Monday, December 10, 2007

Broken Heart Can End One's Life!

Writers love to use "broken heart" to describe some of their characters who fail in their love affairs in romantic novels. But that does not actually mean that the character with a broken heart will actually die of heart disease.

But after you have read the results of a research conducted by University College London on the 9,000 British civil servants, you would probably change your perspective: one is possible to die of a "broken heart".

The study, as reported in the Archive of Internal Medicine, found that stress and anxiety of hostile, angry relationships can actually raise the risk of developing heart disease. The negative intimate relationships could influence a person's heart condition. In other words, the findings showed that coronary heart disease is associated with negative aspects of close relationship.

The selected civil servants were asked to complete questionnaires about negative aspects of their relationships with a spouse or close friend between 1985 and 1988 or between 1989 and 1990. Questions such as whether people had emotional support, a chance to talk with someone about problems or whether they could count on a partner or close friend for something as simple as ride to the grocery store were included in the study.

The entire research spanned over a period of 12 years. It was found that people, who reported that arguments and other types of conflict were common, had a 34 percent greater risk of heart attacks or chest pain.

Many of the researches done before aimed to find out the "protective effect" - more social connections can lead to a healthier life. In comparison, only few studies have actually investigated how close relationships or marriages affect health like the one mentioned here.

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