And it’s official: bad relationships are bad for your heart.
A study led by a Brigham
Young University
researcher found that unhappily married people have higher blood
pressure than both happily married people and singles. The study of 204 married
people and 99 singles—none of whom had live-in partners—revealed a clear blood
pressure hierarchy in social relationships. And from lowest to highest, the
winners are: 1) happily married folk; 2) singles with a good social network; 3)
singles without a good social network; 4) the unhappily married.
In other words, the recluse with no friends has better heart
health than the woman with a rich, handsome husband whom she can’t stand. This is
not exactly a revelation: screaming fights with your significant other and
constant thoughts of divorce cannot be calming. But it does make a clear cut argument
against marriage for marriage’s sake. Coming in the wake of a widely circulated
Atlantic Monthly article, “Marry Him!” by Lori Gottlieb (the title says it all),
this could be a helpful reminder that perhaps there is something to that whole
waiting for your soul mate thing after all. And if it doesn’t work out, there
are always friends and vibrators. Your heart will thank you.
Photo: bbc.co.uk
