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Having a heartthrob can help your heart, according to Dr. Steven R. Steinhubl, director of cardiovascular education and clinical research at the University of Kentucky.
"We don't know what it is about a close and loving relationship that affects our cardiovascular health, we just know the findings are so consistent," Steinhubl said. After bypass surgery, after heart attacks, after staying in intensive care, the prognosis is always better" if the patient has someone he or she loves to go home to, he said.
"There is no physiological explanation why patients who have a spouse should get less infections in the intensive care unit, but they do," he said. "There is a lot about how the brain affects our physical health that we don't understand.
"They've actually studied frequency of orgasm and life expectancy," he said and found there is a better chance at long life for men who have more frequent sex.
Whether its sex, moral and spiritual support or good health habits that partners urge on each other -- or all of the above -- reports about partnerships are promising.
Married couples are more likely to live to an older age than their divorced, widowed or unmarried counterparts, another U.S. study showed last summer.
For single men between ages 19 and 44, the likelihood of death was almost double that of married men of the same age, according to the University of California, Los Angeles, study. The authors of the study linked being unmarried to severe isolation.
Men often reap the greatest advantage from being in a stable, loving relationship.
Dr. J. David McNeely of Louisville, a retired psychiatrist who recently celebrated his 44th wedding anniversary, credits his wife, Wanda, with helping him practice portion control and consume a balanced diet for more than 30 years now.
"Left to my own devices I might overdo it," McNeely said.
McNeely, 68, said it was his wife who persuaded him to retire about 8½ years ago, a transition in life that has led him in exciting new directions, including long-distance hiking and playing in two brass bands.
A healthy influence
Forty-one-year-old Todd Turner, editor and writer for an auto racing publication, is getting married in September to Julie Boatright, 35. Both have never been married.
Boatright, who is in sales with Humana, said she and Turner really hadn't reflected on the potential health benefits of marriage or the fact that it might bring them longer lives.
However, she already sees how they are going to influence each other for the better in matters of health.
"I've always been health-conscious, big on routine physicals and screenings. Todd on the other hand is not at all, but he's told me he's going to change that."
Turner likes physical activity, while Boatright says, "I hate to exercise." But now she's going to get a bicycle so she can ride with him.
"We can go for walks and ride bikes and inspire each other to stay in better health," Turner said.
The couple have purchased on old house in the Highlands that they both love. "I can see us staying in the house until we can't get up and down the steps anymore," he said, imagining a long life with his bride-to-be.
Having a love life improves many things, research shows, from calming nerves and lowering blood pressure to increasing immunity to infection.
A University of Virginia neuroscientist recently found that women under stress who hold their husbands' hands show signs of immediate relief, which can clearly be seen on their brain scans.
According to an Ohio State University study published this month, marriage provides greater psychological benefits to depressed people compared to people who are not depressed before they walk down the aisle.
Bad relationships hurt
But beware the unhappy relationship. A Brigham Young University study found that dealing with those for whom we have conflicting feelings can raise our blood pressure.
And while a man benefits from a happy marriage, an unhappy marriage will take a bigger toll on a woman.
The effect of marriage is so great that some researchers have even found increased longevity in men who remarry after the death of a spouse.
With all the evidence mounting about the benefits of happy unions, the pursuit of new love can be an obvious plus as we go on in life, after outliving a partner.
Author Connie Goldman recently spoke at UK on that very trend, "Love, Romance and New Relationships in Later Years." Last fall she published a book, "Late-Life Love" (Fairview Press, 2006), featuring 22 couples who found romance and entered into relationships in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
"People are living longer and an old person brings with him many of the emotions, psychology and physical needs of young people," she observed. "Love, caring and intimacy are not just the property of younger people. These human needs continue as we grow older."
By Linda Stahl
lstahl@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
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