Thursday, January 3, 2008

Does he make you stress less?

In “yet another reason to dump a loser” news: To unwind after a stressful day’s work, women can avail themselves of a few options: a glass of wine, the health club’s sadistic Spinning® class, or simply hurrying home to hubby--if they’re happily married, that is.

Psychologists at UCLA have found that happily-joined women recover from the effects of work-related stress faster than less-happily married women. The findings are based on the levels of cortisol, a “stress hormone,” that researchers measured in the saliva of study subjects. Thirty couples participated in the one week study; all the couples had at least two kids, a mortgage and two full-time jobs. (My cortisol level is up just thinking about it.) How blissful the union (or not) didn’t seem to have an effect on the stress hormone patterns in men.

It may be that men shoulder more of the domestic load for women in happier marriages--the psychologists aren’t sure. Still, the study suggests that, for women, a happy relationship may be good for your health. (Guys, in less scientific terms, think: offer foot rub, help with homework, cook dinner, put kids to bed.)

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