You don't need to know me very well to know I consider getting my wife to marry me my greatest achievement, (it's in my bio at the bottom of this page, afterall).

So I didn't fall out of my chair when I heard about a new study that found married people were 14 percent more likely to survive a heart attack than single people.

That study, conducted by researchers from institutions including Aston Medical School and the University of East Anglia, complements a similar study undertaken in California that showed cancer survival rates were 27 percent higher for married men and 19 percent higher for married women.

I think these kinds of studies reveal a truth that happily married couples might sometimes take for granted:

Finding the right person — who not only pushes you to do better but also accepts you when you are not at your best — is a timeless form of personalized medicine.

Today personalized medicine is a bit of a buzz word for describing advanced scientific capabilities — so it's nice to find ways to apply it in a way that everyone can understand.

Of course, getting married is not good medicine for everyone, and I suspect if these studies looked a little deeper they would probably show that settling down with the wrong partner could be worse for someone's health than just staying single.

It takes all types — and isn't that what personalized medicine is all about?