|
|
||
Ball and chain, or fountain of youth Date published: 7/5/2009
IN AN effort to provide I get a chuckle every time I see a new male patient who does not know why he has an appointment to see me. I will ask, "How can I never laugh out loud, however. I calmly inform my reluctant patient that married men live longer. Through a great deal of research, I can confidently make this claim. Married men survive longer and live healthier lives than their single or divorced counterparts, according Please don't run out and marry the first person you meet, however. Having a happy marriage is what benefits people, not a relationship that resembles "The War of the Roses." In a very simple study, it was documented that married adults--male and female--had lower blood pressure than single or divorced adults. The one caveat to this study: Unhappily married adults had elevations in their blood pressure similar to that of divorced and single adults. (The devil is in the details!) Married adults also have lower rates of alcoholism, smoking and other risky behaviors. Why? With a healthy marriage comes Anecdotally, I often see married people who were implored to overcome fears about getting medical attention by their spouses, and who thereby avert serious negative health outcomes. To put that simply, they were nagged into my office and the nagging saved their life! With any luck, my wife will not encourage rushing to the "until death do we part" chapter of our lives and will nag me when needed. (You know doctors make terrible patients.) MUTUAL SUPPORT A happy marriage provides a deep social connection, and thus individuals in successful marriages often score lower on depression scales. Getting married reduces depressive symptoms, and getting divorced increases them.
Date published: 7/5/2009
Dr. Lillis, Thank you for visiting Onely and apologizing. I now
understand where you were coming from and feel much
better. You did not have to respond to my request, but you
did, and that was very decent of you. Sorry for my joke
about the leeches. I didn't mean it. = )
Christina
In a country where divorce has gone above 50%, and I suspect many more that would want out of their marriage, do we really believe that marriage is any kind of answer to anything? Apparently you didn't do real research, but I would really love to hear your response to those that have a different perspective on this like: http://onely.org/2009/07/19/dr-lillis-makes-onely-cry-tell-him-to-apolo
http://singletude.blogspot.com/
Up for the challenge?
It's been pointed out time and time again that studies that claim married people are healthier than single people are based on bad statistics. But silly me, these rebuttals come from scientists who spend too much time actually working. It's the ones that just took two weeks off for a honeymoon that know the true hard facts. These claims are not only singlist but sexist, and horrifying coming from a doctor.
Dr. Bella DePaulo's research has shown the health/psychological benefits of marriage are exaggerated.
Your portrayals of singles are both stereotypical and untrue. And this contributes to discriminatory attitudes towards singles, something else Dr. DePaulo's research has documented.
I'm glad you're happy about your recent marriage. But don't use it as a reason to disparage those who don't share your enthusiasm for that institution.
Dr. Lillis: As a single person, I was hurt and horrified to see all the singlism in
your post. I recommend you go to the blog "Singletude" and check out her
15 July 2009 post, where she deconstructs your interpretation of the
marriage-equals-health studies and explains the difference between
causation and correlation, which is important for any doctor or scientist to
understand.
I would appreciate an apology. You can find me at Onely.org. Thank you.
Christina
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
