Healthy living
Body matters
How sex helps your health
Scientific research is starting to show that regular sex appears to help to stave off the threat of illness - and what's more, it could even help people to live longer.
Sex fights illness
When, for example, scientists studied around 2400 men in Caerphilly, Wales, over a 10-year period, it found that those who had more orgasms were 50 per cent less likely to have died.
This lowering of risk was particularly marked when it came to heart attacks, leading scientists to endorse the idea that sex can be excellent exercise.
Another way in which sex shows its disease-fighting qualities is in the role it appears to have in protecting against prostate cancer.
Studies have shown that frequent ejaculations appear to reduce the risk of this type of cancer, which affects around 20,000 men in Britain every year.
Research carried out in Boston looked at 30,000 men aged between 46 and 81. It found that a higher number of ejaculations was linked with a decreased risk of cancer of up to 33 per cent.
This follows a smaller Australian study that appeared to show that men who masturbated frequently in earlier life were a third less likely to develop prostate cancer when they got older.
This phenomenon has been attributed to the theory that orgasm reduces the development of calcifications in the prostate that have been linked with cancer.
Immunity booster
Sex can also boost general health by stimulating the immune system. A study carried out in Pennsylvania, for example, showed that sexually active university students produced more of the bacteria-fighting antigen IgA than those who didn't have any sex.
Scientists have speculated that this could be because sexually active people are potentially exposed to more infections, so their immune systems are primed to deal with them.
Quality, not quantity, seems to be important, however: people who had very frequent sex had lower IgA levels than those who had no sex at all.
This, according to Dr Carl Charnetski, who carried out the study, could be because people who were having very frequent sex might have been in relationships that were causing stress, which can make IgA levels drop.
The association between health and the nature of sex is perhaps backed up by a Japanese study in which 19 out of 42 people who had had a stroke during sex were being unfaithful at the time.
Information on this site is for interest only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should consult your own doctor about any specific health concerns.
