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Happily Married Men and Women Have Lower Blood Pressure, Other Health Benefits

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

March 25, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A report on research conducted at Brigham Young University reveals that men and women in happy marriages have substantially lower blood pressure than single individuals or couples in unhappy relationships.

Psychology professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad found that men and women in happy marriages scored four points lower than single adults during the course of a 24-hour blood pressure monitoring procedure. 204 married and 99 single adults were asked to wear unobtrusive portable blood pressure monitors which recorded blood pressure at random intervals throughout the day, even while participants slept. Each participant's blood pressure level was recorded about 72 times.

"There seem to be some unique health benefits from marriage," said Holt-Lunstad in a Science Daily report. "It's not just being married that benefits health - what's really the most protective of health is having a happy marriage."

Not unexpectedly, the study found that unhappily married adults have higher blood pressure than both happily married and single adults.

LifeSiteNews.com has published many reports on the benefits to health and well-being of faithful marriage between one man and one woman, and the shortcomings of other types of relationships.

Dr. John Gottman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, who is well known for his research in the field of marriage, said, "The benefits (of faithful marriage) are better physical health, more resistance to infection, fewer infections, and a reduced likelihood of dying from cancer, from heart disease, from all major killers. The other health benefit is longevity: People live longer if they are in marital relationships, particularly if they are in good, satisfying relationships."

"There are physical benefits and mental health benefits," said Dr. Gottman. "You have less depression, less anxiety disorders, less psychosis, less posttraumatic stress disorders, fewer phobias. You also have fewer injuries due to accidents."

He further states that "married men and women have lower suicide rates than unmarried ones because married people have meaningful social networks of friends and relatives. Meaningful relationships give people a sense of personal value and a feeling of responsibility to others."

"Married individuals also tend to have stronger immune systems, making them less likely to catch colds and develop other illnesses than unmarried ones and that married persons are more likely to report feeling hopeful, happy, and good about themselves."

An interesting addendum to the research into the benefits of happily married couples is the statistics which show that perseverance in an unhappy marriage has a very decided benefit. The latest data show that within five years, just 12 percent of very unhappily married couples who stick it out are still unhappy; 70 percent of the formerly unhappiest couples now describe their marriage as "very" or "quite" happy.

Maggie Gallagher of the Manhattan Institute said, "Because marriage is a partnership in the whole of life, backed up by family, community, and religious values, marriage can do what economic partnerships don't: give a greater sense of meaning and purpose to life (a reason to exercise or cut back on booze, work harder, and to keep plugging even in the middle of those times when the marriage may not feel gratifying at all). Married people are both responsible for and responsible to another human being, and both halves of that dynamic lead the married to live more responsible, fruitful, and satisfying lives. Marriage is a transformative act, changing the way two people look at each other, at the future, and at their roles in society. And it changes the way significant others - from family to congregation to insurance companies and the IRS - look at and treat that same couple. Sexual fidelity, an economic union, a parenting alliance, the promise of care that transcends day-to-day emotions: all these are what give a few words mumbled before a clergyman or judge the power to change lives."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com articles:

MARRIAGE BENEFITS HEALTH: FOR MEN STAYING SINGLE 'WORSE THAN SMOKING'
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/aug/02081507.html

Study Finds Normal Sexual Relations Have Health Benefit but Not Gay or Other Sex
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06012607.html

The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage
The marriage Revolution would Effectively Destroy Matrimony
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/feb/040223a.html

Yet Another Study Confirms Gay Life Expectancy 20 Years Shorter
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jun/050606.html#4 

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