How you emotionally react to your spouse may affect your health in the long run. A small study was done on married couples to assess how their emotions towards each other correlated to health issues over time. “During that time, 45 to 65 percent of the men and 60 to 76 percent of the women experienced cardiovascular symptoms, such as high blood pressure, chest pains or other heart problems. Also, 15 to 29 percent of the men and 30 to 36 percent of the women had musculoskeletal symptoms, such as back pain, stiffness in muscles or joints or severe leg or arm pain. People who consistently expressed anger during interactions with their spouse were more likely to have cardiovascular problems than were those who did not get angry. Those whose behavior during the interactions was described as stonewalling — meaning they suppressed their emotions — were more likely than the others to have musculoskeletal problems.” These health problems did not become apparent immediately, but were rather the result of dealing with a relationship over an extensive amount of time.