Study: When You’re Married for Decades, Your Bodies Become Biologically Alike


iStockphoto.com/Squaredpixels

iStockphoto.com/Squaredpixels

At this point, we have all learned quite a bit about the health benefits of marriage (see links below), and there’s no denying that getting hitched does a body good. We’re always fascinated to see the various impacts marriage can have on a person’s physical being, but this latest studywhich reveals that being married for decades causes couples to become biologically alike—definitely piqued our interest.

Researchers out of the University of Michigan studied the health indicators from 1,568 married couples across the country—one group of participants had been married for 20 years and the other for 50—and found that the couples had remarkable similarities in various areas of health, particularly kidney function, total cholesterol and grip strength.

The study suggests two reasons for these correlations: mate selection and the tendency toward choosing partners who are alike in race, education and age—and shared experiences, where your health is actually the outcome of living your life with the other person.

Interestingly, the couples who were married for 50 years weren’t more similar than those with shorter marriages; they suspect that was mostly due to the fact that the 20-year group included couples that tied the knot at 25- and 45-years-old. For those who marry in middle age, heath patterns on already well established and therefore less likely to be affected by a partner.

To read more findings from the study, click here.

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