A Winning Argument
Graduates of assertiveness training programs, take note: Contrary to what you may have learned, some social scientists say that being resigned to your partner’s dominance may be healthy.
University of Utah researchers asked 45 young couples whether they perceived themselves as dominant or submissive in their marriages. As an exercise, the husbands and wives were fitted with blood pressure monitors and asked to argue opposing positions on how to slash teachers’ jobs at a local school. The researchers wanted to monitor how much blood pressure goes up when couples squabble. They found that the degree of elevation depends on how husbands and wives view their partners--as dominant or submissive.
Arguing with a spouse perceived as relatively dominant was associated with larger increases in blood pressure than arguing with a spouse perceived as relatively submissive. However, arguing with a spouse perceived as clearly dominant--where the chances of winning the argument seemed nil or not worth the effort--resulted in minimal rises of blood pressure.
Timothy W. Smith, Peter C. Brown and Lorna S. Benjamin say the expression of dominance in a marriage may have important consequences for blood pressure and as a long-term risk for cardiovascular disease. But Smith said the association is tentative because it’s based on observing just one 10-minute interaction per couple.
Smith thinks assertiveness training may have some value by making stressful interactions easier for unassertive types. “If you feel like you’re not going to get your way enough, you’re not going to say anything. But the fourth or fifth time that happens in a week, you finally blow up. That may be at least as unhealthy.”
Their findings appeared in the Tuesday issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Raspberry Remedy?
Now that scientists are telling us dietary fiber doesn’t help ward off colo-rectal cancer after all, the Washington Red Raspberry Commission offers an alternative: Eat more raspberries. Eating a cup a day, the commission contends, can help slow development of colon cancer cells in people genetically predisposed to the disorder.
The commission backs the claim with preliminary and unpublished findings from Dr. Daniel Nixon, director of cancer prevention at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. For four years, the commission has funded Nixon to study ellagic acid, a compound found in raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries and some nuts. Nixon’s laboratory fed raspberry puree to people with normal guts, with colon polyps and with cancer of the colon. They performed biopsies of the patients’ colons every three months and found signs the compound was slowing the proliferation of bad cells. “Preliminary results look good,” Nixon said.
He makes more modest claims than the commission about his research: “It does give encouragement, but it’s not final yet.”
Take Me to the Moon
Add another product to the list of terrestrial benefits of space research. Biochemist Dan Wray worked on lubricants for NASA’s space shuttle program before developing what people in the intimate care industry call “personal lubricants” for more comfort in earthly pleasures.
The makers of Astroglide personal lubricant have come up with a new moisturizing product designed to appeal to older women who may find their husband’s romantic fires refueled by Viagra while they’re suffering physical changes of menopause or approaching menopause. Silken Secret, from BioFilm of Vista, Calif., was first shipped to stores in January.
