Sunday, October 14, 2007

Bad Relationships Increase the Risk of Heart Disease

Here's another reason to work on your relationship. A new study from London concludes that the negative aspects of a relationship such as not confiding in or not feeling close to your partner can increase the risk of coronary heart disease by 34%.

Dr Roberto De Vogli (University College, London, UK) and colleagues studied 9011 British civil servants (6114 men and 2897 women) and assessed negative aspects of close relationships and other social-support measures with a questionnaire. Of these subjects, 80% cited marriage or a partnership as their closest relationship. Associations between negative aspects of relationships and coronary events were determined during an average of 12.2 years of follow-up.

After adjustment for a number of factors, including sociodemographic, biological (obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cholesterol levels), and health behaviors (smoking, alcohol intake, exercise, and fruit and vegetable consumption), they found that people who experienced negative aspects of a close relationship had a 34% higher risk of incident coronary events than those who did not.

Although women and people in a lower socioeconomic classes were more likely to be exposed to negative aspects of a close relationship, there was not a significant difference in their risk for developing heart disease. Negative interactions in close relationships produced similar effects on coronary events regardless of sex and social position.

More studies are needed to examine the neuroendocrine and inflammatory changes which may be triggered by emotional events and therefore increase the risk of heart disease.

References: De Vogli R, Chandola T, and Marmot MG. Negative aspects of close relationships and heart disease. Arch Intern Med 2007; 167:1951-1957.

Image courtesy of: Richard Edwards, Angry Couple.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, I have had a recent personal experience which leads me to believe that the results of the London research are indeed possible. 8 months ago my dear wife passed away and the stress and pain has been so intense that last month I suffered a mild heart attack. My doctor attributed this to stress as I am not an apparent candidated for heart attacks.

In any event, I purchased a book online on how to prevent heart attack and whilst it is too early to draw conclusions on the methods laid out in this book, I seem to feel a bit better.

Anonymous said...

sorry to post something irrelevant -but my Gmail has been hacked into and the HQ phone number doesn't let me speak to anyone. I've reported "someone has broken into my account" 5 times. I've contacted the police and the FBI, all are saying I need to contact Google. I need help fast! I work in online video and my career is contingent on that account! I need help fast.

-Brian Gonzalez
bgonzalez@sva.edu
210-683-6027

Dr. Taraneh Razavi said...

Brian

I will email you regarding this issue.

Zac said...

You are mistakenly identifying the negative aspects. The risk was associated with e.g., conflict, not lack of confiding. The support aspects you mention were in fact not associated with increased risk in the study.

link to abstract

"Confiding/emotional and practical support were not associated with incident coronary events."

So it's not enough for the relationship to be simply weak in order to increase risk ... it has to be actively bad.

ScienceDaily article

Anonymous said...

I would think that the neuroendocrine effects of stress would spill over to the ubiquitous NKCC1 transporter and at least increase blood pressure.

Best,
Glen

Anonymous said...

Thanks Best Regards
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