Stress? Having a partner present – even in your mind – can lower blood pressure

According to a new study by psychologists at the University of Arizona, thinking about your romantic partner can help you control your blood pressure just as effectively as your significant other in the room with you.

For the study, published in the journal psychophysiology, 102 participants were invited to perform a stressful task: dive one foot into 3 inches of cold water ranging from 38 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The researchers measured the blood pressure, heart rate, and variability of the participants' heart rate before, during, and after the task.

The participants, all of whom were in engaged relationships, were randomly badigned to one of three conditions when performing the task. They had either their important partner sitting quietly in the room with them during the badignment, or they were instructed to think of their loving partner as a source of support during the task, or they were instructed to think about their day during the task.

People whose partners were physically present in the room or who thought about their partner were less responsive to cold water stress than the control group participants, who were asked to think about their day. Heart rate and heart rate variability did not vary between the three groups.

The effect on blood pressure reactivity was just as powerful, whether the partner was physically present or simply mentally challenged.

Although previous studies have suggested that having a partner present or visualizing a partner can help manage the body's physiological response to stress, the new study, led by AU psychology doctoral candidate Kyle Bourbada, suggests that two things have the same effectiveness, at least when it comes to the responsiveness of blood pressure.

The findings could help explain, in part, why high-quality love relationships are consistently badociated with positive health outcomes in the scientific literature, Bourbada said.

"This suggests that one of the possible ways to promote the health of people in a romantic relationship is to enable them to cope better with stress and reduce levels of cardiovascular reactivity to stress throughout the day," said Bourbada. "And it appears that thinking about your partner as a source of support can be as powerful as being present."

The participants in Bourbada's research, which was funded by a grant from the Council of Graduate Students and Professionals of the AU, were undergraduate students with special relationships. Future studies should focus on community members in general of different age groups, Bourbada said.

If reproduced, the results could have consequences for people facing daily stressful situations, said Bourbada, co-author of the study with AU psychologists David Sbarra and John Ruiz.

"Life is full of stress, and one of the critical ways to handle this stress is to maintain harmonious relationships, either directly with our partner, or by appealing to a mental image of that person," said Bourbada. . "There are many situations, including at work, during school exams or even during medical procedures, in which it would be beneficial to limit our degree of blood pressure responsiveness, and these findings suggest a relational approach to doing it can be quite powerful. "

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University of Arizona