Poll: Does Work Stress Affect Your Relationship?: Yes. I'm in a terrible mood after work, he hates to be around me. Sometimes. We try our best, but stress sneaks into our relationship on occasion. No. I'm able to leave my work stress at the office. Not anymore, I just got laid off!
Where there was once newlywed bliss, there are now shared bathrooms, dinnertime chores and sounds that get muted in the night.
Turns out, being in a stressful, strained relationship not only increases blood pressure, it also increases the wives' cholesterol and obesity rates.
Love Bytes: three must-click love, sex and relationship links. Admitting to faking the big O, 70 years of sex advice and stress vs. romance.
The new love letter lets you keep the sentiment but skip the stress. Sex and love bloggers Em and Lo suggest writing a love list—no rhyme scheme or thesaurus needed!
During a recent study at Lafayette College, researchers studied the cortisol and oxytocin levels in 15 heterosexual, kissing couples. While both sexes saw a drop in corisol while kissing, it appeared that only men experienced a raise in oxytocin. Women, forever desiring more, more, more, needed "a romantic atmosphere of dimmed lights and mood music" to notice any cortisol upswing. Researches also think kissing my boost the body's immune system, since you mix and match so many different strains of saliva.
The economy may be affecting your marriage, Oprah's sex chart will improve your foreplay and a secret aphrodisiac.
Work stress got you down? Monday blues getting the best of you? There may be a cure: more cuddling! According to a new study, couples that express intimacy, be it through snuggling, kissing or sex, have lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. The study supports past research that's found that married people are generally healthier than singletons (and we're not just talking health-care benefits) and that women who are in bad relationships have weaker immune systems.
While financial rifts are often listed as the leading cause of a breakup, it's what's behind the dollar signs that tears couples apart. Money issues are often just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to rocky marriages. Certain amounts of stress, hurt, and resentment just manifest themselves in the form of financial conflict. Martha Baer, a financial expert, explores the hidden stresses money often masks.
That men and women handle stress differently seems, well, obvious, but Dr. John Gray, the man who moved Mars and Venus from the science to the self-help section of the bookstore, thinks acknowledging this inherent disparity is an important first step. Why Mars & Venus Collide: Improving Relationships by Understanding How Men and Women Cope Differently with Stress (on shelves January 22) explores why we deal differently and how to improve our communication that inevitably gets wonky with stress.
A study conducted by the University of California shows that women in unhappy marriages have a huge amount of stress chemicals in their system. Men in unhappy marriages do not show this same level of stress.
