Spending time with your significant other has huge health benefits, even if you argue about it

Sometimes you may feel like you want to get as far away from them as possible.

But just the presence of your romantic partner — even if you’ve just had a nasty argument — can have significant health benefits, according to a study.

Researchers found that people who spent more time with their partner had less C-reactive protein – a sign of inflammation – the next day.

A team from the University of North Carolina recruited 100 adults in romantic relationships for their study.

These participants visited a laboratory three times over the course of a month and provided blood samples.

At each visit, they also filled out surveys that included a question about how much time they had spent in their partner’s physical presence in the previous 24 hours.

What mattered was simply being in the same room as your loved one – whether awake or asleep.

The analysis found that participants who reported spending more time in the presence of their partner in the past 24 hours had lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP).

This protein, made by the liver, increases when there is inflammation in the body. High CRP levels can indicate a serious health condition that the body is trying to combat.

Elevated CRP levels over a long period of time have previously been linked to health problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer.

The association between time spent with a partner and lower CRP levels remained strong even when researchers took into account relationship quality, feelings of hostility toward a partner, and feelings of loneliness.

The analysis found that participants who reported spending more time in the presence of their partner in the past 24 hours had lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) (stock image).

This, they said, suggests that simply being physically close to a romantic partner can have benefits, regardless of how the relationship is going.

The study, published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, says: “People with whom we have close social relationships, such as a good romantic partner, are the ones with whom we laugh, hug or want to laugh. “Choose to sit with yourself in silence and stillness at the end of the day.

“We measured CRP levels over time on three different days and found evidence that just being with a romantic partner is beneficial in the form of lower CRP levels.”

“By identifying this close biological pathway through which being with those closest to us can lead to better health outcomes, these results reveal unknown ways to address the mechanisms by which close relationships influence long-term health.”