Is Marriage Good For Your Health

From an article in 4/12/10 New York Times by Tara Parker Pope. The essence of the article is that a good marriage is very good for your health; and a bad marriage is very bad for your health. The permutations and nuances of these findings are very interesting. Here are some excerpts from the article:

Is Marriage Good for Your Health?

"...scientists have continued to document the “marriage advantage”: the fact that married people, on average, appear to be healthier and live longer than unmarried people. Contemporary studies, for instance, have shown that married people are less likely to get pneumonia, have surgery, develop cancer or have heart attacks. A group of Swedish researchers has found that being married or cohabiting at midlife is associated with a lower risk for dementia. A study of two dozen causes of death in the Netherlands found that in virtually every category, ranging from violent deaths like homicide and car accidents to certain forms of cancer, the unmarried were at far higher risk than the married."

"....Several new studies, for instance, show that the marriage advantage doesn’t extend to those in troubled relationships, which can leave a person far less healthy than if he or she had never married at all. One recent study suggests that a stressful marriage can be as bad for the heart as a regular smoking habit."