love

My reading is about ‘Love Hurts…but it Can Also Heal’ state University had married couples create minor blister wounds on their skin, then discuss a neutral topic. Two months later, the test was repeated, but this time couples talked about a point of conflict. The result: couples took longer to heal after airing disagreements than when covering neutral round. Hostile couples who were critical and sarcastic healed slowest and produced less of the proteins linked to healing. Dr Brian Baker, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, performed another study that showed the physical effects of marital harmony. Married couples with mild hypertension wore blood-pressure monitors for 24 hours and completed a questionnaire about the quality of their marriage. Bad marriages raised while good marriages lowered blood pressure for couples. “Marriage tends to be good for your health, but it’s the quality of your marriage that’s important,” says Baker.