Both marriage and divorce have an effect on the waistline, but they affect men and women differently. Women are much more likely than men to gain weight during the first few years of a marriage, but men are much more likely to gain weight after a divorce. Men and women who are more than 30 years old are more likely to experience serious changes in weight after marriage or divorce.
More facts about marriage and health:
- Being happily married can really boost a person's chances of survival after heart surgery. Happily married women appear to benefit the most and are about four times more likely to survive after bypass surgery than unmarried women.
- Married people also experience a host of other health benefits. They are less likely to get dementia, pneumonia, heart attacks and some cancers. A marriage that is in trouble, however, can cause some serious damage — it can affect the heart just as much as smoking a pack of cigarettes each day.
- These health effects seem to be there only for married people. The health of people who are living together is similar to that of other people who are single or divorced.