When you break up with someone, it feels like your heart is hurting physically (and there's a scientifically sound reason for that!). But it turns out that love just might boost your overall heart health too.
For a new study published in Psychological Science, researchers from the University of Utah found that feeling—and giving—support to your spouse or significant other can actually impact your cardiovascular health.
In the study, which focused on couples who had been married for an average of 36 years, participants were asked to rate how helpful or how upsetting their partners had been during times when they needed advice or support. Then researchers measured the calcification of their coronary arteries. Those partners who felt their significant others had been ambivalent in their support—sometimes helpful, sometimes upsetting—had the highest rates of calcification.
According to study author Bert Uchino: "The findings suggest that couples who have more ambivalent views of each other actively interact or process relationship information in ways that increase their stress or undermine the supportive potential in the relationship. This, in turn, may influence their cardiovascular disease risk." The researchers are going to explore more about why this could be.
Hey, might be a good reason to give (and get) a supportive hug today, don't you think?