Professor Bob Waldinger

And then they did a little skin biopsy, the kind that you do in the dermatologist's office if they see something they want to look at under the microscope.

Didn't hurt much.

It's a small little wound.

And then they just watched to see how long everybody's little biopsy took to heal, how long the little wound took to heal in their skin.

the people who were caring for demented relatives took on average nine days longer for those little tiny wounds to heal than the people who were not caring for demented relatives.

And because we know that caring for somebody who's disabled and particularly for somebody with dementia is one of the most stressful things that we can do.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yes.

What we know is that people who are having physical problems, people who are in physical pain, are less happy.

Think about it.

If you're having a bad day, you have some physical pain.

Your mood is kind of grumpier usually, right?

Yeah.

But what we found was that people who were having pain

who were in a happy relationship with a partner,

they reported better mood even on the days when they had pain than people who were in unhappy relationships or who were alone.

So what that means to us is that being in a happy relationship kind of is a buffer.

It kind of buffers you from the worst effects of pain on your mood.

It allows you to still be kind of happy even when things are hurting in your body.