Injuries Heal Slower In Bad Marriages

Having trouble bouncing back from a sports injury? Your marriage could be to blame. A new study conducted at Ohio State University suggests that marital strife can delay–up to twice as long–the time it takes to recover from injury. The Daily Mail reports that the study looked at 42 couples who had been married at least 12 years, and required each couple to make two visits to the university, where they were fitted with a device that created tiny blisters on their arms. On one visit, the couples were asked to have a  "supportive, positive discussion"  about things that they would like to change in their relationship. On the other, they were asked to talk about disagreements with each other,
especially those which had an "inherently emotional element". Researchers found that the injuries took a day longer to heal after the argument than they did after the supportive discussion, and that wounds on the more argumentative couples healed only 60 per cent as
quickly as those inflicted on couples considered to have low levels of
hostility. The research, reported in The Archives of General Psychiatry,  also revealed that that IL-6, which can weaken immune systems, was one-and-a-half times
higher in couples who were consistently angry with each other than in
those who were less hostile. Read all about it.