By: Jennifer Jope for Fibroids1A recent study confirms the adage “don’t go to bed angry,” otherwise that cut on your hand may take longer to heal. Ohio State University researchers have confirmed that marital stress can lead to slower healing times.
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Meditate for 10 to 20 minutes. Use the time to listen to music, relax and think of pleasant things or nothing at all.
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Exercise regularly for 20 to 30 minutes.
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The study, conducted by Dr. Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser and colleagues at OSU, assessed how hostile marital behavior affected a health outcome, wound healing and the production of proinflammatory cytokine (a protein secreted by immune system cells to regulate the immune system).Researchers found that couples with higher levels of hostile behavior experienced slower healing times of blister wounds, which they believe is caused by the “corresponding change in the level of proinflammatory proteins in the blood.”
42 healthy couples, married an average of 12.6 years, participated in the study and ranged in age from 22 to 77. The couple was admitted to the hospital research unit for 24 hours on two different occasions, which were separated by two months. At each visit, participants wore a suction device that created eight uniform blisters on their arms.
During the first hospital visit, Kiecolt-Glaser said the couples were asked to discuss an aspect of themselves they would like to change. The discussion was defined as “supportive” and “positive.” However, during the next visit, couples were asked to discuss a stressful topic.
“During the second visit, we asked them to talk about an area of disagreement,” Kiecolt-Glaser said. “Something that inherently had an emotional element.”
After each visit, the blisters were examined several times over a 12-day span to determine the level of healing. Blood was also drawn to measure cytokine levels.
Although researchers have long associated marital discord as a risk factor for several illnesses, Kiecolt-Glaser said this study proves one thing.
“Wound healing is even more sensitive to stress than previously shown,” she said. “In our past wound-healing experiments, we looked at more severe stressful events. This was just a marital discussion that lasted only a half-hour. The fact that even this can bump the healing back an entire day for minor wounds says that wound-healing is a really sensitive process.”
Researchers discovered that blister wounds healed slower following a conflict than after interactions with social support. Also, couples who displayed consistently higher levels of hostile behavior across both interactions healed at 60 percent of the rate of low-hostile couples and had a median time to healing of one day longer.
Local cytokine production, the protein which helps wounds heal, was lower at injured sites after a conflict. Blood samples taken from highly hostile couples revealed even more. The levels of one particular cytokine increased one-and-a-half times over those in less hostile partnerships. Researchers said increased levels of the cytokine at the site of a wound stimulates healing, but the same levels circulating in the bloodstream is problematic. If the levels of cytokine remain higher than normal, it has been linked to age-related illnesses, such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
High-hostile couples also produced larger increases in cytokine levels the morning after a conflict than after a supportive interaction compared with low-hostile couples.
Kiecolt-Glaser points out that the level of stress also plays a role in healing. A small bickering match has a lesser impact than a large-scale argument. She also said women may be affected differently than men because women tend to be more sensitive to hostility. Kiecolt-Glaser also points out that any and all types of stress will most likely slow the body’s healing time.
“If chronically hostile or abrasive relationships produce more frequent and more pronounced proinflammatory cytokine changes, then individuals in troubled relationships could be at greater risk over time,” the researchers said.
