Marriage Is Good For Your Health - Scientists Say

Did you know that happily married couples are more likely to enjoy better mental and physical health than their not-so-happy single friends?

According to a new study, married people experience lower morbidity and mortality across such diverse health threats as cancer, heart attacks, and surgery.

That seems unbelievable but a study of more than 3.5 million people finds that married people are less likely than singles, divorced or widowed to suffer any type of heart or blood vessel problem.

According to the cardiologists who led the search, the study is the largest look at marriage and heart health, and was presented at the American College of Cardiology conference.


Previous studies mostly compared married to single people and lacked information on divorced and widowed ones.

Or they just looked at heart attacks, whereas this one included a full range from clogged arteries and abdominal aneurysms to stroke risks and circulation problems in the legs.

“These findings certainly shouldn’t drive people to get married, but it’s important to know that decisions regarding who one is with, why, and why not may have important implications for vascular health,” said lead author Carlos Alviar, cardiology fellow at New York University Langone Medical Center.

The study found:

1. People who were divorced had a higher likelihood of any vascular disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm, coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease when compared to single people.
2. Widowers showed slightly higher odds of any vascular disease and coronary artery disease, also when compared to people who had never been married.
3. Risk factors, such as smoking and obesity, hypertension, diabetes and being sedentary also increases with being divorced or widowed.
4. Marriage seemed to do the most good for those under age 50; they had a 12 percent lower risk of heart-related disease than single people their age.
5. Smoking, a major heart risk, was highest among divorced people and lowest in widowed ones.
6. Obesity was most common in those single and divorced.
7. Widowed people had the highest rates of high blood pressure, diabetes and inadequate exercise.

As married people are more likely to help each other stay healthy, by making sure their spouse eats well, exercises, takes medications and helps in attending doctors appointments, married people tend to have less risk for heart disease.