A lousy marriage might literally make you sick. Marital strife and other bad personal relationships can raise your risk for heart disease, researchers reported Monday. What it likely boils down to is stress — a well-known contributor to health problems, as well as a potential byproduct of troubled relationships, the scientists said. In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, those with the worst close relationships were 34 percent more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends. The study, in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, follows previous research that has linked health problems with being single and having few close relationships. In the new study, researchers focused more on the quality of marriage and other important relationships. "What we add here is that, 'OK, being married is in general good, but be careful about the kind of person you have married.' The quality of the relationship matters," said lead author Roberto De Vogli, a researcher with University College in London. De Vogli said his research team is doing tests to see if study participants with bad relationships have any biological evidence of stress that could contribute to heart disease. That includes inflammation and elevated levels of stress hormones. Men and women with bad relationships faced equal risks, according to the study. Volunteers filled out questionnaires asking them to rate the person to whom they felt closest on several measures. These included questions about to what extent does that person "give you worries, problems and stress?" They also were asked about whether they felt they could confide in that person, or whether talking with that person made them feel worse. Over the following 12 years, 589 participants had heart attacks or other heart problems. Those with the highest negative scores on the questionnaire had the highest risks, even taking into account other factors related to heart disease such as obesity, high blood pressure and smoking.
| 本周一公布的一份研究報告指出，糟糕的婚姻可能會影響身體健康。婚姻狀況不佳等不良的人際關係會增大患心髒病的風險。 科學家認為，這可能主要歸結為壓力，壓力是影響身體健康的一個重要因素，也是不良人際關係的潛在“副產品”。 研究人員對9011名英國公務員進行了長達12年的跟蹤調查，其中大多數人為已婚人士。調查發現，在這12年間，與身邊的配偶、親戚、好友關係最差的調查對象突發心髒病及出現其它心髒問題的幾率要比關係良好的人高34％。 該研究在本周一的《內科醫學檔案》上公布。此前的研究主要探討了單身及親密關係少對健康的影響。而該項最新研究則更多地著眼於婚姻及其他各種重要關係的質量對於健康的影響。 研究報告的主要撰寫者、倫敦大學學院研究員羅伯特•德•沃格裏說：“我們的新結論是，‘總的來說，結婚當然是件好事；但你得弄清楚他（她）到底是個什麽樣的人。婚姻質量很重要。” 德•沃格裏說，目前，他的研究小組正在對研究對象進行測試，以確定“關係不良者”體內是否具有與會導致心髒病的壓力有關的生物學依據，如炎症、壓力激素水平升高等等。 研究表明，無論男女，這幾種關係質量較差的人都會麵臨同樣的風險。調查問卷要求調查對象根據幾個標準給自己覺得最親密的人評分，問題包括“那個人給你帶來了多大的憂愁、煩惱和壓力”。 以及他們是否信賴這個人，或者與此人交談是否會讓他們感覺更糟糕。 調查發現，12年來，共有589名調查對象突發心髒病或出現其它心髒問題。調查問卷負分最高的調查對象患心髒病的風險最高，這其中已考慮到如肥胖、高血壓及吸煙等與心髒疾病有關的其它因素。 |
