A study published on Tuesday, Oct. 10, shows that having a strong relationship with your spouse makes you healthier.
According to the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, men who have strong marital relations have lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels than those who have weak marital relations.
“Changes in the quality of a marital relationship appear to predict CVD (cardiovascular disease) risk,” it said.
The longitudinal study involved asking around 600 men in Britain to describe whether the current state of their marriage was “consistently good, consistently bad, improving or deteriorating”.
This was asked several times, when the men’s children reached the age of 3, 9 and 21.
Those who answered “improving” maintained healthier weight and cholesterol levels than those who answered “deteriorating”. The latter “were associated with worsening diastolic blood pressure”, the study said.
Having a “consistently good” and “consistently bad” marriage didn’t make much of a difference to a person’s health.
The study, however, is “merely observational”, researchers said, but they offered marriage counseling as a recommendation to couples having a hard time with each other.
“Marriage counselling for couples with deteriorating relationships may have added benefits in terms of physical health over and above psychological well-being,” the study stated.
Source: Agence France Presse
