Marriage is good for the heart

Marriage is good for health

Even if marriage is every now and then more a bed of nails than roses, living into old age with a partner may help keep at bay heart disease and stroke, research reveled.

A survey of research conducted over the last two decades covering more than two million people aged 42 to 77 found that being hitched extensively reduced the risk of both maladies, they reported in the medical journal Heart.

The study examined culturally varied populations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia, adding weight to the results.

Compared to people living in spousal union, the divorced, widowed or never married were 42% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and 16 per cent more likely to have coronary heart disease.

The risk of dying was likewise elevated for the non-married, by 42% from coronary heart disease and by 55% from stroke.

"These findings may recommend that marital status should be considered in the risk assessment for cardiovascular disease," concluded a team led by Chun Wai Wong, a researcher at Royal Stoke Hospital´s department of cardiology, in Stoke-on-Trent in Britain.

Four-fifths of all cardiovascular disease can be ascribed to a confirmed set of "risk factors": advanced age, being a man, high-blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, and diabetes.

Marriage, in other words, could be an important share of the missing 20%.

More exactly, living together -- with or without a marriage band -- is probably the effective factor, if indeed matrimonial status has any force at all..

Because the study was observational rather than based on a controlled experiment something scientists can do with mice but not humans no clear results could be drawn as to cause and effect.

That leaves open the question of why marriages may be protective.

"There are various theories," the researchers said.

Having someone around to take care of one´s health problems and keep trail of one´s meds is probably a plus, as are two incomes or pensions instead of one.

More unnoticeably, not living alone is thought to be good for confidence, and for neural inspiration. People living in couples also have lower rates of dementia.