How Great Sex Can Help You Look And Feel Younger!

In his latest book, Younger (Sexier) You, Dr. Eric Braverman reveals how great sex contributes to great health!

CommitmentNow.com:  In Younger (Sexier) You:  Look and Feel 15 Years Younger by Having the Best Sex of Your Life, you use the most up-to-date research to explain how great sex contributes to great health – helping us to stay young and fit, improving cognitive function, controlling appetite and boosting the immune system.  It sounds like a dream come true!  How can great sex help us look, feel and age better?

Dr. Braverman: 

• Thin, Fit, and Built: Sex makes you thinner, as it raises your metabolism. You’re not going to drop 10 pounds every time you have sex, but studies do show that sexual activity can burn up to 200 calories. What’s more, a healthy sex drive facilitates the skin’s ability to manufacture vitamin D, which keeps your bones and muscles strong. Oxytocin is also known to cut appetite, as it increases the loving connection of bonding.

• Better Thinking: Sex helps maintain attention. Oxytocin regulates normal cognitive behaviors and functions, including aiding memory. When you’re sexually alive, your brain functions faster, keeping your metabolism running high and your thinking speed quick. Most people think at a speed of 300 milliseconds plus their age. From the age of about 30 on, your brain speed slows down. But if you can maintain an active sex life, your brain will function as it did when you were younger, which means that you’ll stay younger.

• Emotionally Stable: Sex helps to reduce anxiety and lessens cravings for drugs, alcohol, narcotics, and even food. Oxytocin lowers levels of cortisol, the hormone released when you are under stress.

• Rested and Content: An orgasm can help you get to sleep. Poor sleep is not only an age accelerator, but it’s a sign that your brain is imbalanced. Sleep is necessary to reboot the brain so that it functions optimally during the day. Orgasm also has an antidepressant effect. A State University of New York psychology study determined that semen might reduce depression in women because prostaglandin, a hormone found in semen, when absorbed by women, can result in a modulation of women’s hormones.

• A Healthier Heart: A 2001 study from Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland, suggests that having sex three or more times a week reduced by half the risk in males of having a heart attack or stroke. Further studies showed that having sex two or more times per week seemed to have a protective effect on heart health. One Israeli study showed a statistically significant correlation between sexual dissatisfaction, frigidity, and heart disease.

• Better Immunity: Orgasms are thought to fight infection, increasing the number of infection-fighting cells up to 20 percent. A study released from the Institute for Advance Study of Sexuality shows that sexually active people take fewer sick days. In another study conducted at Pennsylvania’s Wilkes University, students who had regular sexual activity all showed higher signs of an antibody known to fight colds and flu. For women, oxytocin serves as a natural antibiotic that can attack bacteria and decrease susceptibility to uterine infection. It also regulates prolactin secretion, an excessive amount of which can exacerbate breast cancer, brain tumors, and leukemia. Some scientists believe that sexual relations may lead to a decreased risk of cancer, because of the increased levels of oxytocin and DHEA released during sex. In men, studies have shown that a higher frequency of ejaculations is correlated with a lower incidence of prostate cancer.

• Pain Management: Orgasm may provide relief from pain. Some women engage in sex to relieve both menstrual cramps and migraine headaches.

• Better Reproductive Health: A study from Planned Parenthood demonstrated that women who have sex at least once a week have higher levels of estrogen and are likely to have more regular menstrual cycles than celibate women or those who engage in less-frequent sex. Studies also suggest that frequent ejaculation may increase overall levels of testosterone necessary for sperm production.

• Better Relationships: The hormones prolactin and oxytocin, when released during orgasm, bring out a sense of nurturing and bonding. That’s why the correlation between great sex and longevity is based on the fact that you are having sex within a healthy, loving relationship, not a closed door and a magazine. Research released in the journal Biological Psychology, indicates that prolactin released following orgasm is 400 percent greater following intercourse than masturbation.

CommitmentNow.com:    Isn't a decline in libido and/or sexual dysfunction an unfortunate, but natural, part of the aging process?

Dr. Braverman:  No, a decline in libido and/or sexual dysfunction might be a signal of illness, not aging. There are plenty of men and women who enjoy an active sex life well into old age.
 
CommitmentNow.com:  What is a “SexQ” and why is it important for a woman to determine hers?

Dr. Braverman:  Your SexQ is your unique sex code, based on your health and your brain chemistry. It's important because it is a measurement of your sexuality--or your sexual style--based on real health information. If your sexQ is not what you were hoping for, you can change it be enhancing your brain chemistry.

CommitmentNow.com:  What are some of the ways we can improve our sex lives?

Dr. Braverman:  We can improve our sex lives by enhancing our brain chemistry through lifestyle changes (diet and exercise) the foods we choose to eat (which will enhance our brain chemistry); the nutrients we can take, and if necessary, bioidentical hormone therapies, or even medication. You can also improve your sex live by simply engaging in sexual relations more frequently.

CommitmentnNow.com:  How can a woman get started in her quest to become younger and sexier?

Dr. Braverman:  In the book, YOUNGER (SEXIER) YOU, there is a simple quiz which will help you determine your SexQ. Based on that information, you can create a program that's personalized and effective based on your current health.  

Eric R. Braverman , MD , is the best-selling author of Younger You and Younger (Thinner) You Diet. He is a professor of integrative medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and the director of the PATH Medical Center and PATH Foundation. He lives in New York City.  Visit Dr. Braverman at www.pathmed.com.

To purchase Younger (Sexier You), click here.