You eat right, watch your weight and exercise daily. But there's one important step you may be forgetting – making love. Not only is it a lot of fun, it does a body good too. Find out how sex prolongs your life, helps your heart, keeps you happier and more. Think of all the health advice you’re bombarded with daily: Eat more vegetables, stop smoking, exercise, get more sleep, use sunscreen, floss, boost your fiber, don’t text while driving. Protective? Sure. Fun? Not so much. But here’s one suggestion that’s hardly drudgery: Have more sex. Yep, you read that right. Romping regularly in the sheets really does a body good. “Having sex benefits us in [many] psychological and biological ways,” says Irwin Goldstein, M.D., president and director of the Institute for Sexual Medicine in San Diego. How so? Well, for starters, sex makes you feel alive and connected to your body and to someone else's, says sex educator/counselor Ellen Barnard, M.S.S.W., of A Woman’s Touch in Madison, Wisc. But it pays some big-time physical dividends too. Having sex reduces stress and helps you sleep better and live longer. It’s even good for your heart. Of course that’s as long as it’s safe, consensual and you’re somewhat selective. Not that we’re judging, but risky, casual encounters introduce hazards like sexually transmitted diseases. “If you live an unhealthy lifestyle, having more sex isn’t going to overcome that,” Barnard says.
“You relax, get calmer, disconnect from the worries of the day and it makes it easier to drift off,” she explains. 8. Sex can make you happier.
If just touching and hugging gets oxytocin flowing to your brain, orgasm makes it surge. That’s like being hooked up to happy drugs and explains why having sex can put us in a great mood and even guard against depression. Oxytocin, knows as the “bonding hormone,” makes moms fall in love with their newborns. It also makes us feel more connected to the person we’re making love to. According to an Arizona State University study, when women were sexual and affectionate with their partners, they felt better and were less stressed the following day. Which led to more sex.
“People need to love and be loved [sexually and nonsexually] by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety and depression that could affect their working life,” says study author Nick Drydakis, an economics lecturer at Angila Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. So having an active sex life can make you happier, healthier and wealthier, the last of which can make you even happier. Visit Lifescript’s Sex and Relationship Center for more expert advice.
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