Health And Marriage: Benefits For Men

If you find the prospect of “tying the knot” stressful, you may want to consider very real evidence that married or partnered men are healthier and live longer than their single counterparts. Contrary to conventional wisdom, men in committed relationships experience less stress, reducing the chances of chronic disease and sudden illness. Health and marriage and the benefits for men are undoubtedly closely related.

The health benefits of marriage seem to come from lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, but it’s a combination of factors that makes walking down the aisle toward a committed relationship healthier than going it alone. Certainly, there are advantages to maintaining a perpetual string of one-night stands, but the concept of health and marriage may trump the idea for some men.

The complex link between health and marriage

A 1996 Rand Study, titled Marital Status and Mortality: The Role of Health, states men in their 50s, 60s and 70s have lower mortality rates compared to never-married, divorced or widowed men, but the reasons are complex.

One suggestion is that marriage encourages healthy behaviors that include not smoking, avoidance of excessive alcohol intake, better nutrition, and care in times of illness. Men who are married are less likely to engage in risky behaviors like substance abuse or drinking and driving. Parenting within a marriage further promotes healthy behavior.

Stress hormones lower for married men

Researchers from the University of Chicago found that marriages and romantic commitments lower stress hormones.

Dario Maestripieri, Professor in Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago, and lead author of Between- and Within-sex Variations in Hormonal Responses to Psychological Stress in a Large Sample of College Students, says that "although marriage can be pretty stressful, it should make it easier for people to handle other stressors in their lives. What we found is that marriage has a dampening effect on cortisol responses to psychological stress, and that is very new."

The study was conducted on 500 masters degree students who were given a series of stressful computer games. Among the group, 40% of the men and 53% of the women were married or in a relationship. The researchers collected saliva samples to measure cortisol and testosterone levels, before and after the games.

The surprising finding at the start of the study was that single men and women had higher levels of the stress hormone than married participants. Men in a committed relationship had lower testosterone levels -- findings that the scientists say happens in primates and birds when males engage in fatherly behavior. Single students in the study had higher testosterone levels that “can potentially influence many aspects of an individual’s response to environmental challenges including tendency to take risks, psychomotor function and coordination, and cognitive performance.”