Your Relationship Affects Your Health Physiologically and Psychologically

Relationships are a beautiful thing. The ability to share intimate experiences with your significant other and having that support through thick and thin makes relationships all too wonderful. Did you know that, in many ways, your relationship affects your health? Your partner’s personality, eating habits, and daily tasks have an impact on your well-being. A healthy relationship is rewarding in many ways, but as the relationship prolongs, you pick up many of your significant other’s habits. The effects can either be positive or negative. Today, I want to help explore how your partner and your relationship affects your health.

Interpersonal Synchronization

Investigators from the University of Colorado (Boulder) found that when a partner is in pain, the touch of their significant other synchronizes their heart rates. Similarly, their respiratory patterns fall in-sync as well. The research and findings of the experiment are developing new evidence on interpersonal synchronization (IS). This phenomenon is where people physiologically mirror someone with whom they spend their time. Evidence indicates that the more empathetic the partners are, the higher the synchronization between the two when they are touching.

Partner Habits

Scientists at University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom revealed that if you are trying to develop good habits instead of bad, then you should include your significant other. Researchers argue that people have greater success developing habits or making changes when they have the support of their partner. Your partner is important to you. In struggling together, the partner offers support when needed. Whether it’s quitting smoking together or working out together, healthy habits are more easily attained with a partner. David and John Gallacher from Cardiff University in the U.K. confirmed that long-term, committed relationships are good for physical and psychological health and that these benefits increase over time. Individuals who are married tend to live longer; women show to have better mental health when they are in committed relationships. In contrast, men have better physical health when in a committed relationship.

Updated Research and Emerging Insights

Bottom line: your relationship affects your health, for better or for worse. Ultimately, it is your decision how you let your relationship impact your health.

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” -Leo Buscaglia

While your relationship affects your health, your health insurance, or lack thereof, also has significant impacts on your health. If you don’t have the right coverage or don’t have any coverage, then you may be foregoing the health care that you need. Contact an agent today to discuss your health insurance needs!

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