Why married people live longer

 Research shows married couples live for longer   Photo: Courtesy

You want to lead a healthy life? Well, according to a team of researchers, getting married holds the key to a long life. For a while I thought, these ‘tumzungus’ have really have run out of worthy hypotheses.

It turned out though their premises were quite justifiable. Dr Lincoln Khasakhala agrees unreservedly. Lincoln, a clinical psychologist – currently working at AMREF Kenya says, the researchers really did land on something valuable.

“It is a fact and has always been true; married couples lead healthier lives. Having a partner who can assist through life’s troubles lessens stress occurrence. Spouses complement each other, especially during the hard times,” he says.

Lincoln argues that stress, “Is the mother of all illnesses,” and therefore in its absence the body is left relatively disease-free.

He cites a somewhat familiar phenomenon: the death of a spouse in many instances drives the surviving partner down the cliff.

“From the time one’s spouse dies, life goes downhill for the other; at times causing their own death,” Lincoln observes.

Then he lays his finger on something else: loneliness. According to Lincoln, humans fill up with happy hormones when they relate. Human-to-human interaction therefore becomes the basis of happiness.

Believe it or not, the medic observes, malaria, flu, meningitis or even TB, find it difficult past the ebullience of a stress-free soul.

The study, by the Institute of Education at University College London, goes further to conclude that even divorcees will see their health improve again if they remarry.

And don’t think that the team did a shoddy job: the report looked at more than 9,000 people, born in March 1958. The healthiest women exhibited two vital characteristic: they were in their late 20s or early 30s at the time of their marriage, and they stayed married.

Men’s health too showed a decline after divorce, but recovered tremendously if they remarried. The researchers write: “Those who don’t have a partner are more likely to skip breakfast, eat unhealthy meals on the go, work long hours and spend time drinking at the pub.”

And while they may not be married, cohabiting couples showed similar health to married couples, “Except that respiratory functions were worse in cohabiting men.”

In this whole ‘marriage is good equation’, there are exceptions, says Lincoln. For instance: those borne with hereditary conditions won’t be saved by the mere act of walking down the aisle. Neither will those, who, at the point of getting married, ailed from a life threatening conditions.

And then: if you are a man, married to a Nyeri woman, whose mind is on a sadistic overdrive, marriage is the least safe cocoon you will seek refuge from.