AP41104

Science Summary

Scientist have recently discovered that unhappy marriages can not only affect your heart on an emotional level but on a physical level as well. "Growing evidence suggests that the quality and patterns of one's social relationships may be linked with a variety of health outcomes, including heart disease," (University of Pittsburgh). Thomas Kamarck, an author of the new study, also talks about how the observations aren't just made in evaluating general relationships but how they can relate specific social interactions to different heart issues. Given the size of the effect in the study and the relationship between carotid artery plaque and disease, Joseph's findings, made at Pitt, indicate that those with marital interactions light on the positive may have an 8.5 percent greater risk of suffering heart attack or stroke than those with a surfeit of good feelings (Joseph, 3). The study used 281 healthy, employed, middle-aged adults who were married or lived with their partner as if they were married. Scientist monitored their interactions hourly for four days, while the spouses rated their interaction with each other as positive or negative. Carotid artery thickness was then measured. Carotid arteries are arteries that supply the head and neck with oxygenated blood. The partners with more negative interactions had thicker carotids. Since there are limitations to this experiment this is not completely proven. Although, the strong correlation does help, correlation isn't causation (Barrett Law #7).

References:
 * 1) Nataria Tennille Joseph, Thomas W. Kamarck, Matthew F. Muldoon, Stephen B. Manuck. **Daily Marital Interaction Quality and Carotid Artery Intima-Medial Thickness in Healthy Middle-Aged Adults**. //Psychosomatic Medicine//, 2014; 76 (5): 347 DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000071
 * 2) University of Pittsburgh. "Marriage and healthy hearts: Correlation between unhappy marital interactions, cardiovascular disease risk." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 June 2014. .

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