Do you feel like your significant other is nagging you to death? It might be true.
A Pennsylvania professor and her students looked at data from more than 1,700 people who participated in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project.
Older participants who reported higher levels of criticism in their relationships were more likely to die within five years than those whose relationships were less biting.
“If you’re psychologically stressed, which nagging does, sets off a whole set of physiological responses, including stress hormones,” says clinical counselor Lori Vann. Those stress hormones impact internal organs. What causes someone to nag? “A lot of resentment that’s built up over the decades. Maybe because there had been some infidelity. Or maybe there’s unresolved trauma.”
Lead author Dr. Jamila Bookwala found that constant nagging puts added stress on the body, and those who were criticized the most were twice as likely to be dead within five years.
All participants were between 57 and 85.
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