A strained marriage can result in both spouses getting depressed, but only wives face higher heart disease risk because of it, UPI quoted U.S. researchers as saying. First author Nancy Henry, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Utah, said people experiencing more conflict, hostility and disagreement in their marriages would tend to be more depressed. That, in turn, would be associated with a higher risk of heart disease due to metabolic syndrome -- a risk factor for heart disease, she said. But it turns out it doesn't work the same for men and women, the researchers learned. "We found this was true for wives in this study, but not for husbands," Henry said in a statement. "The gender difference is important because heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, as well as men, and we are still learning a lot about how relationship factors and emotional distress are related to heart disease."
