One More Thing To Blame Your Parents For

If your folks busted up, Science has some bad news for you: “Children whose parents divorce are more than twice as likely to suffer a stroke at some point during their lives than other children, according to a new study. The link between the two held even when the researchers accounted for other known stroke risk factors, such as obesity, smoking and diabetes. It is the first time such a link has been shown, the researchers said.”

But wait! Science also sees a silver lining!

Because most strokes occur in people over age 65, [study researcher Esme] Fuller-Thomson said, most of the respondents who had suffered a stroke would have been born in 1940 or earlier. Divorce was rarer at that time, and “the context and consequences of parental divorce in the 1940s or 1950s was probably very different from a child’s experience of divorce now, she said.

There’s also a “to be sure” moment about how your parents’ divorce does not automatically mean you will have a stroke, but what with Thanksgiving coming up and all you can probably still pull this out as a guilt card when things get unpleasant. Which they will.