Weekly Healthy Advice From VÄXA

Good Marriage May = Healthy Blood Pressure

A new study suggests that happily married people are more likely to have healthy blood pressure than those who are either unhappily married or single.

The study, conducted by professors at Brigham Young University and published in the he March 20 issue of the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine, is the first to suggest that unhappy marriages are worse for your blood pressure than being single.

According to the study, even having a supportive social network did not translate into a blood pressure benefit for singles or unhappy married people.

The study included 204 married and 99 single adults who wore portable blood-pressure monitors for 24 hours. The monitors recorded blood pressure at random intervals and provided a total of about 72 readings. These readings gave researchers a better picture of participants blood pressure during their normal daily activities by accurately recording their blood pressure fluctuations, according to the study's main author, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychologist who specializes in relationships and health.

Overall, happily married people scored four points lower on the blood pressure readings than single adults.

The study also found that blood pressure among married people -- especially those in happy marriages -- dipped more during sleep than in single people, an important distinction, says Holt-Lunstad. She points out that past research has found that those whose blood pressure remains high throughout the night are at much greater risk of cardiovascular problems than people whose blood pressure dips.