Take a guess? Who do you think has lower blood pressure... parents or couples who have no children?
A new study says it's moms and dads who win this one. Surprised?
Researchers monitored the blood pressure of nearly 200 married adults between the ages of 20-68 for 24 hours. They also considered factors like age, body mass, gender, employment, length of marriage and duration of marriage before kids.
The results: parents had lower blood pressure compared with childless couples. And women with children had the lowest blood pressure -- 12 points lower in the systolic or upper number and 7 points lower in the diastolic number. Women with no children had the highest numbers.
“While caring for children may include daily hassles, deriving a sense of meaning and purpose from life's stress has been shown to be associated with better health outcomes,” said lead researcher Julianne Holt-Lunstad, in a news release from Brigham Young University.
If you're wondering whether the age of the kids made a difference....it didn't.
Earlier studies have shown that being a parent is associated with higher levels of stress and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Source: Annals of Behavioral Medicine
Free consultation 
