Is sex good for you?

by Daphne Howland

Exercise. Vitamins. Fiber. If you're going on a health kick, you may want to add sex to your fitness routine.

In the age of AIDS and busy, two-career households, sex is in somewhat of a decline. According to the Masters and Johnson Institute, at least a third of American couples experience "inhibited sexual desire." One California therapist says more than half of the couples he treats have trouble finding the time and energy to devote to their sex lives. Yet research shows that people who neglect their sex lives may be missing out on real physiological and psychological benefits.

When doctors and therapists say sex is good for you, they really mean that "good" sex is good for you. But what is good sex?

"Anything that promotes intimacy and closeness seems to be good for your health," says Anthony Fiore, PhD, a sex therapist practicing in Santa Ana, CA. "Everybody has different standards for what good sex is."

Not surprisingly, men and women often have different views of good sex. There are physical and social reasons for this, therapists say. Until recently, men in our society weren't led to believe in intimacy as important to sex. But men also seem to have fewer and less intense orgasms past the age of 50 or so. For them, appreciating the other aspects of sex is valuable in maintaining a "good" sex life.

Women are able to enjoy sex on a physically and emotionally level even at those times when orgasm is elusive. For that reason, women are less likely to measure the quality of sex against the quality of the orgasm.

Making time and saving energy for sex should be a priority for even the most harried couples, therapists say. Sex therapists believe in the "use it or lose it" rule. Sexual ability and physicality can atrophy. For people not in a relationship, regular masturbation, at least for those who feel comfortable with it, can keep them sexually fit and can provide many of the health benefits of sex.

Studies have shown that physical touch between mothers and babies is essential to infant health. Today, hospitals finally allow skin-to-skin contact between new mothers and their newborns because this early touching is so essential to the mother-and-child bond. But many researchers now believe that we never lose the need for human touch.

In his book Superimmunity, Paul Pearsall, PhD, argues that sex in the context of a loving relationship actually boosts chemicals in the body that protect against disease. He believes the key elements in this are the human touch and the close relationship.

Physical touch enables the body to relax and feel comfortable and protected. "Certainly, love is much more than touch and sexuality," he writes. "But without physical closeness and fulfillment, the full range of love is restricted. This dimension has been neglected in work in the area of wellness."

Theresa L. Crenshaw, MD, agrees. Crenshaw is a sex therapist and medical doctor who has researched the role of hormones in the body. She first studied the effects of certain drugs on the body's hormones and the effects, in turn, of those hormone changes on the body. She now believes that physical touch itself boosts oxytocin levels in the body. Among other things, oxytocin promotes feelings of affection and care-taking behavior, and synthetic oxytocin has been used to treat depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Crenshaw believes that for many people, touch is a better antidepressant or relaxant than alcohol or many pharmaceutical drugs. And she believes the absence of touch can promote depression and aggression. "Holding close, hugging, snuggling, petting, stroking, touching--it's all good for your health, your heart, and your relationships," Crenshaw states.

Research does indeed seem to show that sex has measurable physical health benefits. Winnifred B. Cutler, PhD, cites many studies that show physical benefits of regular sex. Cutler defines "regular sex" as once a week or more. She has found that regular sex promotes a regular menstrual cycle in women, improves women's fertility, and may have a role in promoting calcium into bone.

She also found that postmenopausal women who have sex at least once a week have higher levels of blood estrogen and fewer detrimental changes in their vaginal lining.

Cutler's claims seem modest compared with Crenshaw's. Crenshaw's work on sex and hormones is a litany of benefits and warnings. In her new book The Alchemy of Love and Lust, Crenshaw describes sex hormones--oxytocin and others--as controlled substances that are needed by humans in the proper doses. In addition to the power of human touch, Crenshaw believes that sex itself regulates levels of hormones that affect our behavior as well as our mental and physical well-being.

"There is good reason to believe that sex lengthens your life span," Crenshaw writes.

While the health benefits of sex may be very real, that's no reason to jump in bed with just anyone. Sexually transmitted diseases are perhaps the most obvious threat to health that can come with indiscriminate sex.

But Crenshaw warns that sex itself promotes bonding whether you want it to or not. Hormones triggered by sex affect the brain as well as the body and could conceivably cause you to fall in love with or become addicted to someone you don't even like, much less want in your life.

Sex without intimacy is also potentially devastating psychologically. Women especially may find that sex without love or intimacy leaves them vulnerable and depressed. "If you become vulnerable and open to someone who isn't there for you, you'll end up feeling rejected," says Lonnie Barbach, Ph.D., a San Francisco sex therapist and author of 50 Ways to Please Your Lover and Yourself. "You may end up having less sex in the long run because you become cautious." In the worse cases, Barbach says, women can become fearful of opening up in new relationships, which can end up making sex joyless for them. And that, of course, negates any of the benefits sex can bring to your health.

Researchers, including Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., Winnifred B. Cutler, Ph.D., and Theresa L. Crenshaw, M.D., have found evidence of the following health benefits of sex and masturbation:

- Helps regulate menstrual cycles in women whose cycles are irregular

- Helps promote fertility Increases estrogen in women's blood, especially important to post-menopausal women

- Lessens vaginal dryness and hot flashes in post-menopausal women

- Helps men and women relax better than many pharmaceuticals or alcohol

- Eases pain in joints and muscles, including the pain of conditions like arthritis

- Shields the body from illness and the mind from depression or aggression

- Promotes a healthy heart

- Lengthens life span