Hard day? It’ll be OK

VENTING to a sympathetic partner after a tough workday could help your health. New research shows a supportive spouse can block the rise in blood pressure associated with job stress.

“Job strain is an environmental factor that contributes to a more rapid rise in blood pressure,” says lead scientist Sheldon Tobe, a hypertension specialist at the University of Toronto in Canada, “but if someone has a supportive environment at home, blood pressure will decrease over time.”

Tobe and colleagues used an ambulatory blood pressure monitor to record blood pressure over 24 hours of a regular workday in 216 male and female volunteers age 40 to 65. A year later, they took a second 24-hour blood pressure reading and assessed job stress and spousal support with questionnaires. For example, scientists asked participants if their spouse listened to details of their day and sympathized over stressful events.

Researchers found that people who had a stressful job and little marital support showed an increase of 2.8 mmHg of systolic blood pressure over one year. But people with high job stress and a supportive spouse showed a drop in systolic blood pressure of 2.5 mmHg. “The increase is small, but it adds up year after year and it could become very substantial,” Tobe says.

The findings were presented at the 2005 American Heart Assn.’s High Blood Pressure Research meeting in Orlando, Fla.