10 Ways Being Single Affects Your Health

You might think that health has nothing to do with your relationship status.

You get to wake up with the entire bed to yourself. Make your usual cup of coffee and breakfast arrangements. These are preparations for your usual day. You get to work on your income grind, take lunch, and do what it takes to get the job done. You finish the day with dinner and look back on the unique way you finished the day.

It looks like one of the ideal results you read in a self-help or self-improvement book or article. At the end of the day, you’re alone. Along with being single are its hidden effects on your health.

Overall, being single negatively affects your health. It doesn’t only affect your physical health. Your psychological health is also affected by your relationship status. We’ll look at 10 ways that being single affects your health.

1. Single people in general don’t live as long.

Being socially isolated is never a good thing. Choosing to remain unmarried isolates you on a more fundamental level.

In the Journal of Epidemiology and Community, Kaplan and Kornick found out that the death rate is higher for those who are single and alone than those married and living with their spouses. For single middle-aged and older men and women, the major causes of death were heart-related illnesses and other chronic diseases.

If you’re focusing on a long life, being unmarried might derail that goal.

2. Married men have higher survival rates against cancer.

Cancer is a very troubling word. Unless you are single, those who are married don’t need to be as concerned with the word.

Married men have a higher chance of surviving cancer than their single counterparts. That’s according to a 2019 Harvard Health Publishing article. In the eyes of one’s health, women have a particular eye on their men. Because of their attention to the lifestyle of their man, they can detect behaviors that alert medical professionals of a problem.

This means that if cancers are found earlier, treatment can begin, increasing a man’s chance of survival. That’s harder to find if you’re single.

3. Marriage makes your heart healthier.

Marriage is associated with having protection from heart disease and heart-related illnesses.

Researchers from Aston Medical School looked at data from more than 900,000 patients. Those found with high cholesterol had a 16% higher survival rate and those with high blood pressure had a 10 percent higher chance of being alive than those who were single.

Unmarried people with heart disease were 52% more likely to have a heart attack or die from a heart issue after 4 years than those married with the same problem. That’s what a 2017 study in the Journal of the American Heart Association reported.

Having a spouse means that there is someone who promotes behaviors associated with a healthier heart. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to support you during such a crisis?

4. Married men can easily manage type 2 diabetes.

With all medical complications, 2 people managing it is better than one. It helps that there is someone close to you that can help you manage blood sugar emergencies and communicate with emergency personnel.

In everyday life, a spouse can help you manage your diabetes by assisting you with managing your insulin levels and encouraging a diabetes-friendly diet. This would be very challenging if you’re still single.

5. Your immune system becomes stronger.

Being able to fight off diseases is a benefit that anyone would want. Whether it’s a bacterial or viral infection, being married has a positive effect on fighting off illnesses that come your way.

Studies show that high cortisol levels related to stress can weaken human immune functions. Lower cortisol levels in happy couples do the reverse. They strengthen a couple’s immunity. Wouldn’t you prefer lower stress hormone levels in your life?

6. Healthier behaviors are encouraged in married couples.

However you see the care coming from your wife whether it’s nagging or motherly, it’s responsible for lower mortality for married men.

This is because your wife will encourage a less risky way of life, healthier eating with an eye toward your health, and keeping it that way. Single people don’t have that kind of check on their lifestyle, which likely increases their chance of doing the opposite.

You’ll have someone making sure you go on your daily morning exercise, have your health shakes ready in the morning, and make sure you take your medicine on time. Being single means that you won’t have someone encouraging you to be a little healthier.

7. Single people are more likely to be stressed.

This doesn’t just extend to adults, but also children. Married men with committed relationships are reported to have lower levels of stress.

According to a study from the University of Chicago, they collected a group of 500 master’s degree students who were tasked with playing stressful computer games. Among the men, 40 percent of them were married. The remaining 60 percent were found to have higher levels of cortisol than the married batch.

High levels of this hormone are linked with chronic diseases, a weakened immune system, and the ability to cope with sudden illnesses. This means if you were to be in a happy marriage you will be able to cope better with stress in life.

8. Married couples can cope with depression.

The beautiful thing about being in a marriage is that you’re not alone. A happy marriage is already a solid support group. There are reports of less depression and more support from a healthy marriage.

If you’re feeling depressed you have a wife to open up to. Even more, she can help by suggesting interventions and ways to discuss changes in your behavior. In short, you don’t have to go through such issues alone when you’re married.

9. Married individuals have lower alcohol and drug use problems.

Married individuals are less likely to engage in substances that can harm them. According to a study by Dr. Forrest from Monash University and Associate Professor Carter Hay found that young marijuana users who married were least likely to continue doing the drug.

Concerning alcohol, Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D., and Althea Nagai, Ph.D. at the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, found that intact and married adults reported less that they were drinking too much alcohol compared to their divorced, single, or separated counterparts.

10. Married people are happier.

According to the General Social Survey (GSS), married people are happier than single people. This is backed by nearly 50 years of surveys. 36% of people who had been married have reported saying they are “very happy” while 11% reported they are “not too happy” This is compared to 22% and 15% who reported they were happy and had never married.

Even if there is still an ongoing debate if marriages cause happiness, an article by the Journal of Family Psychology would say that those who are healthy and happy would be more likely to marry. If you’re single, wouldn’t it be a great experience to share your happiness with someone just as happy as you?

Being single affects your health in a bad way.

Being married means that you’ll live healthier physically and psychologically. Being single denies you the benefits that married people have. Being single can make your health situation worse.

If your choice of lifestyle includes a better state of personal well-being, then it’s time you thought about not being single. Consider joining our singles tours and dating in Colombia today!