I got married recently. I did it for love, certainly, but it got me thinking about the other rewards of marriage—in particular, the potential health benefits. Not surprisingly, marriage, the most enduring and complicated of human relationships, can have a favorable impact on one's emotional and physical well-being. But that's not guaranteed, and it doesn't come for free.
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And that's just the start. People in happy marriages also have less acute and chronic illness, better-functioning immune systems, fewer fatal accidents, less susceptibility to alcohol abuse, and lower rates of depression, schizophrenia and suicide. In stable relationships, partners help each other by encouraging good health habits, such as routine mammograms and colonoscopies, and discouraging bad habits like smoking.
Someday marital stress may be as important an indicator of health as cholesterol, weight or blood pressure. But like those other health indicators, a marriage needs constant work if you are going to enjoy the well-being benefits—or so I'm told. What do I know? I'm just getting started.