Couples going through the trauma of divorce may be hard-pressed to find something “good” about them — unless you’re a man looking to drop a few pounds and turn some of that flab into svelte, in which case divorce may be just the health and fitness spark you’re looking for.
That’s the (admittedly droll) inference we can draw from an 8-year Swedish study of 9000 divorcees aged 45+, which found that men enjoyed improved health and fitness benefits after divorce. Conversely, women’s health and fitness levels decreased as their waistlines expanded.
“Single men have the social pressure of keeping themselves fit to increase their attractiveness and find a partner,” noted researchers at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, “while married men no longer have that requirement, or at least they have it to a lower extent….women’s attractiveness might not be related to fitness or strength but to other traits, such as a narrow waist to hip ratio.”
The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology comes on the heels of a 2009 University of Chicago study, which found that divorcees (both genders) are 20% more likely to develop chronic illnesses, like heart disease, diabetes or cancer, than married people. That study also found that divorced people have 23% more mobility problems (e.g. climbing stairs, walking distances).
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