Time With Your Sweetie
Lowers Blood Pressure

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Spending a little quality time with your significant other may help your heart in the long run. Spouses and other partners seem to have a calming influence on a person's blood pressure, new research shows.

In a study that used portable monitors to track people's blood pressure on the fly, it turned out that the participants' pressure was lowest when they were with their partners, regardless of what they were doing.

The findings are reported in the May issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

This does not mean single people are doomed to high blood pressure, lead study author Dr. Brooks B. Gump of the State University of New York at Oswego told Reuters Health. Rather, he said, the findings simply suggest that comfortable relationships--close friends included--have a soothing effect on blood pressure.

What such short-term changes in blood pressure mean for a person's health are unclear. However, Gump said, it is possible that over time, temporary flare-ups in blood pressure may take a toll on cardiovascular health. So the calming influence of a partner may counterbalance this and eventually benefit the heart.

In the study, Gump and his colleagues monitored the blood pressure of 120 healthy adults over 6 days. Each participant wore a portable monitor that recorded their pressure throughout the day.

Gump's team found that the participants' blood pressure was consistently lower when they were with their partners than when they were with another person or by themselves. And it did not matter where they were or what they were doing, Gump said. The mere presence of the significant other calmed blood pressure.

``It wasn't that there was just less stress,'' he said, noting that he and his colleagues theorize that it is the familiarity of an intimate relationship that helps lower blood pressure. Partners, they hypothesize, may send out a ``safety signal.''

Surprisingly, Gump noted, the quality of the intimate relationship did not matter in this study. People who were dissatisfied with their partners still experienced blood pressure dips in their presence.

However, people in dissatisfying relationships spent much less time together, the researcher pointed out. It may be, he added, that when these couples were together they purposely avoided ``hot topics'' that might have sent their blood pressure skyward.

The blood pressure dips seen during partner interactions were minor. However, Gump noted, experts believe that a small number of heart disease cases could be prevented if people with normal blood pressure lowered their readings by just a few points.

``Spending time in a satisfying relationship,'' he said, ''might help.''

SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine 2001;63.

Reference Source 89

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