Why love protects against heart diseases

By Sade Oguntola
Africa Couple

Having a loving relationship benefits the whole body, especially the heart. Experts based this on the fact that people who are in close, healthy relationships are more physically active and more likely to have a well-developed social structure, reports Sade Oguntola.

Valentine’s Day has just come and gone and many enjoyed love to the fullest. However,
ensuring that these lovely relationships continue to thrive no doubt has its many health benefits that lovers need to tap fully.

There are different theories backing up the fact that having a loving relationship benefits the whole body, especially the heart. Most of the theories are related to the fact that people who are married or who are in close, healthy relationships tend to be less likely to smoke, are more physically active and are more likely to have a well-developed social structure. Such are more likely to have lower levels of stress and anxiety in their day-to-day lives.

This is based on the promise that people who are in loving relationships are more likely to experience some hormonal changes that have positive effects on the body, including their heart and blood circulatory system. Basically, there are certain hormone produced in the body in amounts that are dependent on how much of stress and anxiety an individual is passing through at a time.

Dr. Abiodun Adeoye, a cardiologist at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Oyo State, explaining how stress or anxiety affects that heart, said that both lead to fatigue. Whether it is an emotional or physical type of stress, he said stress of any type is not good for the heart because it makes the heart to overwork .

Many know that too much stress is bad for the heart. But how exactly this negative emotion affects the heart and other organs of the body may be far fetched. A new research published in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) offers some answers. It shows that many people who experience psychological distress also slip into poor health habits, particularly smoking, overeating and physical inactivity. Over several years, these unhealthy behaviours alone, rather than stress itself — that appear to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, researchers here found.

Overall, the team found a significant and direct link between increasing psychological distress and increasing risk of cardiovascular illness and death. In fact, after age and sex were taken into account, people with depression and anxiety faced more than a 50 per cent increased risk when compared to happier people.

Even though, most of these theories have not been proven, but the idea that being in a relationship may have a positive effect on the heart and the blood circulatory system over a long period of time, some studies actually substantiated. They were able to show that relationships that were cordial and involving less of conflict or negativity was associated with a decreased in risk for heart diseases like coronary artery disease.

The whole idea of giving gifts like chocolate and wine to one’s loved one does the heart a lot of good too. Dark chocolate contains flavonoids, which are antioxidants. Antioxidants have proven positive effects on many different body systems including the heart and the blood circulatory system.

Researchers found that consumption of dark chocolate was associated with lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar levels and improvement in the way the blood vessels pump blood around the body.

In Caucasians, multiple observational studies found that consumption of a glass of red wine is associated with lower rates of risk of heart attacks because it is also a rich source of flavonoids. Even gifts of things like fruits and vegetables and grape juice would still do the heart the same good being rich sources of flavonoids found in red wine.

Researchers at Northwestern University Medical School found that a chemical in red wine believed to help reduce the risk for heart disease is a form of estrogen. Estrogen is known to provide some protection against heart diseases and red wine also appears to.

Heart attack, also called myocardial infarction, is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply caused due to blockage in one or more of the coronary arteries supplying the heart. It is the leading cause of death in many developed counties of the world. And currently in Nigeria cases of heart attack are on the rise.

The heart healthy benefits of gifts such as chocolate and red wine are further enhanced with a dance. Exercises such as dance, according to Dr. Aderonke Adenipekun, a consultant physiotherapist at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Oyo State, is good because over 90 per cent of type 2 diabetes and 90 per cent of heart diseases can be avoided or postponed when combined with good nutrition, elimination of smoking and effective stress management.

That being under the influence of love and good music does the mood a lot of good and douse stress in the body is a fact. Even with strained relationship, music may still be helpful. According to Professor Oye Gureje, a consultant psychiatrist at UCH, Ibadan, different people cope with stress or unhappiness in different ways. “Listening to music might be one. We all should have what is called defence mechanism, things that can defend us against the turbulence of life or the consequences of that turbulence. So if you have positive defence mechanism, listening to music is a good one.”

Feeling lonely can be physically painful. The fact that it can change how the body functions and so open up the body to heart diseases makes loneliness a problem that maintaining a healthy loving relationship would prevent. Research suggested that such people are socially anxious, feel more stress and anxiety, which alters the immune system at the genetic level, raising the risk of serious diseases.