“People who are happily married have lower blood pressure than those who are single or in an unhappy marriage.”  Brigham Young University study

What are you doing to “invest” in the happiness of your marriage?

He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.  (Prov. 18:22; NIV)

Being a very happily married woman, I was pleasantly surprised to read the headlines of a current news article stating, “A Happy Marriage Boosts Heart Health, Researchers Discover.”  I realize that we have numerous readers who aren’t married, and we may have readers who aren’t happily married.  I pray the latter is only a precious few, nonetheless it is reality. 

According to the article, the researchers had 204 married adults and 99 single ones wear portable blood-pressure monitors for a complete 24-hour period. The monitors allowed researchers to take random blood pressure readings 72 different times during the day.  (That’s a lot of blood pressure readings!)

They wanted to capture the participants’ blood pressure readings doing whatever they do in everyday life as opposed to a clinical setting of one or two readings in a short period of time.  “Participants also answered questions about the number and quality of the friends in their social network. In addition, married participants answered a questionnaire about the quality of their marriages.”

“The blood pressure scores of happily married people were an average of four points lower than those of single people. People in happier marriages also experienced a larger drop in blood pressure while they slept.  Research has shown that people whose blood pressure remains high throughout the night are at much greater risk of cardiovascular problems than people whose blood pressure dips.”  An interesting (and rather sad) statistic was that unhappily married people had worse blood pressure than those were single.  Also in this study, having supportive friendships didn’t really impact the blood pressure of either married or single people.

The article ended by saying, “There seems to be some unique health benefits from being happily married.”  I would certainly concur with that.  And I realize that we can’t base an entire principle on one particular study but this does bear some reflection.  Today’s link is about the “Love and Respect” principle around marriage.  Good stuff.

Prayer Power
Thank You Father for the gift of marriage and for our spouse.  May we seek You for ways to bless, honor, respect, and love them.

Link of the Day
The ‘Love and Respect’ Principle

Blessings on you as you purpose to bless your spouse.