Getting divorced might be traumatic but it does not appear to damage your health, according to research that challenges conventional wisdom.
An extensive study of thousands of couples now in their late fifties found that middle-aged men and women who had gone through the emotional upheaval of divorce were just as healthy as couples who remained in stable marriages, as long as they met someone else and settled down again.
Some divorced men even experienced a health benefit, showing fewer conditions related to diabetes. However, individuals who had neither married nor lived with a partner had the worst health in middle age.
Researchers analysed information on more than 10,000 people born in Britain in 1958, part of the birth cohort study of that decade. Those