007
By Cheryl Wetzstein

Fighting with a spouse or another close family member is literally bad for
the heart.

People whose primary personal relationships have a lot of negative
interaction are 34 percent more likely to suffer coronary events, such as
chest pain and heart attacks, scientists said in a study published yesterday
in a leading medical journal.

"A person's heart condition seems to be influenced by negative intimate
relationships," wrote Roberto De Vogli of University College London in a
study published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a journal of
the American Medical Association.

Mr. De Vogli and his colleagues studied 9,000 British civil servants over a
12-year period and compared how harmonious their primary relationships were.

The elevated risk remained even after age, employment, weight, cholesterol,
smoking, work stress and other characteristics were considered, they wrote.

The De Vogli study was not restricted to marriage ‹ more than a third of the
British study participants named someone other than a spouse as their
primary close relationship ‹ but it adds to the literature about how the
quality of a marital relationship affects people's health and well-being.

"Married people are generally healthier than unmarried people," the
Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary
for Planning and Evaluation said in a June report on the effects on marriage
on health. But when it comes to specific physical health outcomes, "the
effects of marriage remain largely unaddressed by rigorous research," the
report said.

"It makes sense that [human relationships] affect our physical health," said
Karen Blaisure, a professor in Western Michigan University's family and
consumer sciences department and a clinical member of the American
Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Relationships researcher John Gottman recommends that fighting couples avoid
letting their heart rates exceed 100 beats a minute, she said.

When the heart rate gets that high, "we get less blood to the brain, we
can't hear as well, we may start interpreting what the person is saying as
negative even when it's not," she said. "The calmer we can stay, the more we
have access to our decision-making" skills.

Ms. Blaisure advises couples who aren't dealing well with conflict to seek
help as quickly as possible. Like a physical ailment, she said, "it's
usually easier to treat the sooner you get in."

The De Vogli study suggested that negative relationships affect heart health
because of "cumulative 'wear and tear' on organs and tissues." It also noted
that people tend to "mentally replay negative encounters more than they
replay positive ones" and that "negative relationships activate stronger
emotions" such as worrying and anxiety more than less-conflicted
relationships.

Relationships researcher John Gottman recommends that fighting couples avoid
letting their heart rates exceed 100 beats a minute, she said.

When the heart rate gets that high, "we get less blood to the brain, we
can't hear as well, we may start interpreting what the person is saying as
negative even when it's not," she said. "The calmer we can stay, the more we
have access to our decision-making" skills.

Ms. Blaisure advises couples who aren't dealing well with conflict to seek
help as quickly as possible. Like a physical ailment, she said, "it's
usually easier to treat the sooner you get in."

The De Vogli study suggested that negative relationships affect heart health
because of "cumulative 'wear and tear' on organs and tissues." It also noted
that people tend to "mentally replay negative encounters more than they
replay positive ones" and that "negative relationships activate stronger
emotions" such as worrying and anxiety more than less-conflicted
relationships.

Again, here is the link to the google page where you can find dozens of
reports on this research: http://tinyurl.com/yuaynw

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