According to a new study, men who marry younger women live longer than men who choose partners who are are closer to their own age.
Remember the old formula for men? The ideal partner would be half your age plus seven years. So, if you were forty, you should marry a twenty-seven year old. A fifty year-old man would ideally marry a thirty-two year-old woman. That formula was not scientific, of course, and kind of ridiculous. Just a conversation starter of unknown origins.
However, actual science now seems to confirm that there might be some truth to it for men.
This research, reported in Health Guidance indicates that men who marry women who are 15 or 17 years younger than they are reduce their chances of premature death by 20 per cent. Those men who marry a woman seven to nine years younger lower their risk of premature death by a minimum of 11 per cent.
It works the other way too. Men who marry an older woman would see an 11 per cent increase in their chances of an early death.
Those women who marry men who are younger than they are don’t receive the same benefits. The study found no correlation between women choosing younger husbands and increased longevity. (The opposite, in fact. Women who marry men seven years younger than they are saw a 20 per cent increase in risk of an early death.)
Now, the study authors admit that there could be some cause and effect confusion in these findings. For instance, it could be that younger women are usually more sexually active and outgoing that older women. This could contribute to boosting their partner’s wellbeing, continued activity, and longer life. There are many well-established health benefits to having more sex and staying active.
However, it’s also not necessarily the case that marrying a younger spouse causes men to live longer. It could rather be that the men in their forties and fifties who are the most physically fit and youthful would be the most attractive to younger women. So, they have their pick of twenty-something partners, but those would be the men who were predisposed to living longer anyway.
Either way. If you’re an older guy looking for an excuse to seek out a younger partner, that 20 per cent reduction in chances of an early death is pretty compelling.
Source: Health Guidance | Marrying a Younger Woman Helps Men Live Longer
