Real Heartbreakers

Bad hearts and bad marriages seem to go hand in hand, two studies
suggest.

In the first study, published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association, Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute in
Stockholm followed 300 women ages 30 to 65 who had been hospitalized for
heart attacks or chest pain. After five years, the scientists learned
that those women who reported serious marital stress were three times
more likely to have another serious heart episode than those who reported
little or no marital stress.

A bad marriage may also be related to high blood pressure, a major
player in heart disease, suggests a second study in the Archives of
Internal Medicine. Over three years, researchers questioned more than 100
men and women with mild hypertension about their relationships. After
reviewing blood pressure readings and records of the amount of time
subjects spent with their spouses, the researchers found that blood
pressure dropped in people with good marriages and rose in those with bad
marriages.

Marriage counseling--not divorce--may be a viable part of
treatment, says the study's lead author, Brian Baker, M.D., a
psychiatrist at Toronto Western Hospital. "Couples need to learn how to
fight fair and move on," he says. "When couples are cohesive, this seems
to be good for their health."