Good relationships – the secret to a long and healthy life

By now you have probably heard or read somewhere that relationships are good for your health; but how true is this statement? Researchers from Cardiff University found that on average, married people lived longer than unmarried people. They also found that women in committed relationships have better mental health, while men in committed relationships have better physical health. Research from Brigham Young University also suggests that happily married adults have lower blood pressure than singles with supportive networks. Furthermore, research from the University of Rochester has shown that happily wedded people who undergo coronary bypass surgery are more than three times as likely to be alive 15 years later than their unmarried counterparts.

So what gives? Does the act of getting married suddenly add on years to your life?

Well, not quite. The key to these studies is that the successful participants are in happy, satisfying relationships. If you are miserable with your partner, you are actually worse off than being single, according to the researchers from Cardiff University. And, according to the University of Rochester, a happy partner is likely a supportive one. Supportive partners are more prone to encourage healthy behaviour, such as increased exercise or a better diet, which are critical to long-term survival from heart disease.

Does being in a happy relationship guarantee a healthy future?

According to University of Cincinnati research, there is more to it than being happy. They contend that straight, gay and lesbian couples in long-term committed relationships are also likely to pick up each other’s unhealthy habits. They identified three specific ways this could happen: 1) through the direct bad influence of one partner (i.e., one partner brings home unhealthy food and both partners eat it); 2) through health habit synchronicity (i.e., one partner may not smoke on his/her own, but if their partner’s desire to smoke matches theirs, they will both partake in smoking); and 3) through the notion of personal responsibility (i.e., even if someone observed their partner eating an entire bag of potato chips while watching TV, they don’t say anything to change the habit, indicating that they are complicit in sustaining the unhealthy habit).  This may help explain why some people gain weight in a relationship.

How can we apply this information to our current relationship?

By keeping the goal of living longer at the forefront of our lives, we can start holding our partners and ourselves accountable for promoting and maintaining healthy habits. So go for a hike instead of the movie theater, eat fruit for dessert instead of chocolate; starting small can make a big effect.

Further Reading:

Holt-Lunstad, J., Birmingham, W., & Jones, B.Q. (2008). Is there something unique about marriage? The relative impact of marital status, relationship quality, and network social support on ambulatory blood pressure and mental health. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 35 (2), 239-44 PMID: 18347896

King, K.B., & Reis, H.T. (2011). Marriage and long-term survival after coronary artery bypass grafting. Health Psychology PMID: 21859213

BMI-British Medical Journal (2011, January 28). Marriage is good for physical and mental health, study finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 8, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110127205853.htm

University of Cincinnati (2011, August 19). Long-term intimate partnerships can promote unhealthy habits. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 8, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110818190609.htm