Anju Grover/New Delhi, 2018-08-15
Fighting between married couple can adversely affect their health. Believe it or not, a study has confirmed that fighting can have negative impact of the health of couple. The study done by Ohio State University researcher Janice Kiecolt Glaser, was published in the prestigious journal from United States `Psychoneuroendocrinology', journal carried the study which has many useful and critical findings. According to the study, fighting with your spouse may deteriorate your health, a new study has found.
These findings have suggested that married people who fight are more likely to suffer from leaky guts -- a problem that unleashes bacteria into the blood and can drive up disease-causing inflammation. Lead author Kiecolt-Glaser said that this everyday marital distress -- at least for some people -- is causing changes in the gut that lead to inflammation and, potentially, illness.
How was study conducted?
Team members had recruited around 50 healthy married couples, surveyed them about their relationships and then encouraged them to discuss and try to resolve a conflict likely to provoke strong disagreement. The couples were left alone for these discussions, videotaped the 20-minute interactions and later watched how they fought. Researchers had then categorised their verbal and non-verbal fighting behaviours, with special interest in hostility -- things such as dramatic eye rolls or criticism of one's partner. Then they drew comparison like blood drawn pre-fight to blood drawn post-fight. One of the researcher said that men and women who demonstrated more hostile behaviours during the observed discussions had higher levels of one biomarker for leaky gut -- LPS-binding protein -- than their mellower peers.
Outcome of the study
Evidence of leaky gut was even greater in study participants who had particularly hostile interactions with their spouses and a history of depression or another mood disorder, they added. The study found a strong, significant link between hostility and the biomarker LBP, which indicates the presence of bacteria in the blood. And there was a strong link between that biomarker and evidence of inflammation.
Suggestions
Lifestyle changes can contribute to decreased risk of gut-related inflammation include diets high in lean proteins, healthful fats, fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Probiotics might also be useful, Kiecolt-Glaser noted.
Psychoneuroendocrinology -background
Psychoneuroendocrinology publishes papers dealing with the interrelated disciplines of psychology, neurobiology, endocrinology, immunology, neurology, and psychiatry, with an emphasis on multidisciplinary studies aiming at integrating these disciplines in terms of either basic research or clinical implications. One of the main goals is to understand how a variety of psychobiological factors interact in the expression of the stress response as it relates to the development and/or maintenance of neuropsychiatric illnesses. The journal is international and comprises original research papers, reviews of an area of the literature, or at an appropriate stage in the development of the author's own work, commentaries in areas of current interest, short communications and book reviews. Although reviews, editorials and commentaries are usually by invitation, interested authors can contact one of the Co-Editors-in-Chief to discuss the suitability of topics for either category of manuscripts.
Little bit about researcher Kiecolt-Glaser and her work
She has been doing research on marital stress and health for the past many years. For instance, In the early 1980s,Kiecolt-Glaser came across a book on the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology,which concerns the interplay between behaviour,the immune and endocrine systems and the brain and nervous system. And they wondered about the role that relationships play in health and about the effects of marital stress,which can be a source of non-traumatic but chronic strain. However, Glasers recruited 76 women,half of whom were married,the other half separated or divorced. They wanted to identify which women were emotionally struggling the most.
The results showed the women in unhappy relationships and the women who remained emotionally hung up on their ex-husbands had decidedly weaker immune responses than the women who were in happier relationships (or were happily out of them).
Though pleased with this study,the Glasers knew that they had succeeded in taking the measure of marital happiness and health only at a single moment. The couple were also curious to study the effect of marital stress as it unfolded.
What happens to the body minute by minute,hour by hour,when couples engage in hostile marital disputes? To find this out,they recruited a group of 90 seemingly happy newlywed couples. Each couple was hooked to tubes so blood samples could be drawn at regular intervals,and the husband and wife were seated face to face. Obscured by a curtain,the researchers watched the couples on video monitors. The participants,as they had been prompted to do,discussed their most volatile topics of marital conflict,like housework,sex or interference from a mother-in-law. As expected,the couples who exhibited the most negative and hostile behaviour during the conflict discussion showed the largest decline in immune-system function during the 24-hour study period.The data strongly suggested that marital stress could affect the body in striking ways,but the Glaser team had yet to prove that marital conflict had any truly meaningful or lasting effect on health.
