Everyone wants to feel healthy, fit, vital, right? There are plenty of ways to achieve that pinnacle of health, like eating right, exercising, and sleeping enough—but those are all painstaking efforts that involve things like going to bed at 9 p.m. and eating plain, dry salad like a goat. Thanks but no thanks.
Lucky for you, we know of a really easy and enjoyable way to get healthy, stay healthy, and live your best life: have lots of sex. That’s right, folks. Doing it every chance you get is good for you. It’s definitely more fun than gnawing on a cucumber, even though it offers the same health benefits! Well, close enough.
Behold, five ways sex is good for you. Hopefully this will inspire you to live a healthier life, if you know what I mean.
1. Sex keeps the cold and flu away.
Researchers found that people who have sex a few times a week have higher immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels, which is your body’s first line of defense when exposed to viruses and bacteria. The IgA antibodies fight off invading organisms when they first enter your body, thus keeping you from getting sick.
And obviously, the higher levels of IgA you have, the less likely you are to get sick. So, yeah. Have more sex this cold and flu season. You’ll thank us later.
2. It protects you from cancer.
From prostate cancer, specifically. Seriously!
When you don’t ejaculate regularly, the fluid in your prostate becomes stagnant and full of viruses and bacteria, which can lead to serious prostate issues, including cancer. Yikes. And researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently revealed exactly how bad it is to keep it in your pants for too long, and how healthy it is to cum often.
The researchers found that men in their 20s who ejaculated at least 21 times a month were 19 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer, and for men in their 40s, that number jumped to 22 percent, suggesting the health benefits of sex just get better and better as you get older.
That said, to keep your member and all the plumbing happy, have sex. Self-love works, too.
3. Have sex, sleep better. It’s a win-win.
You know how you pass out right after sex and drift away into a relaxed, deep slumber? There’s a reason for that. During and after sex, your brain releases a strong cocktail of norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin, and vasopressin, which makes you feel happy, affectionate, and really sleepy.
Additionally, right after a male has an orgasm, his prefrontal cortex, which is basically the motherboard of the body, slows to a glacial pace, allowing you to happily zonk even while your girlfriend tries in vain to keep you awake for some pillow talk.
Plus, in her new book, The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time, Arianna Huffington mentions that sleeping just a little bit more “can actually be an alternative to Viagra,” which means you have better sex when you sleep more, and combined with the fact that sex makes you sleep, it generates a never-ending cycle of restful nights and amazing sex. Yes please.
4. It’s a powerful stress reliever.
Getting all up in those sheets can improve your mood and relieve anxiety through a couple different mechanisms. And no, it’s not just because sex feels good (though that’s one reason).
When you have an orgasm, your body floods with endorphins and other feel-good hormones, so you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, thereby making all the stress and vexing nonsense in your life just fall away into nothing.
Plus, a study by researchers at Princeton University found that having sex every damn day results in neurogenesis, or cell growth, in the hippocampus, which is the area of your brain responsible for keeping emotions and stress levels in check, meaning better stress management. Yay!
Another study also found that people who took a romp in the hay daily for two weeks showed lower stress-related blood pressure than those who just jerked off solo or chose the pure life and abstained altogether. Again, sex trumps celibacy.
5. Sweet, sweet pain relief.
Achy all over? You should take something for that, like an Advil, or a roll in the hay.
Getting it on releases a rush of hormones and neurotransmitters that make you feel pretty damn good, and when you feel that good, you forget all about your aches and pains. Maybe that’s why old people in nursing homes boink like rabbits. Arthritis medicine? No thanks! Some ‘vitamin D’ will cure all.
Well, what are you waiting for? Get frisky, people! It’s for your health.