If you're facing conflict, deal with the problem directly. However, avoid arguing if you're fuming mad.

Avoiding conflict may be bad for your health, according to new research.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If something's bothering you, do you start a debate or walk away? While it may seem that it's better not to rock the boat, the results of a new study suggests you should argue it out, citing better overall health once you get things off your chest, compared with bottling them up.

THE DETAILS: The new data, presented recently at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting, found that dealing with problems directly is better for your overall health than avoiding the conflict. Researchers monitored nearly 1,850 volunteers, ages 33 to 84, interviewing them for eight straight days, asking them about arguments, disagreements, and instances when they could have argued, but instead avoided the situation. Researchers also tested the participants' cortisol levels through saliva samples four times each day. Study participants kept a journal, recording their well-being and even physical pain symptoms they experienced due to the daily tensions. The most common tensions recorded were with nonfamily (38 percent) and a spouse (36 percent). About 60 percent of those in the study avoided conflicts, while about 40 percent argued. While negative well-being was reported more commonly on arguing days when compared to an avoidance day, physical symptoms and negative well-being were higher in the avoiders the day after a potential argument.

Although researchers found that having an argument is associated with lower well-being on the day of the tussle, avoiding the problem is actually linked to poorer health the following day. "It may be that avoiding conflict is beneficial in the short term, but that it has longer-term negative effects on health, perhaps because the problem is not resolved," says study author Kara S. Birditt, assistant research professor at the University of Michigan.