Serious study: Men's immune system is more sensitive and more vulnerable to marital status

Written by: Liu Fang

Editor: Kou Jianchao

Layout: Li Xuewei

As the saying goes, a real man should not be trapped by love. Putting career first and love second is the standard of a "real man".

However, there is growing evidence that men need to spend more energy managing their marriages. After all, reality is too unfriendly to male "single dogs".

Recently, researchers at the University of Copenhagen tracked the marriage and love situations of thousands of young Danes for 26 years and found that chronic inflammation in men who had been divorced multiple times or lived alone for too long significantly increased, while no significant difference was found in the female group. In other words, men's immune systems are more sensitive to marital situations and more vulnerable.

(Source: Pixabay)

Scientific studies have confirmed that long-term chronic inflammation can lead to cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc. Therefore, in order to "save your life", male colleagues may really have to treat their wives well, or work hard to find a good love.

A related paper titled "Do partnership dissolutions and living alone affect systemic chronic inflammation? A cohort study of Danish adults" was recently published in the scientific journal Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Wife is happy, life is comfortable

The 4835 subjects who participated in this cohort study were from the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank in Denmark, aged 48-62 years, including 3336 men and 1499 women. The researchers first investigated the number of relationship breakups and the cumulative time they lived alone between 1986 and 2011, and then tested the inflammatory markers CRP and IL-6 in the blood.

CRP, also known as C-reactive protein, is a protein (acute protein) that rises sharply in the plasma when the body is infected or the tissue is damaged. IL-6 is the full name of interleukin-6, which plays an important role in transmitting information, activating and regulating immune cells and inflammatory responses. These two indicators reflect the function of the immune system, cardiovascular disease, body mass index and the level of secretion/cytokines of aging cells.

According to Danish law, a couple is defined as: a formally married heterosexual or homosexual group; a heterosexual couple who are not married but live together with their children; a heterosexual couple who live together and are both over 16 years old, with an age difference of less than 15 years and no relatives. Therefore, this survey covers a variety of situations of divorce and the end of cohabitation. For ease of understanding, the article will focus on divorce.

For men who had experienced more than two failed marriages, the results were shocking: their C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 levels were 17% higher than those of their “brothers” who had never divorced. The interleukin-6 levels of men who had lived alone for more than seven years were also 12% higher than those of the control group of men who had lived alone for less than a year.

In fact, the average time of the last breakup for all the subjects was 12 years ago. That is to say, 12 years later, the negative impact is still playing a subtle role, making men's whole body inflamed. No wonder "Happy wife, happy life" is the mantra of many married men. This is an instinctive expression of "survival desire".

It should be pointed out that this result was proposed after a multivariate linear regression analysis of other potential factors, excluding the effects of variables such as age, education level, major early life setbacks (loss of parents, financial difficulties, family conflicts, foster care), body mass index (BMI), drugs that may affect inflammation (statins, steroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, immunosuppressants), acute inflammatory attacks, and personality trait scores (neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) on inflammation. It can be said to be quite rigorous and scientific.

Figure｜Statistical data (Source: Paper)

Of all the people surveyed, about 20% had low education (10 years or less), about 60% had one or more chronic diseases, about 50% had experienced a major early life event, and about 50% of women and 65% of men were overweight or obese. Interestingly, the researchers also did not find any link between education and marital failure.

The paper states: "Although the level of inflammation is generally low, it is an important clinical data and is likely to be a factor that increases the risk of death. Groups that have experienced multiple failed marriages or have lived alone for many years belong to the high-risk group in society."

Do men benefit more from marriage and are therefore more vulnerable?

There is growing evidence that the success of a marriage has a more direct impact on men's health.

As early as 2018, the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences published a longitudinal study of 10,662 Germans and British people. The results showed that men with intact marriages benefited significantly more in terms of health, and men with multiple broken marriages had higher levels of biomarkers (such as CRP) than the control group, while this "marriage benefit" was not reflected in women.

In 2009, the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) conducted by the National Institutes of Health found that married men had the lowest CRP levels, and thus the lowest inflammation levels, among all samples. Marriage is the most uniquely effective anti-inflammatory factor for men.

Two months ago, a big data analysis conducted by Lancaster University in the UK also found that "macho men" are more likely to cry after breaking up. At least from the statistical data, men seem to be more inclined to discuss heartbreaking topics in forums, which at least shows that they are easily affected by emotional problems.

However, the authors also pointed out that there are some factors that may explain the differences between men and women in this survey.

First, young men have a greater inflammatory response to adverse exposures, and this inflammatory response lasts for a considerable period of time; second, men tend to release stress through external behaviors, such as increasing drinking, while women tend to internalize negative emotions. This different behavior may also affect inflammation levels; in addition, because the average age of the participants was only 54.5 years old, inflammation levels may not have reached their peak yet.

But no matter what, it's always better to be nice to your wife or girlfriend just in case.

Finally, I wish you all to find your partner soon, have a happy love life, and reduce inflammation all over your body.

References:

https://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2022/01/04/jech-2021-217422

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