Brigham Young University study showed the happily married people have lower blood pressure than those unhappily married or singles, according to Thursday's Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
The study, involving 204 married and 99 single adults, who wore portable blood pressure monitors for 24 hours, found that the unhappily married adults have higher blood pressure than both happily married and single adults.
Researchers found that the former scored four points lower on the blood pressure readings than the latter.
The study found that blood pressure among married people -- especially those in happy marriages -- dipped more during sleep than in single people.
But for an unhappy marriage, that's another story, as the study also found that unhappily married adults have higher blood pressure than both happily married and single adults.
On the other hand, having a healthy social network, though a plus for singles' blood pressure, did not translate into a blood pressure benefit for singles or the unhappily married people, according to the study.
"There seem to be some unique health benefits from marriage. It's not just being married that benefits health -- what's really the most protective of health is having a happy marriage," study author Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychologist who specializes in relationships and health, said in a prepared statement.
Of course, other factors -- including diet, exercise, smoking and stress -- also affect blood pressure. Those factors count for everyone, single or married, happy or not, the study said.
