While it has been reliably shown several times that people who are socially isolated from satisfying personal relationships have increased morbidity and mortality, the underlying mechanisms are still fairly mysterious. To further knowledge on the subject, 90 newlywed couples were admitted into a hospital research unit for 24 hours, where their problem solving behaviors and immune functions were studied through four functional immunological assays. Each couple was subjected to a thirty minute conversation on marriage problems and couples who exhibited hostile or negative reactions during the conversation were also more likely to display signs of immunological down-regulation in the assays.

 

Read the full article here: Negative Behavior During Marital Conflict is Associated with Immunological Down-Regulation