Marriage and health

There have been so many studies on this that it now seems like stating the obvious: Study finds links between marriage and good health. It's well-established now that both men and women enjoy better health when married, and that the effect is especially strong for men. If you're interested in more information on the topic, I'd suggest a visit to the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University.

Since my insurance won't cover it, I guess Mom would have to

The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) put out a press release earlier this week on just how vital family members are to each other's long term care. This seems to be less of a "my family would drop everything to help" issue and more of a "well, I don't have adequate insurance for that" issue:

Nearly four in ten Americans say they would turn to family and friends if they were ever to need long-term care services, compared to relatively few who say they plan to rely on insurance or private savings. Conducted by KRC Research between October 27-30, 2006, the survey asked 1,025 adult Americans what they would rely on most if they were ever to become unable to handle some of the basic tasks of daily living, such as bathing, eating and dressing themselves. Here's how the public responded:

Family and friends 39%
Health insurance 18%
Long-term care insurance 15%
Accumulated savings 12%
Government assistance/programs 12%

Notably, the press release did NOT conclude "The fact that only a third of US residents can count on insurance to provide them with needed long-term care is a giant friggin' problem." So I'll let that be my conclusion instead.

The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman

Through the work of his Seattle "Love Lab," John Gottman has made tremendous strides in what we know about how marriages split up and how they can be saved. The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work takes the lessons learned and puts them in convincing, readable form. The Seven Principles are not speculation or opinion, they are based entirely on physiological research done with couples. With that kind of backing, Gottman is justified in taking a few cheap shots at "Men are from Mars" author John Gray: "The determining factor in whether wives feel satisfied with the sex, romance, and passion in their marriage is, by 70 percent, the quality of the couple's friendship. For men, the determining factor is, by 70 percent, the quality of the couple's friendship. So men and women come from the same planet after all."