5 Ways Your Relationship Status Could Affect Your Overall Health

Is it possible to have correlations between being single/married and being healthy? Well, according to multiple studies, your relationship status can dramatically affect your overall health in the long run in many ways.

We’ve gathered 5 top ways that your relationship status could affect your overall health from an article from consumerhealthdigest.com.

  1. Never Married People have More Health Problems

The article mentions a study that proved that middle-aged women who have never been married had greater chances of having heart-related diseases and breathing problems. Crazy, right?

The study included over 10,000 people from England, and researchers checked their relationship statuses throughout their lives. The results showed that “Men and women who remained single had the worst health condition and the risk for getting heart diseases or breathing problems increased.”

  1. Married People Live Longer

Duke University Medical Center created a study proving that married couples (or people in a relationship) had lived longer than those who did not.

The researchers believed that this may be due to the fact that people who are in relationships receive more emotional support than those who do not.

  1. Married Couples have Better Mental Health

The article from consumerhealthdigest.com also mentions that people who are in relationships have better overall mental health than those who are single. According to the Office for National Statistics, single mothers and men who were widowed have the worst mental health of all singles.

People in relationships have a lesser chance of experiencing depression and anxiety, turning to drugs and alcohol, and being stressed daily.

  1. Single People Aren’t as Likely to Survive Cancer

One study was published in the American Medical Association, and found that in general, married people have increased chances of surviving cancer! The study found that married couples had greater chances of surviving cancer due to the fact that it was found in early stages.

  1. Married People’s Brains are in Better Condition

A study was completed by Krister Hakansson in 2009 and published in the British Medical Journal that found that people in relationships “had a lower cognitive decline than single, separated, or widowed people.”

This could be explained by the previous findings that being in a relationship can lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. On the other hand, stressful or unhappy relationships can do just the opposite: increase cognitive decline.
