A healthy marriage doesn’t bring about chest pains or risk of a ,  as an unhappy marriage does, recent research shows. Today’s Archives of Internal Medicines presents this conclusion in a study.

Roberto DeVogli, a lecturer in epidemiology at University College London points out that, in a lousy marriage, people are mentally haunted by negative memories more often than positive ones and because of that “this might trigger biological reactions that can lead to a heart attack and angina”.
DeVogli made his research on 9,011 British civil servants over a period of 12 years and he discovered that 34% of his study population that were involved in bad relationships experienced heart problems.

Other studies had already made a connection between bad marriages and heart problems.

A study reveals that unhappily married women are three times more likely to have heart and metabolic diseases.

All the same, women who didn’t speak up when they’re upset on their spouses are more exposed to such problems then the ones that do, another study points this out.

It seems that negative feelings and thoughts, exposure to bad criticism, arguments and other types of conflict cause emotional fluctuation which manifest through hormonal and chemical changes that ware off the human body and create blood clotting and other disturbances.

“It is possible that negative aspects of close relationships are more important for the health of individuals because of the power of negative close relationships to activate stronger emotions (worrying and anxiety) and the consequent physiological effects,” the authors write. “In contrast, other more positive forms of support may not affect the physiology of individuals in a measurable or clinically relevant way.”

Given the fact that cardiac problems are the most incidental in the human deaths all over the world, it’s important to identify groups of individuals who are at risk in order to provide them psychological support and to teach them how to deal with their negative thoughts and feelings.