Is Marriage Good for Your Health? Maybe...Maybe Not

Excerpts from a New York Times article entitled: IS MARRIAGE GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH? about research findings on the impact of relationships on health:

"Scientists have continued to document the “marriage advantage”: the fact that married people, on average, appear to be healthier and live longer than unmarried people. Contemporary studies, for instance, have shown that married people are less likely to get pneumonia, have surgery, develop cancer or have heart attacks....."

"New research is increasingly presenting a more nuanced view of the so-called marriage advantage. Several new studies, for instance, show that the 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...."

"One recent study suggests that a stressful marriage can be as bad for the heart as a regular smoking habit. And despite years of research suggesting that single people have poorer health than those who marry, a major study released last year concluded that single people who have never married have better health than those who married and then divorced...."

"...a second marriage didn’t seem to be enough to repair the physical damage associated with marital loss. Compared with the continuously married, people in second marriages still had 12 percent more chronic health problems and 19 percent more mobility problems."

"... results suggest that there are important differences between men and women when it comes to health and the style of conflict that can jeopardize it. The women in this study who were at highest risk for signs of heart disease were those whose marital battles lacked any signs of warmth, not even a stray term of endearment during a hostile discussion (“Honey, you’re driving me crazy!”) or a minor pat on the back or squeeze of the hand, all of which can signal affection in the midst of anger....Men were at risk for a higher coronary calcium score, however, when their marital spats turned into battles for control. It didn’t matter whether it was the husband or wife who was trying to gain control of the matter; it was merely any appearance of controlling language that put men on the path of heart disease."

"The solution....isn’t to stop fighting. It’s to fight more thoughtfully. “Difficulties in marriage seem to be nearly universal,” he said. “Just try not to let fights be any nastier than they need to be.”"

"...research shows that some level of relationship stress is inevitable in even the happiest marriages. The important thing...is to use those moments of stress as an opportunity to repair the relationship rather than to damage it. “It can be so uncomfortable, even in the best marriages, to have an ongoing disagreement,”... “It’s the pit-in-your-stomach kind of thing. But when your marital relationship is the key relationship in your life, a disagreement is really a signal to try to fix something.”"

Is Marriage Good For Your Health

From an article in 4/12/10 New York Times by Tara Parker Pope. The essence of the article is that a good marriage is very good for your health; and a bad marriage is very bad for your health. The permutations and nuances of these findings are very interesting. Here are some excerpts from the article:

Is Marriage Good for Your Health?

"...scientists have continued to document the “marriage advantage”: the fact that married people, on average, appear to be healthier and live longer than unmarried people. Contemporary studies, for instance, have shown that married people are less likely to get pneumonia, have surgery, develop cancer or have heart attacks. A group of Swedish researchers has found that being married or cohabiting at midlife is associated with a lower risk for dementia. 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."

"....Several new studies, for instance, show that the 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. One recent study suggests that a stressful marriage can be as bad for the heart as a regular smoking habit."

Do you need help?

Do you need help with a health related problem?. Can I help with an alternative health remedy?. I am not a qualified person in relation to holistic cures but I do however have a wealth of information on this subject, and my aim is to help people who have any illness or disease

You can contact me here at Natural cures or at curesforyou on twitter

I look forward to hearing from you.

The very best of health to all of you.

Do you smoke?

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Exercise for your lungs

This exercise will help any type of lung problem, asthma, bronchitis, or breathing difficulties.

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To determine the health of the lungs and body, one should measure the length of the inhalation and exhalation. If the exhalation is longer than the inhalation, ill health is indicated, since more is going out of the lungs than is coming in.

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and parallel to each other. Your back should be straight, your chin slightly toward your chest, and your head erect, as if the back of your neck is stretching upward.

2. Exhale all the air from your lungs and clasp your hands behind your back.

3. Now inhale slowly, expanding your lungs and pushing your hands away from your back. Keep your chin tucked into your chest, and use only your chest to breathe.

4. Exhaling, drop your hands and bring your arms out in front of you. Continue to raise your arms, bringing your hands up toward your head and then around behind your back, and back up in front of your body, completing one cycle.

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The cycle should be done ten times, and the exercise once per day.

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New website Healthtalkonline providing great information.

A new website has been set up providing great information for people diagnosed with illness and disease. It talks about peoples experiences and fears and involves real doctors and is none commercial.

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Supplement that can help prevent the super bug and cancerous tumours.

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Is Marriage Good or Bad for Your Health?

Is marriage good or bad for your health. According to the statistics in the article below, the answer is both. It's a surprising read!


From the Daily Record

Well Aisle Be

Mar 6 2009 By Brian Mciver

A Look At Whether Marriage Is Good Or Bad For Your Health

It can be the fairytale that you have dreamed of all your life, or it can be an eternity of trouble and strife.

Because, according to research projects and studies, marriage can either be the best thing or the worst thing to happen to your health.

A new report suggests that being married can make a woman ill, with American psychologists claiming women suffer from health problems more than their husbands.

But the new report is just the latest in a long line of surveys, which have shown the institution can either be good for your health - with lower risk of illness and longer life expectancy - or can be bad for you in terms of stress, putting on weight and lifestyle problems.

Here are just some of the scientific reasons why being hitched can lead to marital bliss, or wedded hell...

BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH:

The most recent study was unveiled at a meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Chicago. It showed that from a research group of 276 couples, women were likely to suffer from increased levels of depression, as well as physical ailments such as heart disease, strokes and diabetes.

A study at the University of Missouri claimed that murder was a problem in marriages.

They found that women are more likely to be murdered while married, while a criminologist in Washington DC suggested that a drop in the US murder rate was due to the falling number of marriages.

With about half of all marriages ending in divorce, it's been proved in studies that divorce is bad for your health, with increased risk of physical and emotional health problems.

A turbulent Liz Taylor-Richard Burton style relationship, with rows and arguments, can also be bad for your health, according to virologists at Ohio State University. They found that rowing couples are more likely to suffer from viruses and high blood pressure.

In 1993, Dr Miriam Stoppard declared that: "Marriage is bad for women. Living with men seems to be a health hazard, they should come with a government health warning."

A12-year study into the health and lifestyle of British civil servants, published in 2007, claimed that an unhappy marriage could lead to increased stress and risk of heart disease.

A2002 study of 8000 couples by the University of Nottingham found that married men and women can pick up their partner's health problems.

Those married to a sufferer of asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, ulcers or depression were 70 per cent more likely to develop the same symptoms.

Co-habiting can be better for your health than marriage or single life, according to a study on behalf of Somerfield in 1998.

The study found that couples who move in together eat better and healthier than single people, but also better than married couples who have been together for a few years.

GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH:

A 2003 study of 1000 towns and cities across Scotland found that areas with higher marriage rates were happier than the average population.

The town of Kinloss, Moray, had the highest marriage rate at 66 per cent, and also the highest rate of happy people, at 80 per cent.

Married men live an average of three years more than single men, with the mortality rate for single men three and a half times higher between the ages of 30 and 59. The mortality rate for married women is also much lower.

Happy marriages are the healthiest, with married people having thinner heart walls and lower blood pressure.

Married people are half as likely to develop Alzheimer's as single people, according to a study by the Swedish Karolinska Institute.

A Swedish study of 5500 men in 2002 showed that married men are less likely to die from heart disease and strokes than their coupled friends.

The health risk for unmarried compared with married men widens in middle ages, according to a study by the Office for National Statistics in 2001. The study found that single men over the age of 45 are 23 per cent more likely to die of illness. Divorced men have a 20 per cent increase in health risk, and widowed men,30 per cent.

Dutch scientist Dr Inez Joung, at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, found that from a checklist of 23 major illnesses and health problems, from migraines and cancer to arthritis, married people were healthier on every score.

While other studies have found that rowing couples have increased health problems, a report from Sydney University in 2008 found that married rowing women have smaller breast cancer tumours than married women who row less.

Similarly, a turbulent relationship has been found to help women reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes. Women who bottle up their anger are four times as likely to die from such conditions.

A study at the University of California found that single men between the age of 19 and 44 are twice as likely to die as married men. They found a happy marriage can add five years to the life of men and women.

A study at the University of San Francisco found people in a relationship with a steady sex life are less likely to suffer from colds and the flu.