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If your marriage is rocking the boat, there is more than divorce on the anvil. Researchers say unhealthy marriages increase risk of heart diseases in both men and women.

A study from Michigan State University has shown a strong link between quality of marriage and risk of heart diseases, stating that bad marriages are likely to cause heart problems which worsen as the couple age. The research also pointed out that the heart-ill effects of a bad marriage are greater in extent than positive benefits a good marriage brings. The study moots for counseling of older couples to address marriage issues, Daily Mail reported.

"Marriage counseling is focused largely on younger couples. But these results show that marital quality is just as important at older ages, even when the couple has been married 40 or 50 years," said Liu, associate professor of sociology at the university in a press release.

"The effect of marital quality on cardiovascular risk becomes much stronger at older ages. Over time, the stress from a bad marriage may stimulate more, and more intense, cardiovascular responses because of the declining immune function and increasing frailty that typically develop in old age," Liu said.

The findings of the study were based on data obtained from 1,200 men and women aged between 57 and 85, who participated in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project. 

The research also found varying effects on the hearts of men and women.

"Marital quality has a bigger effect on women's heart health than it does on men's, possibly because women tend to internalize negative feelings and thus are more likely to feel depressed and develop cardiovascular problems," Liu pointed out.

The study showed that women with heart diseases experienced a decline in quality of marital life but men with similar conditions did not report a decline. Researchers attributed this to a wife carrying for sick husband but the reverse not being common, could explain how women assess marital quality.