Though it is evident that marriage is good for health, a recent study has shown that remarriage cannot nullify the damage caused by an earlier divorce or widowhood.

Linda Waite, director of the Center on Aging at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, along with a team, studied the link between health and marriage. The study found that divorce or death of a spouse can leave a long lasting effect on one's mental and physical state of well being which cannot be completely healed even after remarriage.

The divorce period makes people extremely stressful leading to deterioration in health and it is difficult to bounce back even after remarriage. The study involving 9000 people aged 51-61 showed that those who had been divorced or widowed suffered from 20 percent more chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer, compared with individuals who were currently married. The figure only drops to 12% for those who remarry, researchers write in the Journal of Health and Social behavior.

“Some health situations, like depression, seem to respond both quickly and strongly in current conditions. Remarriage helps. It puts you back on a healthy trajectory, but it puts you back on a healthy trajectory from a lower point, because you didn't take care of yourself for a year," Waite says.

She found that more chronic situations such as diabetes and heart disease develop slowly over a long period. Although people who remarry after a divorce or being widowed do tend to be happier as a result but very little improvement is gained in chronic health conditions. She observed that the overdose of stress during the divorce leads to chronic physical conditions which cant be completely treated even after remarriage. Whereas in case of mental illnesses one can easily bounce back as the situation leading to mental problems changes after remarriage.

Marriage definitely brings an immediate health benefit for both men and women in the way that it improves health behaviors for the former and financial well-being for latter thereby rejuvenating their mental health but the adverse effect on health cannot be healed fully.