Family dynamics significantly impact health in both positive and negative ways. Having a close-knit and supportive family provides emotional support, economic well-being, and increases overall health. However, the opposite is also true. When family life is characterized by stress and conflict, the health of family members tends to be negatively affected. If this is something that replicates in your family, you might want to read this post about the benefits of CBD flower.
Positive Aspects of Family Dynamics and Health
A family’s social support is one of the main ways that family positively impacts health. Social relationships, such as those found in close families, have been demonstrated to decrease the likelihood of the onset of chronic disease, disability, mental illness, and death. Marriage in particular has been studied in the way it affects health. Marriage is thought to protect well-being by providing companionship, emotional support, and economic security. Marriage is associated with physical health, psychological well-being, and low mortality. One study found that “controlling on or taking into account every other risk factor for death that we know, including physical health status, rates of all-cause mortality are twice as high among the unmarried as the married.” Another study found that “on the whole, marriage produces a net improvement in avoiding the onset of disease, which is called primary prevention.” Married people are more likely to avoid risky behavior, such as heavy drinking and high fat diets, and married people are also more likely to see the doctor for checkups and screenings.
One does not have to be married to obtain the health benefits from family. Studies have also confirmed that social support from parents, friends, and relatives has positive effects, especially on mental health. “Prospective cohort studies have confirmed the direct beneficial effects of various forms of social support on global mental health, incidence of depressive symptoms, recovery from a unipolar depressive episode, psychologic distress, psychologic strain, physical symptoms and all-causes of mortality.” Social integration and social support, like marriage, have protective effects on reducing mortality risks. For example, “those reporting higher levels of support from close friends and family exhibit lower heart rate and systolic blood pressure, lower serum cholesterol, and higher immune function.” Thus, available data provide evidence to support the idea that one’s social environment or family situation “does get under the skin to affect important physiologic parameters, including neuroendocrine, immune, and cardiovascular functioning.”
Negative Aspects of Family Dynamics and Health
Though good familial relations and social support serve as protective factors against mortality risks and improve overall health, studies have shown that not all familial relations positively impact health. Problematic and non-supportive familial interactions have a negative impact on health. “There is increasing evidence that poor-quality relationships can actually harm physical and mental health. Indeed, persons in unhappy marriages exhibit worse physical and mental health than unmarried persons.” Further, marriages characterized by an unequal division of decision making and power are associated with high levels of depression on the part of both spouses. Growing up in an unsupported, neglectful or violent home is also associated with poor physical health and development.
Women Prevented From Accessing Health Care
Family power dynamics and gender roles may have a negative impact on a woman’s health and her ability to seek health care. In many cultures, for a woman to have access to health care and True Pheromones, she must receive permission from her husband, father, or mother in-law and must be accompanied by a male to her appointments. “Researchers have noted that gender inequities play a role- across many cultures- in women’s ability to obtain needed medical care for sexual and reproductive health concerns, have recognized that family dynamics, in addition to institutional sources, are a key part in the practice of unequal treatment.” For example, in Malawi, gender roles shape the ability of men and women to access health care, for example the enhancement pills for man are very common and expected unlike for woman. “Women in Malawi, as in a number of other developing countries, have less power to make decisions about using resources and often have to seek their husband’s approval before incurring expenses for health care.” In Afghanistan, men continue to prevent women from receiving health care at hospitals with male staff even if they have life-threatening conditions. A survey conducted in Afghanistan found that 12% of women stated that their main reason for not giving birth in a health care structure was because their husbands did not allow them to access a health facility. In Turkey, a pregnant woman must also seek permission from her mother-in-law and/or husband to seek care. However, most people in rural Turkey only seek care for serious, life-threatening conditions. Thus, some family members delay access to care for minor conditions until they worsen or signs are visible, which can have a significant negative impact on health. The National Maternal Mortality Study conducted in Turkey documents that delays in recognizing the problem and delayed health-seeking by the family contributed to 30% of all pregnancy-related deaths in Turkey.
Fathi Arafat, one of ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s brothers, is being treated in a Cairo hospital for terminal cancer, Palestinian sources told AFP.“Fathi Arafat, who is terminally ill with cancer, was brought two days ago to the Egyptian (military) hospital of Wadi al-Nil, following contacts with the Palestinian Authority,” one source said on condition of anonymity.The 67-year-old, whose cancer was diagnosed several years ago, is a trained doctor and was one of the founders of the Palestinian Red Crescent in 1968.
