Being married is a wonderful experience. But if number of wives goes beyond one, then it could affect your health, according to a study.

Polygamy is practiced mainly in North and West Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. To find out the relation between polygamy and cardiovascular diseases, the researchers from King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia have examined 687 married men of aged 59.

About two thirds of men in the research were monogamous while the others had two or three wives.  The results were quite surprising that 56 percent of subjects had diabetes, 57 percent had hypertension and 45 percent had a past history of CAD. Men with more than 1 wife were more likely to be older, live in a rural area, have a higher income and have a history of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Dr Daoulah said that men with multiple wives have to be well supported financially, and although Saudis and Emirati people are supported by their governments, polygamists may need more than one income. They may therefore take on extra employment or have the added pressure of travelling daily to urban areas for higher paid work.

The researchers found a significant association between number of wives and the presence of CAD, LMD and MVD. Risk increased with the number of wives. After adjusting for baseline differences, the researchers showed that men who practiced polygamy had a 4.6-fold increased risk of CAD, a 3.5-fold increased risk of LMD and a 2.6-fold elevated risk of MVD.
Concluding the study at Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology Congress, a meeting of cardiologists in Abu Dhabi by King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, experts said that the problem of coronary heart disease and polygamy was only an association and not necessarily a root cause therefore further studies were required to know in depth about this.

By Lizitha