People in Happy Relationships Live Longer

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I think we guessed that but here is the article on James Coan, Professor at the University of Virginia:

How did you react the last time you had a fight with that significant someone in your life? With couples, the woman might apologize, or the man might make a joke or express understanding. By doing this, they subtly and briefly lighten the tension as they work their way through a disagreement.

Psychology Professor James Coan discovered a long time ago that by doing this, even when couples fight, they take care of each other. This interplay was significant when Coan designed a study exploring what happens in people’s brains when they behave emotionally or observe other people’s emotions. Coan said, “what we are learning is our emotions are more heavily involved in our day-to-day physical health than we previously thought.

How we deal with our relationships is closely tied to how long we live, how frequently we go to the doctor, how rapidly we recover from injury, how happy we tend to be in our lives.” With his colleagues, Hillary Schaefer and Richard J. Davidson from the University of Wisconsin, Coan sought to demonstrate the neurobiological basis of emotional expression and regulatory processes.

In the study, they used MRI technology to view these responses at the level of glucose metabolism and blood oxygenation in the brain. Because of the importance of emotional connectedness to the study, 16 happily married, heterosexual couples were recruited as test subjects. Wives were placed in the scanner so brain activity could be recorded as each was exposed to the anxiety-producing possibility of an electric shock to the ankle.

Researchers wanted to see what effect different types of emotional support would have in areas of the brain related to the body’s normal fight-or-flight stress response. Readings were taken when the woman was alone in facing this challenge, When a stranger, a male, was present to support her And when her husband offered support. Coan stated, “the scanning environment is pretty hostile to looking at interactions between people.” The MRI machine surrounds the subject’s body and restricts movement. The women weren’t even able to see the support person during the scanning process.

Having the man offer his hand for the woman to hold was about the only intervention possible in this setting. Not surprisingly, the results show there was a healthy reduction in the stress response when test subjects were supported. Stimulation in the regions of the brain that regulate physiological arousal and coordinate large muscles and joints was significantly decreased, no matter who was holding the woman’s hand. However, when it was her husband’s hand she was holding, the response was significantly greater.

Coan said, “When you’re holding a spouse’s hand, you get down-regulation in all of those same systems. But all the other systems that have to do with the conscious regulation of your emotions — having to pay attention to what’s happening with your body and having to become more vigilant for future dangers — all of these other systems come down as well. Your brain doesn’t work as hard when it’s your spouse. What surprised Coan and his colleagues most was the relaxation response demonstrated by what they called “super couples.” In those couples with exceptionally high-quality relationships, “Hand-holding had a significantly greater effect on soothing their brains.”

Tests showed differences involving two structures that were not affected at all in other test subjects. They observed evidence of reduced release of stress hormones by the hypothalamus. These hormones are responsible for inhibiting immune response and other activities that have critical implications for health and well-being.

Of greater interest was the reduction of activity in the right anterior insula. This brain structure modulates the amount of pain stimulus one experiences subjectively. Reduction of activity in this area means test subjects actually felt less pain when they held their husband’s hand.

So it can be said, having someone you love hold your hand really can take the hurt away.
 
The newspaper article that mentioned James Coan's research also mentioned the happy centenarians in Okinawa Japan. There are a lot of 100+ year old healthy Japanese on Okinawa. It appears they eat well and participate in a lot of community events including dancing. The article does not mention if the Japanese centenarians like to dance salsa.
 
The article does not mention if the Japanese centenarians like to dance salsa.
I doubt it :roll: - though I've heard good things about the salsa scene in Naha, the main city in Okinawa.

Japan is one of the longest-living nations, with over 36,000 centenarians. Many of them live in southern islands, and the climate and diet there do seem to be a factor. Those oldies who get interviewed on TV always seem to say the same thing when asked what the secret of their longevity is: "be happy, stay in touch with your family, and enjoy your favourite tipple every night".
 
"be happy, stay in touch with your family, and enjoy your favourite tipple every night".

so according to you guys, the secret to long-life is lots of sex (okay, i'm paraphrasing slightly ;)) and booze - where do i sign up, LOL? ;)

i know there are studies that suggest men in relationships live longer than single men, but single women live longer than married ones... i wonder if they factored that into this latest study, or found out what happened when an unhappy couple held hands.

and why are researchers always giving people electric shocks? are they sadistic like dentists...

...or dance teachers. ;);)
 
i know there are studies that suggest men in relationships live longer than single men, but single women live longer than married ones... i wonder if they factored that into this latest study, or found out what happened when an unhappy couple held hands.

Here is the link to the original article, but its in German:
http://www. zeit.de/2009/17/M-Zusammen-Titel

According to the social network map in the article, close friends nearby are the best relationships. Couples can be a negative, too as divorce, death, illness etc. can increase stress to higher than normal levels.
 
Japan is one of the longest-living nations, with over 36,000 centenarians. Many of them live in southern islands, and the climate and diet there do seem to be a factor. Those oldies who get interviewed on TV always seem to say the same thing when asked what the secret of their longevity is: "be happy, stay in touch with your family, and enjoy your favourite tipple every night".

Japan is the longest living nation even though many Japanese smoke. No. 2 and 3 are Norway and Switzerland. There was an article somewhere else that large income disparity is detrimental to health and longevity whereas small differences in income at a high level of wealth are ideal.

The US and Britain do not fare well at all in those studies yet Canadians and Australians seem to hold the middle ground fairly well.
 
Japan's population also tends to be relatively genetically homogeneous, so there may be a strong genetic component...meaning that no amount of happy relationships and good food is going to help the rest of us :) I'll look into it when I've got time.
 
Japan's population also tends to be relatively genetically homogeneous, so there may be a strong genetic component...meaning that no amount of happy relationships and good food is going to help the rest of us :) I'll look into it when I've got time.

Genetics are not deterministic, individual variation within groups is greater than the variation between groups. (yikes, this thread is starting to sound work related)
 
Maybe people in good relationships live longer because they don't get stressed out from reading studies like these which suggest that people who aren't in good relationships are doomed!:headwall:

Really, though, do these studies take other aspects of lifestyle or health into account? For example, I'd guess that people who drink too much, are drug addicts, or are depressed are less likely to stay in relationships. And it's those other problems that reduce their longevity.
 
Maybe people in good relationships live longer because they don't get stressed out from reading studies like these which suggest that people who aren't in good relationships are doomed!:headwall:

Really, though, do these studies take other aspects of lifestyle or health into account? For example, I'd guess that people who drink too much, are drug addicts, or are depressed are less likely to stay in relationships. And it's those other problems that reduce their longevity.

Maybe people turn to drink and drugs because they are in unhappy relationships, whereas people who are in happy relationships have no craving or reason to do so.

There was a study on Vietnam vets who had smoked (not injected) heroin in Vietnam. The ones who returned to healthy social environments at home dropped the heroin use right away and never became addicted. I don't know where this study was done or why no one pays attention to it.
 
This makes perfect sense, cos I'd kill myself if I was forced to live though a crappy relationship...

On a serious note... I think a happy relationship > healthy mind > healthy body > healthy life > live longer...

But the real fact is that "living longer" is just an icing on the cake.. the most important thing is that you'll have a greater quality of life overall.
 
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