Couples, please take note. Fighting with your spouse may deteriorate your health, a study has found. The findings suggest that married people who fight are more likely to suffer from leaky guts — a problem that unleashes bacteria into the blood and can drive up disease-causing inflammation. “We think that this everyday marital distress is causing changes in the gut that lead to inflammation and, potentially, illness,” said lead author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser.
For the study, the team recruited around 50 healthy married couples, surveyed them about their relationships and then encouraged them to discuss and try to resolve a conflict likely to provoke strong disagreement.
Men and women who demonstrated more hostile behaviours during the discussions had higher levels of one biomarker for leaky gut — LPS-binding protein — than their mellower peers, the researchers said. Evidence of leaky gut was even greater in study participants, who had particularly hostile interactions with their spouses and a history of depression or another mood disorder, they added.
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