More than a century ago, British epidemiologist William Farr identified “a health advantage” to being married and marital loss as a significant risk factor for poor health.” Wrote Farr: “The single individual is more likely to be wrecked on his voyage than the lives joined together in matrimony.”
Many contemporary studies show that married people fare better in a variety of categories of mental and physical health – less pneumonia, surgery, cancer and fewer heart attacks.
“A study of two dozen causes of death in the Netherlands found that in virtually every category, ranging from violent deaths like homicide and car accidents to certain forms of cancer, the unmarried were at far higher risk than the married. For many years, studies like these have influenced both politics and policy…”
Now, new research presents what is called “a more nuanced view of the so-called marriage advantage.”
According to Dr. Deborah Rozman, the so called “marriage advantage doesn’t extend to those in troubled relationships, which can leave a person far less healthy than if he or she had never married at all.”
Moreover, one recent study suggests that a stressful marriage can be as bad for the heart as a regular smoking habit. “While previous research suggests that single people have poorer health than married ones, a major study released last year concluded that single people who have never married have better health than those who married and then divorced.
“While having a long, happy marriage is one of the predictors of longevity and a source of great meaning and fulfillment in our lives,” says Dr. Rozman, “getting married often registers as one of the most stressful major events we can experience.”
According to Dr. Rozman, the road of life is filled with potholes, ruts and bumps that make sustaining happiness an exhausting undertaking. From the wedding day forward, married life is a minefield of “potential stressors” — doubts about the spouse, “financial insecurity, wedding planning, jealousy, differing styles of managing money, sex and intimacy issues, infidelity, parenting, in-laws, overloaded schedules, health crises…”
The ways to manage marital stress, Dr. Rozman says, include healthy communication and time spent well with each other.
Dr. Rozman, who is president and CEO of HeartMath LLC, of Boulder Creek, California. HeartMath offers scientifically validated and market-validated tools and technologies that activate the intelligence and power of the heart to dramatically reduce stress.
