AND YET IT’S USUALLY WOMEN WHO INITIATE DIVORCE: Divorce May Be Bad for the Heart, Especially for Women. “After controlling for age, race and ethnicity, obesity, hypertension, smoking, alcohol consumption and other health and lifestyle factors, the researchers found that compared with a woman who was continuously married, a woman who had been divorced once had a 24 percent increased risk of heart attack. Those who had been divorced twice had a 77 percent increased risk, and remarried a 35 percent increased risk. In men, only those who had divorced more than once had an increased risk of about 30 percent. Men who stayed married or who remarried had no increased risk.”