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.