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In Sickness and In Health
The Amazing Vow Power

BreakPoint with Charles Colson

October 15, 2003

Forty years ago, a study called the Hammond Report analyzed the smoking habits of half a million people. Its conclusion: Smoking is dangerous to one’s health. It was a warning that ended up on every pack of cigarettes sold. Ten years later, a researcher took another look at the Hammond Report and found something that had been overlooked—something just as hazardous as a pack-a-day cigarette habit—that is, divorce.

As Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher write in their book, The Case for Marriage, an enterprising Surgeon General might wish to slap a warning label on divorce decrees, reading, “Not being married can be hazardous to your health.” Research is proving that those who get—and stay—married can count on much better health than those who don’t.

How much better? Waite and Gallagher found that divorced, single, and widowed people are “far more likely to die from all causes,” including heart disease, stroke, car accidents, murder, and suicide. As for cancer, being married dramatically increases the odds of survival. “Even sick people who marry live longer than their counterparts who don’t,” they write.

This happens in part because when people get married, they typically adopt a healthier lifestyle. Men especially give up what Waite and Gallagher call “stupid bachelor tricks.” They give up drinking and driving, fighting at bars, and abusing drugs, they say. Wives not only discourage such behavior, they also improve their husband’s health by cooking them healthy meals, encouraging regular sleep, and scheduling doctor appointments for them....