STUDY: The Optimistic Factor in Healthier Marriages

We all know the old saying, about a happy wife meaning a happy life.Keep your wife happy and you’ll be happy.

Well, a new study shows it can work both ways.

Researchers at Michigan State University studied more than 4,000 couples, men and women, and concluded that as an individual grows old with a happy life partner, they will see their risk of developing dementia, cognitive decline, or Alzheimer’s disease steadily declines.

The study showing that the more optimistic person in the relationship helps the other person.

The co-author of the study puts it this way, “We spend a lot of time with our partners….and they might encourage us to exercise, eat healthier or remind us to take our medicine. When your partner is optimistic and healthy, it can translate to similar outcomes in your own life. You actually do experience a rosier future by living longer and staving off cognitive illnesses.”

The bottom line he says is that people who are married to optimists tend to be healthier, physically and psychologically.

So to borrow some lines from a politically incorrect 1960’s era song, "If you want to be married for the rest of your life, find an optimistic person to be your wife". And...vice versa.

READ MORE about this study.

(Photo credit Getty Images)


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