A baffling new study suggests that having kids can actually lower a person’s blood pressure. The study was conducted by researchers from Brigham Young University, Cal State Long Beach and University of Utah and has been published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
198 married men and women between the ages of 20 and 68 were monitored over a 24 hour period. During that time, their blood pressure was taken an average of 3 times an hour, even while they slept. Approximately, 70 percent of the couples had children of various ages.
The results indicated that parents had a lower blood pressure than the couples who did not have children. The most significant results were among the women who had children, they experienced an average of 12 points lower for systolic pressure and 7 points lower for diastolic pressure.
Julianne Holt-Lundstad, the lead researcher, believes the results are due to parents having a higher self esteem because they feel they have a greater purpose in life regardless of the daily struggles involving their children. Not all experts believe these are the normal for everybody. The relatively short time frame which did not include the children being around the parents may have lent to the positive results.
Obviously, their blood pressure is lower because someone else is looking after those little hellions for 24 hours!