Happy husband or wife really could be the key to a stress-free life
Your partner’s happiness can lower your stress levels. Research shows that when your partner experiences positive emotions, your body produces less cortisol, the primary stress hormone. This effect is even stronger than when you experience positive emotions yourself.
The benefits are greater in happy, long-term relationships. Older adults in satisfying relationships showed the strongest link between their partner’s happiness and reduced stress, suggesting that emotional support plays a critical role in healthy aging.
Negative emotions don’t have the same impact. Unlike positive emotions, a partner’s negative emotions were not found to significantly affect cortisol levels, possibly because older couples develop strategies to shield each other from stress./ Psychoneuroendocrinology
