If your partner is ‘just a boy who cain’t say yes’ to paraphrase Oklahoma, then you have a new weapon in your armoury if your aim is to get him to the altar.
New research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal BMC Public Health has examine the changes in cancer survival over the past 40 years. What they found is that unmarried men are in general more likely to die than their married counterparts. If that doesn’t worry them enough to head them off to get the banns read then you could point out that the divide is actually getting worse.
This research was carried out by Håkon Kravdal from the University of Oslo and Dr Astri Syse from the Cancer Registry of Norway by looking at survival data from patients diagnosed with cancer between 1970 and 2007 and compared this to their marital status.
The results are pretty conclusive despite the range of factors they considered: unmarried men have a greater risk of mortality regardless of age, education, site of tumour, time since diagnosis, and cancer stage. To my mind more interesting is the fact that over the 40 years that they looked at data for, the effect of never having been married on mortality increased from 18% to 35% for men. If you are a commitment phobe woman then it also impacts you as the risk increased there from 17% to 22%.
So what are the benefits of marriage that minimize this increased cancer risk? And do you have to be married, or just cohabiting? Well in a partnership one hopes that both parties are looking out for, monitoring and checking each other’s wellbeing. Plus you have someone to point out that you haven’t had your prostate check up, or taken your vitamins this morning.. Håkon Kravdal said, “One problem with this kind of study is that cohabiting people are scattered throughout the never married, divorced/separated, or widowed groups. Consequently, presuming cohabiters to have the same benefits as married couples, the actual differences between couples and singletons are probably much higher.”
So if you are living separately in a committed relationship it might be time to think about ordering the removal fan – for both your health’s sake.
For more from AnnA visit her website www.bio-hormone-health.com full of news, views and articles on women’s health.
AnnA_R
AnnA Rushton is an experienced author and speaker on health, personal development and creativity. With a background in television, theatre and advertising she is a natural communicator with a particular interest in womens health and holistic medicine. Her books include 'Natural Progesterone', How to Cope Successfully With Stress', 'Tips For Hot Flushes', 'Dealing With Procrastination' and 'How To Write Your Life Story' all of which are available at http://www.creativecatalyst.co.uk
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