SEX IS GOOD FOR YOU!

The Health Benefits of Sex

Everyone knows that sex is fun, but how can sex also improve your health.

The saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” could be changed to “An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away”.

Stress reduction and lower blood pressure

The release of sexual tension with orgasm helps to reduce nervous tension and makes you feel more relaxed which can also help with sleep and may help to reduce your blood pressure.

Pain Relief

During sex, endorphins are released that are natural morphine-like substances that give you a greater feeling of well-being, they can also reduce pain such as headache or period pain.

Sexual Hormones

On orgasm, the powerful bonding hormone Oxytocin is released which gives you a feeling of security and closeness in your relationship and improves your self-esteem.

Aerobic Exercise

Sex is good aerobic exercise and 30 minutes of sex may burn 85 calories or more, which will help with weight maintenance. Having an orgasm itself burns only two or three calories. We can compare the energy expended having sex with other forms of exercise by comparing metabolic equivalents (METs). One MET is the energy required to sit quietly which is about one calorie per kilogram of body weight per hour. Having sex with your partner uses 5-9 MET. Playing tennis uses 6 MET, basketball 9 MET, walking one mile 2-3 MET.

Sex is good for the Heart

Sex may also be good for your heart. Studies have shown that men who had sex twice or more per week were half as likely to have a fatal heart attack than men who had sex less than once a month. Older patients also worry about the risk of stroke but the same study also showed no link between frequency of sex and likelihood of stroke.
A study of women hospitalised after a heart attack, compared to a group of age-matched women admitted for other reasons, found that those with heart attacks were more likely to be less sexually active.

Sex Benefits the Immune System

Sex can help boost your immunity by increasing levels of Immunoglobulins particularly IgA which can help protect you against viruses and other infections. One study in 1994 suggested that an immune response to her partner’s sperm may protect women against breast cancer.

Pelvic Floor Exercises

Both men and women can benefit from pelvic floor muscle exercises called Kegel exercises which have been shown to improve the strength of orgasm and as a bonus will also help to reduce urinary leakage in later life.

Reduction in Risk for Prostate Cancer

Having more sex can help reduce the risks of prostate cancer in later life. Men who had 21 or more ejaculations a month were less likely to get prostate cancer than those who had 4-7 per month. An Australian study interviewed 2,000 men aged less than 70 and found that those who recalled having more than four ejaculations per week in their twenties, thirties and forties had a significantly lower risk of prostate cancer than those who had less than three ejaculations per week in the same time period. These findings were also confirmed in a large American study showing that men who had more than twenty-one ejaculations per month were much less likely to have prostate cancer than those having seven or less orgasms per month.