Research shows interesting physiological links in spouses

By Rechell McDonald
There have been several studies in the last few decades that focused on marriages and the links between marriage and things like mortality, blood pressure, stress, etc. A new study, however, has discovered an interesting link between all these things and the actual couple – rather than just how being married in general impacted one’s health in general.
The study discovered that over time, couples, particularly where poor marriage quality was found, experienced the effects of their spouses stress, on their own physiology. For example, if the wife was stressed out about a doctor’s visit, it would affect her blood pressure – which is easy enough to understand – but what is most interesting is that the husband’s blood pressure was also affected in kind, despite the husband not actually feeling any stress. Although the affects were not as apparent in a reverse situation, researchers believe that husbands mirror or physiologically sympathize with their wives more readily because the wife’s stress often led to a decline in the care and duties she performed that benefited the husband. In other words, the husband would recognize that his wife is stressed, unconsciously do the math that would determine she was incapable of doing something he was relying on her to do (say prepping Christmas dinner for the whole family), and he would then, in turn, respond with a rise in his own blood pressure without being aware.
Granted, the above examples are a little simplistic, but only to illustrate the point. That being that within a relationship of a long-term nature, couples do begin to experience the physiological side-effects of the stress their partners are dealing with. Interesting. This can perhaps be bundled in with sympathetic weight-gain during pregnancies and women who are close friends synching up menstrual cycles. We are a little more in tune with each other than we realize.