A Happy Marriage Can Help Mend Physical Wounds 

A happy marriage apparently¹ is good medicine, but hostile spouses² may be harmful to one another's health. 

Couples in conflict-ridden marriages take longer than the happily married to heal from all kinds of wounds, from minor³ scrapes or athletic⁴ injuries to major surgery, suggests a study out over the weekend. And the health toll⁵ taken by a stressful job seems to be eased when the worker has a pleasurable home life. 

This new research, reported at an American Psychosomatic Society meeting, adds to growing evidence that marriage has an impact on health. 

In the wound healing study, 42 couples agreed to let researchers use a suction device to create several minor blister⁶ wounds on their skin in two sessions about two months apart. The first time, couples were told to discuss a neutral topic; the next time they were given half an hour to resolve an issue or two on which they disagreed. Their discussions were monitored. Researchers also checked participants' wounds over the next few weeks and their production of three proteins created in wound healing. 

The outcome: "Even a simple discussion of a disagreement slows wound healing," says psychologist Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, who did the study with co-author Ronald Glaser of Ohio State University College of Medicine. 

Overall, couples took longer to heal when asked to thrash out points of conflict than neutral issues. Hostile couples - peppering both discussions with criticism, sarcasm⁷ and put-downs - healed the slowest. It took them 40% longer, or two more days, to heal, and they also produced less of the proteins linked to healing. 

These are minor wounds and brief, restrained encounters. Real-life marital⁸ conflict probably has a worse impact, Kiecolt-Glaser adds. "Such stress before surgery matters greatly," she says, and the effect could apply to healing from any injury. 

　　中文：

　　快乐的婚姻显然是一剂良药，而针锋相对的夫妻关系则可能对彼此的健康产生不利影响。 

　　上周末公布的一项研究结果表明，如果夫妻二人的婚姻生活总是充斥着争吵和冲突，那么如果他们中有人受了外伤，不管是轻微擦伤、运动损伤还是大手术，伤口的愈合速度总要比婚姻幸福的人慢一些。此外，如果你拥有愉快的家庭生活，即使工作压力很大，愉悦的心境也能减轻压力对健康造成的损害。 

　　这一新的研究成果在美国心理学学会的一次会议上发布，为婚姻能够影响健康的理论又增添了新的证据。
 
　　在有关伤口愈合速度的研究中，有42对夫妇同意让研究者使用抽吸设备在他们的皮肤上制造几个很小的水泡创伤，实验在两个不同的阶段分别进行，其中间隔两个月左右。第一阶段，这些夫妇被要求讨论一个中立的主题，第二阶段则是花半小时来解决一到两个意见相左的问题。整个讨论过程都是被监控的。研究者们在实验结束后的几周内检查了受试者的伤口情况，以及伤口愈合过程中产生的三种蛋白质。
 
　　心理学家贾尼斯-科克尔特-格雷西得出了这样的结论：“哪怕是很小的争执或意见不和都会减慢伤口的愈合速度。”她和俄亥俄州立大学医学院的罗纳德-格拉泽教授合作完成了这一研究并共同撰写报告。
 
　　总之，当一对夫妇被要求分析并解决某些争端时，他们的伤口愈合速度比讨论中立论题时要慢一些。而彼此充满敌意的夫妇，不管在哪一类型的讨论中都会批评、挖苦和贬低对方，他们的伤口愈合速度是最慢的。他们要比别人多花40%或两天的时间才能痊愈，而且患处产生的有助于伤口愈合的蛋白质也要少一些。 

　　科克尔特-格雷西补充说：“这不过是些轻微的小创伤和拘谨收敛的短暂论战，真实生活中的婚姻冲突很可能会产生更糟糕的影响。”她还说，如果在接受外科手术之前蒙受这样的压力，就会产生巨大的不良影响，这种影响适用于任何受伤情况的愈合和恢复。

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