FRIDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Feeling insecure and frequently anxious about your romantic relationship can actually harm your health, new research contends.
The feelings may boost levels of a stress hormone and lower your immune system, according to Ohio State researchers.
In their study, married couples who were often anxious about their relationship -- wondering if their partner truly loved them, for example -- had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and lower levels of T-cells, which are important in the immune system to fight off infections, lead author Lisa Jaremka said.
"These concerns about rejection and whether or not you are truly cared for do have physiological consequences that could, in the long-term, negatively affect health," said Jaremka, a postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.
The study was recently published online and will appear in an upcoming print issue of Psychological Science.
Jaremka said she was not describing the normal now-and-then concerns about a relationship. "Everybody has these thoughts and feelings sometimes," she said. "They are a natural part of being in a relationship."
But for the highly anxious, she added, "it's a chronic thing."
Jaremka studied 85 couples, all married for an average of more than 12 years. Most were white. Their average age was 39. All the partners reported their general anxiety levels and symptoms, and answered questions about their marriage and about their sleep quality.
The couples were generally healthy. Those with wives who were expecting a baby, or who drank excess alcohol or caffeine or had health problems affecting the immune system were all excluded.
The couples provided saliva samples over three days and blood samples twice. From these, the research team measured levels of cortisol and T-cells.
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