Marital Stress Affects Healing? - BBC Article.

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Stress 'hinders healing process'

The stress caused by a 30-minute row with a spouse is enough to slow wound

healing by a day, US researchers say. The Ohio State University team focused

on 42 married couples and found wounds on hostile couples healed at 60% of the

healing rate for non-hostile couples. The team told the journal Archives of

General Psychiatry the findings showed hospitals should try to minimise stress

for patients ahead of surgery. This could lead to shorter hospital stays and

save money, they added. Blisters monitored The researchers focused on a

group of 42 married couples who had been together an average of at least 12

years. Each couple was admitted into the University's General Clinical

Research Center for two, 24-hour-long visits, separated by a two-month interval.

During each visit, both the husband and wife were fitted with a small suction

device which created eight tiny uniform blisters on their arms.

 

Wound-healing is a really sensitive process

Professor Jan Kiecolt-Glaser

The skin was removed from each blister and another device placed directly

over each small wound, forming a protective bubble, from which researchers could

extract fluids that normally fill such blisters. The husbands and wives also

completed questionnaires intended to gauge their level of stress at the

beginning of the experiment. Each person was also fitted with a catheter

through which blood could be drawn for later analysis. During the first visit,

each spouse was asked to talk for several minutes about some characteristic or

behaviour which he or she would like to change. This was a supportive, positive

discussion. But during the second visit, they were asked to talk about an area

of disagreement which provoked strong feelings. Analysis showed wounds took a

day longer to heal after the arguments than they did after the initial

supportive discussion. Wounds on the hostile couples healed at only 60% of the

rate of couples considered to have low levels of hostility.

Key chemical Blood samples from those highly hostile couples showed

differences as well. Levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a key immune system

chemical that controls wound healing, were also particularly elevated in the

hostile couples. High IL-6 levels are linked to long-term inflammation, which

in turn is implicated in a range of age-related illnesses, including

cardiovascular disease and arthritis. Researcher Professor Jan Kiecolt-Glaser

said: " In our past wound-healing experiments, we looked at more severe stressful

events. " This was just a marital discussion that lasted only a half-hour.

" The fact that even this can bump the healing back an entire day for minor

wounds says that wound-healing is a really sensitive process. " Professor Steve

Bloom, an expert in stress at Imperial College London, said " These findings are

interesting, and illustrate yet again the control that the mind has over the

body. " However, Professor Bloom said the skin was particularly

sensitive to emotional states - for instance increased blood flow quickly

results in blushing when somebody is embarrassed. Speculation He said it was

" speculative " to draw conclusions about wound healing, for instance, of the

major internal organs from research focused on the skin. He also said that

slowing down the immune response could sometimes be positive. " Cross infection

rates shot up when people started living in cities, " he said. " More than 50%

of people died in the first year of life. So those that survived developed

hyperactive immune systems to help them combat infection. " However, this has

left us prey to autoimmune diseases such as eczema and asthma, so if stress

slows down the immune response a bit that may not be such a bad thing. "

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4499080.stm

 

Published: 2005/12/05 23:50:51 GMT

 

© BBC MMV

 

 

 

 

We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war

than we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.

-- General Omar Bradley

 

 

 

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