Eros Does the Body Good

Rev. Ed Young, a senior pastor of the Grapevine, Texas-based Fellowship Church challenge married congregants during his sermon Sunday on Nov 16, 2008 to have sex for seven straight days and he plans to practice what he preaches.

He believes society promotes promiscuity and he wants to reclaim sex for married couples. Sex should be a nurturing, spiritual act that strengthens marriages, he said.

A woman supposedly gets glow after having good sex. But how many of you have actually seen it? Next time you're feeling good after sex, get up and look at yourself in the mirror: You're beautiful, confident, energetic and alive. There really is a glow.

You know why you feel so good. But that glow is more than a feeling. Scientists attribute it to endorphins--chemicals that are released in the brain after sex. These chemicals create a sense of euphoria and ease your stress, says Helen S. Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Human Sexuality Teaching Program at New York Hospital - ­Cornell Medical Center in New York City.

Medical researchers say regular doses of sex can also soothe chronic aches and pains, spur creativity, rev up energy and make you feel youthful. Sex also might put an end to the pain that spawned the age-old excuse "Not tonight, dear, I have a headache." While sex isn't a sure cure, researchers have found it actually can relieve some headaches. One possible reason is that orgasms short-circuit the nervous system activity that's causing the pain. On the other hand, sex can sometimes cause headaches. If it does, discuss it with your doctor.

"Sex is a natural function throughout your life if you have an interesting partner and remain healthy. It's not going to go away," Dr. Kaplan says. "It's abnormal for sex to disappear. The normal person has sex until the end of her life." Sex can also be self-affirming. "Sex can help make you feel competent. It's a way of connecting with someone else. It can help you feel in charge of your own destiny," says Marty Klein, Ph.D., a licensed marriage counselor and sex therapist in Palo Alto, California.

"Men are toxic to too much closeness," agrees Anthony Pietropinto, M.D., a psychiatrist in New York City and author of "Not Tonight, Dear: How to Reawaken Your Sexual Desire". "Many men don't like women who want you to talk about your deepest emotions." Men like novelty in their sexual lives, Dr. Pietropinto says. They're more likely to suggest that you wear provocative clothing or seek exotic places to have sex.

On the bright side, many of these traits fade as a man ages and his sex drive declines. After about age 45, men need more psychological stimulation and as a result often become more sensitive, caring and receptive to a woman's emotional needs.

Having regular and enthusiastic sex confers a host of measurable physiological advantages, be you male or female. (This assumes that you are engaging in sex without contracting a sexually transmitted disease.)

In one of the most credible studies correlating overall health with sexual frequency, Queens University in Belfast tracked the mortality of about 1,000 middle-aged men over the course of a decade. The study was designed to compare people of similar age and health. Its findings, published in 1997 in the British Medical Journal, were that men who reported the highest frequency of orgasm enjoyed a death rate half that of the laggards. In a 2001 follow-up to the Queens University study mentioned above, researchers focused on cardiovascular health. Their finding? That by having sex three or more times a week, men reduced their risk of heart attack or stroke by half.

References:
MSNBC - Regular romps can provide a host of physiological benefits