Honey, You're Killing Me

Couples will joke around how their spouse will talk them to death. Well, a new study that's written about in the NY Times (registration required) suggests that the way a couple argues could substantially damage their health. Two factors played a role in health. The first is bottling up feelings to avoid an argument. According to the study, this seemed to only affect women. The second major factor was the manner in which a couple argues. By watching video, researchers were able to tell who was more likely to have heart disease based on the style of arguing. For women, their health was affected based on how warm or hostile an argument was. For men, the tone didn't matter, what affected them was if the argument was a control issue.

What's really amazing about this study was that the style of argument was as much of a factor for heart disease as smoking or high cholesterol according to Timothy W. Smith, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, who presented the study last year to the American Psychosomatic Society. The lesson here: be nice to each other and don't bottle things up.