Arguments Dramatically Slow Wound Healing
Thanks to Marsh for pointing this one out:
The stress a married couple experiences during a 30-minute argument can delay their bodies’ ability to heal a wound by at least a day, according to a new study.
And if the couples’ relationship endures routine hostility, the delay can be increased yet further. There could be important implications for people suffering from chronic wounds, such as skin ulcers.
“We knew that chronic stress causes reduced immunity, but to find that an argument of just half an hour has such a profound effect on wound healing is quite shocking,” says Patricia Price at the Wound Healing Research Unit at Cardiff University, Wales, and who was not involved in the study.
Researchers at Ohio State University College of Medicine in the US inflicted small wounds on 42 otherwise healthy married couples, whose ages ranged from 22 to 77.
The first thing this makes me think of? How much Objectivists like to argue, denounce each other heatedly, and call it their “philosophical obligation” to do so.
And second: How glad I am that Kathy and I virtually never get into an argument.
