I go to the gym every day. I run 5 miles twice a week. I take my vitamins and I sleep for at least 8 hours a day - all this because I want to be healthy. I could save myself the trouble just by getting married.

It may seem funny, but is it absolutely true! According to many resent studies a happy marriage improves emotional, psychological and physical health!

Jane Brody’s eight-year study shows that married couples have a greater life expectancy than separated/divorced couples or single people.

What’s more, the widely-believed myth that marriage bumps up spouses’ angst and stress was brought down by a study done by the University of California (UCLA). 30 couples with full-time jobs participated in the university’s experiment, and the result is clear: a happy marriage diminishes stress.

The hormone that is responsible for stress and body fat is called Cortizol. The UCLA research team examined Cotrizol levels and fluctuation in the blood. Cortizol can also be blamed for illnesses like depression, chronic stress and cancer if its blood levels remain high over the years.

According to the study, at the end of a tiring day at work, women with happy marriages had much less cortizol in their blood.

On the other hand, cortizol’s levels were much higher in women that had problems with their spouse.

Amazingly, cortizol’s levels in men’s blood remained surprisingly low at the time they left their working place to return home, whether their marriage was happy or not.

So, men and women benefit unequally from a good marriage?

The answer is “yes”. This fact can also be affirmed by Ohio State University’s researchers. After studying 90 married couples, they found out that men with good marriages were less likely to get sick than their wives, while women with bad marriages were more likely to suffer from an illness some time in the future than their husbands.

All in all, a good marriage is good for your physical health. Don’t listen to people who say: “Love: a temporary insanity, curable by marriage.” Make a happy marriage and live happily ever after.