Marriage and a nightly glass of wine could help men live longer

Chronic stress can lead to earlier death, especially for men

Multiple studies have shown stress can lead to poor health. Now researchers say chronic stress can be lethal, raising the chances of dying 50 percent; especially for men.

In a new study, Carolyn Aldwin, lead author of the study and a professor of human development and family sciences at Oregon State University, "Being a teetotaler and a smoker were risk factors for mortality.

So perhaps trying to keep your major stress events to a minimum, being married and having a glass of wine every night is the secret to a long life.”

For their analysis, the researchers looked at 1,000 middle-class and working-class men over an 18 year span - from1985 to 2003.

The men were part of the Boston VA Normative Aging Study in the 1960s. All were in good health when they signed up.

When the investigators looked at lifespan related to stress, they found having three to six adverse life events– even those that were moderately as opposed to highly stressful – increased the chances of dying.

"It seems there is a threshold and perhaps with anything more than two major life events a year and people just max out," Aldwin said. "We were surprised the effect was not linear and that the moderate group had a similar risk of death to the high-risk group.”

The study, published in the Journal of Aging Research, is the first to measure the impact of stress from major life events in middle age and older people.

"Most studies look at typical stress events that are geared at younger people, such as graduation, losing a job, having your first child," Aldwin said.

In the current study, Aldwin and her team looked at stress over a period of time, which included caretaking, institutionalizing a spouse and children’s problems, such as divorce.

"I modified the stress measure to reflect the kinds of stress that we know impacts us more as we age, and even we were surprised at how strong the correlation between stress trajectories and mortality was."

The study revealed even moderate chronic stress can increase the chances of dying earlier. The authors plan more studies that focus on coping strategies. They will continue to follow the men in the study.

Aldwin said moderate smoking and being married were both found to protect from the lethal effect of stress.

She also explains it’s important to regulate stressful emotions by talking to people and making a plan of action to alleviate the effects of stress.

More importantly, it’s how stress is perceived that is important. She says older people are usually able to put things into perspective.

Past studies have shown unmarried men are likely to die a decade sooner than their married counterparts. Marriage and a glass of wine each night just might help men live longer, found in the study. For men especially, chronic stress can lead to an earlier death.

Image credit: Morguefile