Women who tell their male significant others what is on their minds are more likely to live longer according to a new study. Women who keep it all in are four times more likely to die before ladies who show their feelings. This according to a "Marital Status, Marital Strain, and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease or Total Mortality: The Framingham Offspring Study," which examined how relationships affect health.

When asked if women who had arguments with their spouses showed and expressed exactly how they felt, those women (in a ten-year follow-up) who said they kept their feelings to themselves most of the time or always - had four times the death rate as those who "let him have it" right back.

The study's lead author, Dr. Elaine D. Eaker stated that she and her colleagues were amazed at the overwhelming risk involved to those women who responded that they kept things to themselves.

In addition, Dr. Alisha Ali, a professor in New York University's Department of Applied Psychology, who has also been researching the "self-silencing" issue, has reported that these women also experience depression and eating disorders, as well as other physical ailments. All of this stress can literally make women sick.

According to Dr. Dana C. Jack, author of "Silencing the Self Scale," heart disease and irritable bowel syndrome have also been associated with self-silencing. According to Dr. Jack, most women keep their thoughts in because they are fearful that either the relationship will end, or they will hurt their husband's feelings - or that they will be humiliated. Jack suggests that women who believe they self-silence should begin stating their feelings and thoughts in a calm, clear and problem-solving way.

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