Recovery Is Sexy.com

Romantic sex is the healthiest

Lose weight. Reduce stress. Lower your cholesterol level. Improve your circulation. Live longer. Stay younger.
Sounds like an ad for a new wonder drug right? In fact it’s a partial list of the benefits of humanity’s oldest and most pleasurable pastime – sex.

Most of us are aware of the feel-good benefits of sex while we’re engaged in it, but do you also know that there are benefits which carry on after the sweaty bodies have dried and the sweet talk has reverted to sports? For instance:

Maintaining Ideal Body Weight

Sexual intercourse burns approximately 150 calories per half hour. Here’s how that stacks up against some other activities that may be part of your fitness regime: yoga 114 calories per half hour, dancing – 129, walking 153, weight training 153, canoeing 153, volleyball 174.

Increased Blood Flow

Sex helps increase the blood flow to your brain and all other organs of your body. Increased heart rate and deep breathing accounts for the improvement in circulation.

As fresh blood supply arrives, your cells, organs and muscles are saturated with fresh oxygen and hormones, and as the used blood is removed, you also remove waste products that cause fatigue and even illness.

Lower Cholesterol

Lowering your cholesterol is another of the “sex as exercise” benefits. Sex helps lower the overall cholesterol level.

Perhaps more importantly it tips the HDL/LDL (good/bad) cholesterol balance towards the healthier HDL side.

Stress Reduction, Relaxation and Improved Sleep

People having frequent sex often report that they handle stress better, so the normal stresses of living do not become distress.

The profound relaxation that typically follows lovemaking, with orgasm for women and ejaculation for men, may be one of the few times people actually allow themselves to completely let go, surrender and relax.

Many indicate that they sleep more deeply and restfully after satisfying lovemaking. In the relaxing afterglow you may be able to let go of distracting thoughts. Being able to stop thinking has helped many to overcome insomnia.

Sex as Pain Reliever

Through the magic of sex a hormone is secreted in your body which causes the release of endorphins. Because of these natural opiates sex acts as a powerful painkiller, elevating the pain threshold and helping to relieve the aches of conditions like arthritis, whiplash and headaches.

Now there’s a novel approach, sex as a remedy for headache rather than an excuse for abstaining!

With arousal and orgasm hormone levels rise. They spike 3 to 5 times higher than usual just before orgasm.

Live Longer, Stay Younger

A British study of 1,000 men found those who had at least two orgasms a week had half the death rate of their countrymen who indulge less than once a month.

The hormone DHEA promotes sexual excitement and increases in response to it.

Dr Theresa Crenshaw author of The Alchemy of Love and Lust says DHEA may be the most powerful chemical in our personal world. It helps balance the immune system, improves cognition, promotes bone growth, and maintains and repairs tissues, keeping your skin healthy and supple.

Prostate and Genital Health

Some doctors believe that more than 75% of men over 50 have a somewhat enlarged prostate, and that virtually all men will suffer from prostate enlargement if they live long enough. This condition is normal and usually not dangerous.

Unfortunately, some of these men develop prostate cancer, one of the leading causes of death in older men.

Regular sexual intercourse with frequent ejaculations will help to keep the prostate healthy.

Boost Testosterone and Estrogen

Regular sexual activity boosts testosterone and estrogen levels in both men and women.

Besides boosting your libido testosterone fortifies bones and muscles.

Some physicians suggest that testosterone keeps hearts healthy and good cholesterol high.

Testosterone is what makes the sex drive in men and women more aggressive. It makes you want to have sex, pursue sex, initiate sex and perhaps dominate the lovemaking. Testosterone seems to motivate both men and women to strongly desire specific genital sex and release by orgasm.

Because men have so much testosterone, they seem obsessed with genitals, intercourse and ejaculation, but appear to care less for romance and foreplay-touching, hugging, cuddling, eye gazing, etc.

Sex increases women’s estrogen levels keeping vaginal tissues more supple and also protecting against heart disease.

It is estrogen that makes a woman sexually receptive and responsive to a man’s approach. It is estrogen that makes her want to be touched and feel romantic, it is testosterone that makes her want to be penetrated. Estrogen makes a woman soft-breasts develop in response to estrogen. Estrogen is a powerful influence on how a woman smells. It influences the degree to which she projects softness, openness, and interest in sexual touching.

Men’s bodies also produce estrogen. In fact testosterone can be converted into estrogen in the man’s body.

Some estrogen helps a man to develop the softer, more nurturing feminine sides of their personalities. As men age, the testosterone/estrogen balance begins to shift, with testosterone decreasing and estrogen increasing, and this is one reason why so many men seem to mellow out as they get older.

The Healing Power of Intimacy

Sex is good for you, but sex with love is even better.

According to Dr. Dean Ornish author of ‘Love and Survival: the Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy’, “an open heart can lead to the most joyful and ecstatic sex”.

His researches into intimacy and its effects on health have shown that “anything that promotes feelings of love and intimacy is healing”. If you have someone who really cares for you and for whom you care in return, someone you are intimately connected with in all ways – emotional, physical and more — then you may be three to five times less likely at risk of premature death and disease from all causes.

Part of this has to do with the positive effects of touch. The chemical composition of your body is changed by touch. Caressing, hugging, stroking, cuddling send a chain reaction of chemicals to signal your brain that this is pleasurable, nurturing, good.

Erotic Massage

David Sebringsil, who writes regularly for The Society For Human Sexuality, recommends Sensual Massage become a part of or alternative to regular lovemaking. It is one of the best ways to help someone achieve extended, multiple, or “whole body” orgasmic states. Through erotic massage partners learn to give and receive loving touch and extraordinary pleasure. It makes you healthier and happier.

Healthy blood, healthy bones, healthy heart, healthy body and a peaceful mind – all thanks to the healing powers of sex. Next time you’re in the mood let your partner know you’ve got the doctor on your side!

See also;

• Why do Women Have Sex?
• Sex is Better than Masturbation
• Harmful Effects of Alcohol on Sexual Behaviour

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