Celebrating Healthy Ozarks Marriages
Loveseats: Love That Goes The Distance

 When St John’s Clinic was asked to sponsor Ozarks Marriage Matters’ “Loveseats: Love that Goes the Distance” photography exhibit, it seemed like a natural fit. Physicians have long recognized the link between healthy marriages and physical health. Cardiologist and nationally known author and researcher Dean Ornish, M.D., has quoted numerous studies suggesting a loving marriage is a factor in overall health and well-being.

“I’m not aware of any other factor in medicine – not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery – that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness and premature death,” Ornish says.

Ozarks Marriage Matters is a community-based, non-profit group dedicated to strengthening families through education, collaboration and mobilization.

St. John’s Clinic is the physician group within St. John’s Health System. St. John’s has long been recognized as a faith-based organization dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of the people of the Ozarks. Additional sponsors include Forest Institute for Professional Psychology, BKD Wealth Advisors and Haverty’s, which provided the loveseats on which the couples are photographed.