The brain on love is a wonderful thing. The initial rush of hormones manifests a whirlwind of emotions that delight and dazzle, even dizzy. The long lasting effects of spending time with the people you love, however, are where the life-saving wonders really happen.
From body to mind, a healthy partnership — romantic or platonic — can significantly improve a person’s quality of life and is strongly associated with better health outcomes. Here are seven ways a good relationship can make you a healthier person, according to experts:
A good marriage could mean a healthier heart
Tying the knot could mean a healthier heart, according to the American Heart Association. A 2017 study published in AMA’s journal discovered unmarried people with heart disease were 52% more likely to have a heart attack or otherwise die from a cardiovascular issue.
In fact, the mortality rate is higher in general for unmarried people, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
Romantic relationships can lead to lower blood pressure
A 2018 study published in the peer reviewed journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine discovered that people in satisfying relationships have significantly lower blood pressure when interacting with their partners. It might be another sign that relationship’s boost heart health.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
“Marriage is robustly associated with better cardiovascular outcomes in the long term and predicts lower blood pressure on a daily basis,” the researchers said. “Yet all marriages are not created equal. The quality of a relationship matters, with higher quality relationships being uniquely associated with improved cardiovascular health.”
“However, the mechanisms underlying the effects of marriage and marital quality on cardiovascular outcomes are not fully understood,” they continued. “It may be that there is a general, beneficial effect of high-quality relationships on cardiovascular outcomes, including lower average BP. On the other hand, people may experience lower BP specific to situations when interacting with a romantic partner and such effects may accumulate to predict better cardiovascular outcomes.”
Having a romantic partner can make life less painful
Pain won’t become a thing of the past, but research has shown that being in a healthy relationship can reduce it. The International Association for the Study of Pain’s research team completed two studies with romantic couples to prove it.
One study was designed to assess how relationship satisfaction affected a person’s experience of pain. Participants who reported greater relationship satisfaction consistently experienced less pain by simply being able to speak to their spouses during the experiments.
The second study focused on the effects of partner empathy on pain, discovering that more empathetic partners led to lower pain scores from their loved ones during experiments.
A happy partnership leads to better sleep
University of Minnesota researchers discovered in 2019 that happy romantic partnerships can improve sleep quality.
“One explanation for these results is that people who have better relationship experiences have other relational skills and stronger social networks that help reduce their exposure to stressful life events,” lead researcher Chloe Huelznitz told the university. “This may improve their ability to cope with stressful events that do occur. Facing fewer stressful events then leads to better sleep quality.”
Love might be good for the gut
The gut’s microbiome is critically important to overall health. Trillions of bacteria, fungi and viruses help make up the body’s microbiome, which — among other things — helps control the immune system. According to the University of Texas at Austin’s Lauryn Gerard, a loving relationship can improve the gut for an immune boost.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“Eighty percent of your immune system (and the vast majority of your body’s microbes) reside in your gut,” according to the University of Texas at Austin. “The feeling of love can help nurture and support your life-enhancing gut microbiome and fight off harmful bacteria that can cause you to feel under the weather.”
A healthy relationship can form healthier behavior
Northwestern Medicine’s Health Beat sat down with the hospital’s Dr. Sheehan D. Fisher to discuss the benefits of a healthy relationship. Romantic or not, according to the doctor, good partnerships can lead to healthier behaviors.
By being in a relationship with someone that inspires and encourages good behaviors, Health Beat reported, a partner can have an easier path to self improvement.
Happy partners can heal faster
Stress reduces the body’s ability to heal, and healthy relationships can lower stress. According to University of Utah Health associate professor of medicine Dr. Benjamin A. Steinberg, the results speak for themselves.
“Generally, we see patients with strong social support having better recoveries,” the doctor told the University of Utah. “That can be from friends or family, or even support from an animal partnership, like a pet.”
A 2005 study published in Archives Of General Psychiatry delved deeper, exploring how wound healing was affected by both positive and negative relationships. Couples were administered blisters so the healing process could be observed.
Couples that reported having spats experienced slower healing than those that were less hostile to each other.
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