It is a truth universally acknowledged that most people are in search of a loving mate. Or so says every Jane Austen novel and any movie starring Meg Ryan. But now doctors have found there may be a biological benefit to finding a happy match.

Although studies have shown that married people tend to be healthier than those who are single, recent research found that while a happy marriage is good for your blood pressure, a more stressful one can actually be worse for your health than being unhappily hitched… or not married at all. Researchers at Brigham Young University studied about two-hundred married people and about one-hundred singles who wore portable blood pressure monitors for twenty-four hours. The monitors took readings at random intervals.

Happily married people had blood pressure levels about four points lower than singles, even scoring lower during rest.

But singles, don’t do anything rash. The study, published in the Annals of Behavioral Health, found unhappily married adults had higher blood pressure than both happily married and single adults, which shows a bad match is worse than none at all.

If you’re married, try to resolve problems peacefully. And if you’re single, there are plenty of ways to lower blood pressure without signing a marriage license.

Get plenty of exercise and sleep. Eat healthy and quit smoking. And make sure that if and when you do get hitched, it’s with someone you truly can relate to. It’ll do both of your hearts… and your bodies… good.