Want lower blood pressure? Get a kid!

William Atkins
Saturday, 16 January 2010 02:22

Science - Health

According to U.S. researchers from Utah and California, having children around helps to reduce blood pressure in adults, But, extra children doesn't mean extra low blood pressure.


Julianne Holt-Lunstad (Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo), Wendy Birmingham (Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City), Adam M. Howard (School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City), and Dustin Thoman (Department of Psychology, California State University, Long Beach) completed the study, which was published online on Friday, January 14, 2010 in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Its title is “Married With Children: The Influence of Parental Status and Gender on Ambulatory Blood Pressure.”

Its abstract states that social relationships and marriage has been scientifically shown in the past to affect the psychological and physical health of adults.

However, the researchers found that little scientific research has been performed in the past to see if children have an influence on the psychological and physical health of adults (their parents).

Consequently, they performed this study to find out how children affect their parents' blood pressure when compared to the blood pressure of childrenless couples.

The researchers stated within their paper’s abstract: “This study examined the competing predictions regarding the directional influence of parental status and its interaction with gender—given that mothers are typically disproportionately more responsible for everyday care of children—on cardiovascular functioning.”

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