Alternative Health Blog

You can conjure a few theories when you hear this University of Utah study about how strained marriages cause women to suffer higher blood pressure and other heart disease symptoms compared to other wives. Theory one: Wives care more than husbands about a bad marriage. Two: Women are even aware there is a problem. Three: You get the idea.

The Utah study look at nearly 300 couples married more than 20 years. What it showed is women in marriages with high stress—determined by questionnaires about relationship and mental state plus lab tests—were more prone to cardiovascular complications and gaining weight. What’s more, women are more likely to suffer abnormal blood sugar swings (a precursor to diabetes) and high cholesterol than men. Just not Ozzie and Harriet any way you look at it.

As it turns out, both men and women feel depressed about rocky marriages—there’s got to be some hope in that finding, right? But wives are the partners to suffer the brunt of  heart disease symptoms because of it.

If you are wondering, couples in strained marriage fight more frequently, especially about kids, sex, money and in-laws. A particular marker of a strained marriage is consistent hostility. Yet, the questionnaires administered by Utah researchers showed most of the couples were “fairly satisfied” with their marriage.

The researchers, who presented their work at a recent conference of the American Psychosomatic Society, reported that they wanted to be careful about “trafficking in stereotypes.” That said, they said women tend to value the quality of relationships more than men do and “perhaps, even more important, they pay attention more, so when it is not going well, they’re aware of it and more concerned about it than men.”

That confirms Theory One and Two.

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.