We’ve all heard the phrase “happy wife, happy life” but a new study has found “controlling wife, healthier life” to be true.
Previous studies have shown that spouses can affect each other’s health and longevity. However, this study shines some light on why wives who are in charge of their husband’s health should be more praised.
Turns out that when men are influenced by their wives, they have a lower risk of developing diabetes, according to a study led by a Michigan State University sociologist. Even if they do develop it, they have a higher chance of successful treatment, thanks to their wives.
Hui Liu, the lead researcher, said that this may be due to the fact that some wives constantly monitor their husbands’ health, especially if the husbands are in poor health or have diseases like diabetes that require frequent monitoring. However, the husbands may feel unhappy with the wives telling them what to do, which they may see as “nagging.”
Since diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, this finding is significant. The research, which analyzed survey results from 1,228 married people, aged 57 to 85 years old, challenges the assumption that an unhappy marriage equals bad health and hence a shorter life.
The same study suggested that the reverse is true for women. A good marriage would mean a lower risk of being diabetic. Women may be more sensitive than men to the quality of a relationship and thus more likely to experience a health boost from a good-quality relationship, say researchers.
That being said, it was noted that too much control can also create overwhelming stress for spouses.
Many studies have shown that unhappy marriages can be bad for the body, heart, and mind. And one particular study followed about 10,000 Danes for 12 years and concluded that those with demanding partners had a 50-100% higher risk of early mortality than those who lived more peaceful lives.