Living with a partner is not perfect listening to problems increases the risk of premature death

LONDON NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Living with partners can help cope with daily stress, but those with partners or couples who can not hear about problems are vulnerable to long-term health, says a recent British study .

A team of psychologists from the University of Edinburgh evaluated a group of about 1,200 participants aged 25 to 74, who had a husband or lived with a partner.

Participants were evaluated over a 20-year period and started between 1995 and 1996 as part of a quarantine survey.

Ten years later, in 2006, participants answered the same questions. "The results suggest that if individuals have partners to help them, it will help them cope with daily stress, which will have side effects on their health," said Sarah Stanton, the main author.

The researchers found that people who did not respond well to daily stress felt that their partner had become less interested in them in the last 10 years. Participants who reported that their partners were less responsive were 42% more likely to die in the 20 years of study.

The accumulation of stress can be enough to increase by 42% the risk of death before 42 hours. According to the American Psychological Association, chronic stress is linked to six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung disease, accidents, cirrhosis and suicide.

This association can be explained by people's ability to deal with the negative emotions caused by daily stress, perhaps because their partners can not hear them, the researchers said.

Although the results are limited to a number of people, they can have a significant impact when they are placed within larger limits. Researchers have not revealed how the fight against stress can increase the risk of death, but chronic stress is known to contribute to the destruction of the body in different ways.

It has been previously shown that intestinal bacteria change, increased blood pressure and increased risk of stroke (stroke) resulted in increased cortisol levels. Stress causes the production of estrogen, which can accelerate breast cancer.