Healthfully married

Being happily married doesn't just mean you and your spouse can go out to dinner without arguing about the most asinine issues you can think of, it also means being the recipients of better health.

Brigham Young University researchers discovered that happily married couples, on average, experience lower blood pressure than singles with supportive social networks. The study involved the 24-hour evaluation of 204 married couples and 99 single adults, all of whom wore portable blood pressure monitors at all times for the duration of the study. Evaluation of the monitors' results revealed that the blood pressure of happily married adults lowered more during sleep than that of single people. And, since high blood pressure at night is a sign of increased risk of cardiovascular problems, this finding was particular important.

The full results of the study were published in the March 2008 edition of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.