Sex is good for Health
Years ago, Marvin Gaye’s song, “Sexual Healing,” touted the emotional benefits of lovemaking. True enough. But sex is also good for physical health. Here’s what the latest research shows:
Fitness
Fitness involves three elements: stamina, strength, and flexibility. Many people focus on strength and stamina (aerobics), but don’t care much about flexibility. However, exercise physiologists agree that flexibility—moving the major joints through their range of motion—is crucial to optimal fitness. Leisurely, playful sex gently moves many joints through their range of motion. This boosts fitness, and it’s therapeutic for musculoskeletal conditions, particularly osteoarthritis.
Deep Relaxation
The most satisfying sex involves playful whole-body sensual massage. Massage is deeply relaxing. So are sex-related deep breathing and orgasm Sexual deep relaxation is very similar to the physiologic relaxation that comes from meditation, yoga, and other stress management regimens. Meditative relaxation has been shown to help treat an enormous number of ailments, including: arthritis, pain, asthma, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, heart disease.
Pain Relief
Sex reduces pain in two ways. It’s an enjoyable distraction. During sex, people focus less on their pain—and as a result, suffer less. And because it’s exercise, sex releases endorphins, the body's own pain-relieving compounds. One of the nation’s most prevalent chronic-pain conditions is osteoarthritis. The Arthritis Foundation recommends regular sex to help control it.
Mood Elevation
Got the blues? Sex elevates mood. The endorphins released during lovemaking not only relieve pain, but also have antidepressant action. Massage is also a mood-enhancer, and good sex includes whole-body massage.
Immune Enhancement
Regular moderate exercise boosts immune function, which helps prevent all manner of illness. Sex is moderate exercise, so it, too, boosts immune function. Researchers at Wilkes-Barre University in Pennsylvania found that compared with those who have sex less than once in a week, people who enjoy it once or twice weekly are less likely to catch colds. This finding was surprising because colds are passed by close personal contact, so you’d expect sex to increase risk as lovers share their colds. But the researchers found that something else outweighed the risk-raising effect of close contact. It was the immune protein immunoglobulin A (IgA) that boosts the body’s defenses against colds. Sex raises IgA levels significantly.
Menstrual Problems
A few studies show that weekly sex reduces menstrual cramping and promotes menstrual regularity.
Sex Burns Calories
Thirty minutes of sex burns 85 calories or more. It may not sound like much, but it adds up: 42 half-hour sessions will burn 3,570 calories, more than enough to lose a pound. Doubling up, you could drop that pound in 21 hour-long sessions.
Sex Improves Heart Health
A 20-year-long British study shows that men who had sex two or more times a week were half as likely to have a fatal heart attack than men who had sex less than once a month.
And although some older folks may worry that sex could cause a stroke, the study found no link between how often men had sex and how likely they were to have a stroke.
Sex Boosts Immunity
Having sex once or twice a week has been linked with higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A, or IgA, which can protect you from getting colds and other infections.
A Wilkes University study had 112 college students keep records of how often they had sex and also provide saliva samples for the study. Those who had sex once or twice a week had higher levels of IgA, an antibody that could help you avoid a cold or other infection, than other students.
Less Stress, Better Blood Pressure
Having sex could lower your stress and your blood pressure.
That finding comes from a Scottish study of 24 women and 22 men who kept records of their sexual activity. The researchers put them in stressful situations -- such as speaking in public and doing math out loud -- and checked their blood pressure.
People who had had intercourse responded better to stress than those who engaged in other sexual behaviors or abstained.
Another study found that diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number of your blood pressure) tends to be lower in people who live together and have sex often.
