Having marital issues? Skip the expensive counseling sessions and buy a case of wine instead. A new study suggests couples who drink together lead happier lives.
We already know about wine’s numerous health benefits which include helping to lose weight, improving your sex life, making you more attractive, better at dancing, and elevating your witty comebacks. Now we can add yet another mark in the “win” column after a study published in The Journal of Gerontology found wine works as a sort of marriage counselor.
Researchers focused on heterosexual couples in the US and measured responses by 2,767 married couples as part of a long-term health survey.
The average length of these marriages was 33 years, with approximately two thirds in their first marriage. Researchers sat down with couples and asked them about their drinking habits and whether they found their spouse reliable, demanding, critical, irritating, etc.
Lead author Kira S. Birditt said couples who drink “are less irritated — not necessarily happy.”
This makes sense when you consider the effect a glass of wine might have on a wife whose husband never learned how to put down a toilet seat. Or the husband whose wife feels compelled to constantly question the plot of a thrilling movie as it unfolds over two hours.
Not drinking together has its own impact on couples’ happiness. The study found couples who didn’t drink together were less happy. Specifically, they found women who abstained from alcohol but have a husband who drinks were the least happy of the bunch. Similarly, if both partners abstained together, they were happier. So basically they concluded that couples who have shared interests are happier.
