Love, the calm and stable form, is good for health. “There is very nice evidence that people who participate in satisfying, long-term relationships fare better on a whole variety of health measures,” says Harry Reis, PhD, co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Human Relationships. Here are 10 research-backed ways that love and health are linked:

1. Fewer Doctor’s Visits
Studies on marriage and health showed that married people have fewer doctor’s visits and shorter average hospital stays, possibly because people in good relationships take better care of themselves.

2. Less Depression & Substance Abuse
It has also been shown that getting married and staying married reduces depression in both men and women. Social isolation is clearly linked to higher rates of depression. What is interesting is that marriage also contributes to a decline in heavy drinking and drug abuse, especially among young adults.

3. Lower Blood Pressure
A happy marriage is good for your blood pressure, a study in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine concluded. The quality of marriage makes the difference, supporting the idea that other positive relationships can have the same benefit.

4. Less Anxiety
A research at the State University of New York at Stony Brook used functional MRI (fMRI) scans to look at the brains of people in love and found that long-term relationships activate the areas in the brain associated with bonding, with less activation in the area that produces anxiety.

5. Natural Pain Control
The same fMRI study also showed more activation in the part of the brain that keeps pain under control. In a small study published in Psychological Science, researchers subjected 16 married women to the threat of an electric shock. When the women were holding their husband’s hand, they showed less response in the brain areas associated with stress. The happier the marriage, the greater the effect.

6. Better Stress Management
There is evidence of a link between social support and stress management. If a person is facing a stressor like losing a job, he can cope better if he has the support of someone who loves him.

7. Fewer Colds
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that people who exhibit positive emotions are less likely to get sick after exposure to cold or flu viruses.

8. Faster Healing
A positive relationship may make flesh wounds heal faster. Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center gave married couples blister wounds. The wounds healed nearly twice as fast in spouses who interacted warmly compared with those who demonstrated a lot of hostility toward each other.

9. Longer Life
Several studies indicate that married people live longer. One of the largest studies examines the effect of marriage on mortality during an eight-year period in the 1990s. Using data from the US National Health Interview Survey, researchers found that people who had never been married were 58% more likely to die than married people.

10. Happier Life
Obviously, one of love’s greatest benefits is joy. A study in the Journal of Family Psychology shows that happiness depends more on the quality of family relationships than on the level of income.