It’s true. A healthy marriage may be able to impact your heart health! Time magazine has recently published a few articles on the subject that are certainly worth the read.

Heart-Break

A few weeks ago Belinda Luscombe of Time released an article that discussed the very serious effects that a marriage can have on a person’s heart. The article cited many sources that have linked the health of the heart to the health of the relationship.

According to Timothy Smith, professor of psychology at the University of Utah, “There’s a substantial literature that suggests that improving people’s management of chronic diseases like coronary heart disease can be made better or worse by how things are going in that relationship.”

Luscombe also takes time to discuss the many other factors of a marriage that obviously can lead to health problems. It is incredibly common for spouses to experience weight gain and lack of sleep soon after they say “I do”. These effects have been studied for years, and they make perfect logical sense.

Smith makes a point to address what he believes a “good” marriage consists of. Rather than it being a simple question of general happiness, Smith believes that the real answer lies behind feeling valued and having a good channel of communication between spouses.

Men & Marriage

Another study took a particular focus on men and their heart health throughout marriage. Amanda MacMillan explored a few additional findings in her own Times article.

The study was comprised of more than 2,000 subjects who were surveyed initially, and then again 6 years later with additional measurements taken of: resting heart rate, cholesterol, fasting glucose levels, and body mass index (BMI). The subjects were asked if their marriage had: improved, stayed the same, or worsened over the 6 year period.

At a glance, the results were unimpressive. However, once other factors like age, income, and education were taken into account, these results started to tell an interesting story.

In general, men who reported improvements in their marriage had lower levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and healthier weights, while men who reported having marriages that worsened had significantly higher blood pressure at the end of the study.

Conclusion

While it may not be a miracle cure to heart disease, there is more and more evidence that suggests that having a healthy marriage leads to a healthy heart. For more interesting stories like this one please click HERE to visit our blog today!