Marriage Keeps Dementia Away (Study)

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Marriage brings a lot of benefits to people, especially from an emotional and psychological point of view. However, a new study revealed that getting married could issue a protective effect against neurological disorders. Single or widowed people are more likely to develop dementia, so it turns out that the levels of social interaction exerted during marriage can keep people sane.

Marriage makes people be more socially involved

To come up with the study, scientists assessed 15 individual researches on dementia. This data was collected from over 800,000 participants from Asia, North and South America, and Europe. Apart from their likelihood to develop the neurological disorder, researchers also looked at the participants’ marital status.

The result showed an increased chance of single people to develop dementia. Their risk was 42 percent higher than that of married people. Therefore, researchers concluded that marriage might be one important factor that wards dementia off.

Single and widowed people are at a higher risk of dementia

The risk was higher even among those who had lost a spouse, namely 20 percent higher. However, there wasn’t any difference between those who were still married and those who had got a divorce. Therefore, marriage might make people more social, and might convince them to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

On the other hand, widowed people might become more vulnerable to dementia due to the shock they suffered when their spouse died. However, many other factors are involved, so it’s doesn’t automatically mean that widowhood exposes people to the dementia risk.

There is plenty of evidence that marriage makes people live longer. This happens because they usually have a better financial status and take better care of themselves, which has a beneficial effect on their health. Also, being more socially involved with a spouse and encouraging one another to live better works wonders on the brain. As a result, married people are less likely to develop dementia, as their brain preserves better even in old age.

The study has been published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.
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