Have Healthy Sex!
Can healthy sex improve your immune system?
The following is an excerpt from an article published on the Oregon Health & Science University website in which Nicole Cirino writes:
As a reproductive psychiatrist and certified sexual health therapist, Dr. Cirino helps women who are struggling with emotional or mental health barriers to a healthy sex life.
Studies have shown that sex is extremely beneficial to our health. Sex activates a variety of neurotransmitters that impact not only our brains but several other organs in our bodies.
The benefits of sex for women include:
- Lower blood pressure
- Better immune system
- Better heart health, possibly including lower risk for heart disease
- Improved self-esteem
- Decreased depression and anxiety
- Increased libido
- Immediate, natural pain relief
- Better sleep
- Increased intimacy and closeness to a sexual partner
- Overall stress reduction, both physiologically and emotional
This study shows sex may boost your immune system.
Researchers at Wilkes University surveyed 112 subjects about their sexual frequency. They then analyzed their saliva for infection-fighting immunoglobulin A (IgA). Compared with the other groups, those who had sex once or twice a week showed significantly higher IgA levels. Lead researcher Carl Charnetski said “Moderately frequent sex enhances immune function, and may help prevent illnesses such as the common cold.”
Is Sex Really That Important?
The following is published on Healthline.com
As more and more research is done on the subject, it’s becoming clearer that having healthy sex is essential to a healthy life—and that sex can even help you to live longer. According to Dr. Irwin Goldstein, Director of Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital, if you read the latest research, “you can’t conclude anything else but that it’s healthy to have sexual activity.”
The research being done pinpoints a few very specific—and oftentimes surprising—health benefits that result from a healthy and active sex life.
Sex Reduces Risk for Prostate Cancer
In 2003, Australian researchers published a study showing that the more often men ejaculate between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop prostate cancer. According to the author of the study, men in their 20s should probably be ejaculating once a day. A similar study performed a year later by the National Cancer Institute showed that men who ejaculated at least five times a week, whether through sex or masturbation, were less likely to get prostate cancer. “The claim physiologically,” Goldstein told us, “is that if you empty out the tank every so often, it’s healthier than holding onto the material within the tank.”
Sex Reduces Risk for Breast Cancer
Women can get in on this sex-as-preventive-care thing too. According to Goldstein, studies show that “women who have vaginal intercourse often have less risk of breast cancer than those who do not.” Goldstein added that it’s “pretty interesting and exciting and needs to be studied more.”
Prof Goldstein is Director of Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital, Clinical Professor of Surgery at UCSD, Director of San Diego Sexual Medicine, and Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Page updated 2024