Mortality!

September 4th, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

A bad marriage could kill you, they declare. “They” being researchers from Tel Aviv University, who made their affirmation in an article published the other day in Journal of Clinical Medicine, titled “Dissatisfaction with Married Life in Men Is Related to Increased Stroke and All-Cause Mortality.”

In a longitudinal study of 10,000 men in Israel, 30 years of their health data were analyzed. The men were in their 40s when the study began in the 1960s.

Lead author, Shahar Lev-Ari:

We wanted to analyze the data gathered longitudinally using various parameters to identify behavioral and psychosocial risk factors that can predict death from a CVA and premature death for any reason.”

The subjects had been asked to rate their marriage on the scale of 1 (very satisfied) to 4 (unsatisfied). Subsequently it was shown that there was a clear link between the “unsatisfied” marriages and an increased death risk—69 percent more likely to die—from cerebrovascular conditions like stroke and blocked arteries. (Rates of stroke mortality increased by 69.2 per cent from 24.0 in the most satisfied group to 40.6 in the least satisfied group.)

And considering all cases of premature death among the men, not just from cerebrovascular accidents, the rate of death was 19 percent higher in men who said their marriage was unsatisfactory.

In addition, the researchers conducted a statistical analysis of all known risk factors contributing to death from cardiovascular diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, excessive BMI, and socioeconomic status. Even there the difference prevailed. The relative risk for death for any reason among the unhappily married versus the happily married was 1.21 higher among those dissatisfied ones.

Shahar Lev-Ari again:

Our study shows that the quality of marriage and family life has health implications for life expectancy. Men who reported they perceived their marriage as failure died younger than those who experienced their marriages as very successful.”

Bad marriages, therefore, appear to be as dangerous for men as is smoking and lack of physical activity! So, get some counseling and marriage therapy, if you want to avoid an early grave.

Conclude the authors:

Assessing marital satisfaction and measuring the health benefits of marital education programs for couples should be implemented as part of health promotion strategies for the general population.”

[Or, I suppose, you could remain single, though these folks, studies have found, die even sooner!
Earlier, Aston Medical School in Birmingham released details of a 13-year study of one million participants and concluded that being married is better for your health than being single. Married individuals were less likely to die from conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.]

In any case, it seems advisable to follow the recommendations of God regarding an institution that he created, marriage.

Wives [submit] to your own husbands, as to the Lord,
for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ [is] the head of the church—
He [being] the Savior of the body;
but as the church submits to Christ,
so also the wives to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
that He might sanctify her,
having cleansed [her] by the washing of water in the word,
that He might present to Himself the church glorious,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that she might be holy and blameless.
So also husbands ought to love their own wives, as their own bodies.
Ephesians 5:22–28

Stay alive!

SOURCE:
Neuroscience News; Journal of Clinical Medicine