恶人谷

The secret to a longer life is to marry someone the same age, at least if you are a woman, researchers say.

Marriage generally improves life expectancy, but the age gap between a couple affects the life expectancy of men and women very differently.

Marrying an older man shortens a woman's lifespan, but having a younger husband reduces it even more, the study found.

The findings, drawn from the medical records of two million Danish couples, suggest that the best a woman can do is marry a man of about the same age.

Health records have shown previously that men live longer if they have a younger wife, an effect researchers expected to see mirrored in women who married younger men.

But a study by Sven Drefahl at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rosktock, Germany, shows that the greater the age gap between a woman and her husband, the shorter her life expectancy, regardless of whether he is older or younger.

According to Drefahl's report in the journal Demography, a man who is between seven and nine years older than his wife has an 11% lower mortality rate than a man whose wife is the same age as him. However, a woman who is between seven and nine years older than her husband has a 20% greater mortality rate than if she were with a man the same age.

Researchers used to think that healthier individuals were in a better position to choose younger spouses and so already had a longer life expectancy. A younger spouse may also have a beneficial psychological effect on the older partner and provide them with better care in old age.

However, Drefahl's study casts doubt on these ideas, since they do not hold for women marrying younger men.

"These theories now have to be reconsidered," said Drefahl. "The reasons for mortality differences due to the age gap of the spouses remain unclear."

Some explanation may lie in the quality of friendships men and women form throughout life. Women tend to have more close friendships outside marriage and so benefit less than men from having a partner. "Unlike the benefits of a younger wife, a younger husband wouldn't help extend the life of his older wife by taking care of her, going for a walk with her and enjoying late life together. She already has friends for that. The older man, however, doesn't," said Drefahl.

Women with much younger husbands may die younger on average because they experience more stress, Drefahl speculates.

While the study shows that women on average die younger if there is a large age gap in their relationship, married men and women both tend to live longer than unmarried individuals.

The life expectancy of women in general is higher than men, with women born in the UK expected to live to 82 years on average, compared with 78 years for men.

男人娶比自己大的老婆会活得更久。。。娶小妻子反而会减寿。。。

Jun wrote:

男人娶比自己大的老婆会活得更久。。。娶小妻子反而会减寿。。。

That's not what the graph says, is it? I think you have it backwards.

A racing pulse and sweaty palms are well known as the signs of instant attraction.

Now research shows that for men just five minutes spent alone with a beautiful stranger causes so much stress it may be bad for the heart.

The effects are worst for men who might think they are not “in the same league” as the woman now sharing their space but still try to attract her interest, scientists claim.

For those men, their anxiety rate is said to be similar to jumping from an aircraft. Their cortisol levels rise even higher, bringing on the possibility of heart attacks and strokes.

While he eventually got the girl, reality can be more painful, say experts at the University of Valencia in Spain.

‘Exposure to physical or psychological stresses for a long period of time may cause chronically elevated cortisol levels.

'That can have adverse effects on health as it worsens various disorders, such as myopathy, adult-onset diabetes, hypertension and impotency,’ said the research team.

They paid 84 male students £10 each to take part in an experiment – approved by the Faculty of Psychology’s ethical committee – which measured their cortisol levels before and after they had been left alone with a stranger.

Another totally LOL and shoddy study to help people confirm their preconceived notions. Amazing what passes for "science" at some universities. And it proves that anything can be published, if you find the right journal.

Knowing wrote:Can they also prove if human beings stop eating they will die?

Avanti wrote:The graph also showed that marrying an older man also increased a woman's mortality rate. A woman is doomed to die early, unless she marry someone her own age.

Very odd result. I'd like to see the data analysis to rule out interpretation artifact.

mirrorflower wrote:Maybe the whole point is that women shouldn't marry at all.