When you’re in the mood, it’s a sure bet that the last thing on your mind is boosting your immune system or maintaining a healthy weight. Yet good sex offers those health benefits and more.
That’s a surprise to many people. Of course, sex is everywhere in the media, but the idea that we are vital, sexual creatures is still looked at in some cases with disgust or in other cases a bit of embarrassment. So to really take a look at how our sexuality adds to our life and enhances our life and our health, both physical and psychological, is eye-opening for many people.
Sex does a body good in a number of ways. Among the benefits of healthy loving in a relationship:
- Strengthens Pelvic Floor Muscles: Exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor, an important part of your core, can be done sitting at your desk and even during sex. Whether you know it or not, you’re performing Kegels while having sex, which increases pleasure. Bonus: a toned pelvic floor improves your bladder control.
- Burns Calories: Thirty minutes of sex burns 85 calories or more. It may not sound like much, but it adds up: 42 half-hour sessions will burn 3,570 calories, more than enough to lose a pound. Doubling up, you could drop that pound in 21 hour-long sessions.
- Relieves Stuffiness: Having an orgasm temporarily clears up sinuses. Sex for seasonal allergies? Bring it on!
- Boosts Immunity: Here’s something else sex and exercise have in common. People who have sex once or twice a week have 30 percent higher levels of the antibody immunoglobulin A, which boosts your immune system and helps fight infections like colds and the flu. Getting down and dirty is just another way to help keep your lover healthy.
- Improves Sleep: The hormone oxytocin increases when you have sex, and the heightened level helps you sleep better. Getting enough sleep is an important part of your overall health, so if you’re having trouble sleeping, you may want to turn the lights down low and turn up the sexy-time.
- Reduces Risk of Heart Disease: Research has shown that men who have sex two or more times a week cut their risk of developing heart disease in half.
- Adds Years: Women who enjoy sex live longer than women who don’t, and sex can make women feel two to eight years younger.
- Relieves Stress: Stress is bad for your health. Do yourself a favor and get busy to reduce your blood pressure. The feel-good endorphins released during sex will help you forget about your bad day, too.
[Source: Felicia Vance, BDO.org]
