Be careful who you partner with!

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer had this article on Monday that I am finally getting around to write about today. It is not one that will become old and obsolete but the longer I wait to let you know about it (assuming you have not heard this through other channels) the more dangerous it could be. Bold is mine for emphasis.

A steady stream of irritations and upsets from people and things around us can literally make us sick or slow to heal.

Psychological stress and physical ills have become so well linked over the past few decades that researchers into the brain-immune system connection have a name for the specialty -- psychoneuroimmunology.

Two studies published Monday further illustrate when and how stress affects the immune system.

A report in the Archives of General Psychiatry finds that routine marital discord can slow the body's ability to heal from trauma or surgical wounds by as long as two days. The second study, by Australian researchers working with mice, fingered a specific stress hormone that appears to disrupt the work of immune cells.

So when you hear someone say about someone else, "they make me sick"... there is some truth to that statement. They certainly don't help you heal quickly.

In the first study, a team at Ohio State University led by Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychiatry and psychology, and her husband, immunology professor Ronald Glaser, found that married couples who showed high levels of hostility to each other needed two days longer to heal from wounds compared with couples whose hostility levels were low. Even typical married couples who argue for just a half hour slow their ability to heal from wounds by about one day.

So be careful with how you let your partners affect you.

Stay positive!

Don't let their negativity hinder you in any way.

Read the full article here.