Dying to be Married?

Ok, so most days I'm actually pretty ok with the single life. Then I have to read a story like this one in the New York Times, and I end up heaving a heart-rending, pitiful sigh.

Check out this quote:

Researchers surveyed more than 80,000 Americans and found that people who never married were 58% more likely to die during the course of an eight-year period than their married peers. (emphasis mine)

I actually had to read that paragraph twice, I was so aghast. Who would have thought that my life depended on finding a mate? I mean, besides me. Er, not that I think my life depends on it, per se. Or at least, I didn't.

Until now.

Gives a whole new meaning to the "til death do us part" part of the wedding vows, doesn't it?

Oh wait. It actually doesn't. Well, hmm. Never mind.

Er, moving on...

Then, I laughed at this thoroughly inadequate clarification from a Dr. Richard Kronik of UCSD, who "suggested that people who are healthier are more likely to marry, and that marriage itself does not reduce risks." (emphasis mine)

Oh, great. So in Dr. Kronik's mind, maybe I won't die sooner than my married counterparts, but I'm probably ill.

Somehow, I'm not comforted.

(I wonder if some of us get so worked up about not being married when we, just for example, read the results of studies like this that we make ourselves sick and THEN die of heart disease induced by stress, thus justifying the statistics.)