Marriage Is Good for Your Heart

Saying "I do" may be a great way to stack the odds in your favor for living a longer life. A study from the University of Rochester found that happily married people who underwent heart bypass surgery were more than three times as likely to be still alive 15 years later when compared to unmarried equals.

"There is something in a good relationship that helps people stay on track," lead author Kathleen King said in a news release.

Study co-author Harry Reis said that the effect of marriage is "every bit as important to survival after bypass surgery as more traditional risk factors like tobacco use, obesity, and high blood pressure."

Married men lived longer than their single counterparts, and the happier the marriage, the higher their survival rates. For women, though, the quality of the relationship was even more important. Those in unhappy marriages lived no longer than unmarried women, but those in satisfying relationships were likely to live almost four times longer.

"Wives need to feel satisfied in their relationships to reap a health benefit," said Reis. "But the payoff for marital bliss is even greater for women than for men."

Researchers tracked 225 men and women who had heart bypass surgery between 1987 and 1990. Those who were married were asked to rate their marital satisfaction one year following surgery. Fifteen years after surgery, 83 percent of the women who were happily married were still alive compared to 28 percent of women who were in unhappy marriages and 27 percent of single women. Happy husbands also survived at a rate of 83 percent, but even those who were in less-than-happy marriages had a 60 percent survival rate compared to the 36 percent rate for single men.

"Other research has shown that women are more physiologically sensitive to relationship distress than men, so an unhappy marriage can take a greater toll on their health," Reis said.

"Coronary bypass surgery was once seen as a miracle cure for heart disease," King said, "but now we know that for most patients, grafts are a temporary patch, even more susceptible to clogging and disease than native arteries. So, it's important to look at the conditions that allow some patients to beat the odds."

King doesn't believe that surviving a major health problem causes people to change their lifestyle and adopt healthier habits."The data show that many people go back to the lifestyle that they had before," she said, although supportive spouses may encourage their significant other to exercise more and to quit smoking.

The difference between the survival rates of married versus unmarried heart patients may be linked with the type of inflammation that is associated with heart disease — less hostility in the marriage equals less inflammation.