Psy 3960 Close Relationships & Health

The health benefits of sex

2011-06-16T18:18:17Z

Sex is a good thing. It is essential to the survival of the species and comes with all kinds of incentives like increased intimacy and the release of a host of neuro-chemicals that bathe us in joy. Yet when we consider the science linking sex to health, the vast majority of studies involve the health problems associated with sexual behavior and almost completely ignore how sex might enhance health and wellbeing.

When we consider how relationships affect health, sexual behavior should have significant effects on the quality of a romantic relationship and also play a role in overall health. We know that married people live longer and somewhat surprisingly married couples have, on average, more sex than singles.

Could sex have something to do with why married couples are living longer?

The idea that sex may benefit health is not new yet historically many cultures have warned that frequent sex might result (at least for men) a loss of an "essential essence" that would cause a reduction of strength, memory, and even reason. Freud theorized that sex was necessary to relieve tension and that masturbation was not sufficient to avoid heightened stress reactivity. There is some evidence that intercourse is required for the bursts of oxytocin and improved heart rate variability that might be the physiological routes to improved health from sex.

In one study researchers found that frequency of sexual activity was related to lower stress reactions when preparing to speak in public. Volunteers who reported having no sexual relations or masturbation had the greatest spike in blood pressure during the task. Those who had frequent sex but no masturbation had the smallest increase in BP before speaking in public.

Another study found that middle age men who engage in frequent sexual activity with a partner were 50% less likely to die than men with little or no sexual behavior over a 10 year period.

Given these results you might imagine that the medical profession would start prescribing more nookie for stressed out and unhappy couples.

The sad truth is that many of us do not get the love and affection we crave. A recent survey in 27 countries revealed that sexual dissatisfaction is widespread, with 58% of women and 57% of men reporting that they are not fully satisfied with their sex life. Sex, like wealth, seems to be unevenly distributed with a relatively small proportion of couples having the most frequent sex. The researchers found strong evidence demonstrating that sexual intercourse is a significant predictor of satisfaction with life in general, satisfaction with partnership, and satisfaction with one's mental health.

Finally, we can't ignore the way sex might help us connect and treat our partners better, facilitating a closer and more satisfying relationship. A recent study found that when couples engaged in physical affection or sexual activity they were more likely to experience positive mood and less likely to experience negative moods and stress afterwards and into the following day. Masturbation did not affect mood in the same way but was related to a reduction in stress. Most marriage counselors will point out that a non-existent sex life is a strong sign that a marriage is in trouble and that improvements in a couples sex life are some of the best methods for improving the relationship.

So plenty of questions arise here. What about gay sex? Why doesn't masturbation have the same health benefits? How much sex does a couple need to have for it to benefit health? Since there are so few studies on sex and health, there really isn't enough good evidence to answer these questions yet. Perhaps when academics get a little less squeamish about studying sexual activity and can convince funding agencies of the health protective function of sex, will we be better able to understand how "getting busy" is also helping us toward staying healthy and connected to our closest partner.

"Sex"ersise

2011-06-10T03:49:23Z

One interesting thing that the study discussed was the more sex men had the lower the morality. The study also says however for women enjoyment of sex was an indicator for death. The more enjoyment out of sex the longer females lived. The enjoyment makes since because if you are not satisfied you could be stressed and as we previously read stress increases mortality. The finding about men makes since because during sex there is an increase in hear rate which will strengthen the heart. Additionally exercise (or sex) decreases blood pressure which creates health benefits. The study separated the men by how frequent they were having sex. They found that men who reported orgasm were younger taller and had less evidence of heart problems. This is logical based off the sex is essentially exercise which means it strengthens the heart. The article additionally says that the men who had orgasms had lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure all can be reduced with exercise also.
The second study focused on the stress response and blood pressure. One interesting thing they did was separated the different kinds of sexual stimulation one was penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI) and other types of sexual stimulation like masturbation and masturbation with your partner. They found that people who had (PVI) had lower blood pressures and lower stress response than the people who stimulated in other ways. The authors give the explanation for this phenomenon by talking about how PIV and masturbation are stimulating different parts of the body creating different responses which could be why the major benefits are with the PVI group. I would also argue in this paper that sex is exercise or sexercise. Blood pressure decreases with exercise along with stress. I am basing the idea that exercise reduces stress based off of KIN 3001. Another aspect is during sex requires more body movement than arm or finger movement which would increase how much movement is being produced. The more movement of the whole body means more calories burned and a better cardio work out.

Social Status

2011-06-10T02:34:43Z

In the current study, Objective and Subjective Socioeconomic Status and Susceptibility to the Common Cold by Cohen et al. suggest that perceiving and/or being of higher social status decreases the likelihood of getting sick when inoculated with the cold virus. These findings do not surprise me, I have heard about this study in other psychology classes.
The findings were solidified after taking a labor and politics class where I learned over and over about workers in third world countries and the poor health that they have due to their job. It seems to be a cyclical cycle which goes round and round with the help of capitalism and globalization. It makes perfect sense; a person who works in a field, factory, or blue collar job may not have the same health benefits as someone working a white collar job. They probably do not get paid the same amount of money, work the same amount of hours, or experience the same atmosphere, and are standing or working in poor lighting. These things alone can deteriorate a person's health but add this into probably a lack of sleep, poor nutrition because fresh fruit and veggies cost a lot more than processed food, and no insurance or poor coverage and a person is bound to get sick easier.
Someone working a white collar job, or of higher social status will have the means to buy food that is good for them, have extra time to relax, maybe pay someone to clean their house or watch their children which decreases their stress levels, and have insurance coverage. It's a bad cycle to be in and I wish I knew more about universal healthcare so that I would know whether I should be for or against it and whether it would help out those who are of a lower SES.

Sex & Life

2011-06-09T16:24:59Z

Going through these articles on Sex intercourse (among other styles of play) and how they affect our lives it is clear what it being said. I get the fact that sex helps reduce stress by releasing oxytocin which helps us to bond with our partner and makes us feel happy and relaxed. Throughout this class we have pursued the consequences of when we are unable to release our tension and are unable to truly relax. So, YES, sex is very healthy for us overall as long as we are being responsible and not acting on risky behavior, like have multiple partners that raise the chances of us getting sexual transmitted diseases. The best way to combat this issue is to be in a committed relationship with one partner and to be open with each other because the logistics of life is that most of us have had more than one partner in life.
These articles revealed that not only is sex good for our health overall, by reducing stress levels and releasing oxytocin and other chemicals into our brains that make us feel good but that the sex life in a marriage has a strong correlation to whether the marriage itself is healthy. I truly believe this to be true, because if you are not happy with your partner, at least in my case, you have no real desire to share yourself with your partner. Sexual intercourse or anything sexual for that matter is a very intimate situation which you allow yourself to be vulnerable to your partner, at least for that time period. If your partner and you are already feeling close and happy it is only natural to take it a step further in order to share yourself with them and make that connection even tighter.
The questions that I have about these ideas are about what about when you do not have happy thoughts or feelings about your partner and you do not feel like having sex with them... Should you do it anyway because you have knowledge about how the chemicals, that are emitted during intercourse, promote positive communication, but what if that doesn't work? There is no question in my mind that sexual intercourse is a benefit of a healthy relationship but I do question whether it is able to turn a unhappy couple into a healthy situation, because in my past when the relationship is already in distress sex seems to make the fights worse and life more stressful.

Sex

2011-06-09T16:02:41Z

The fact that the lack of sex can cause mortality and increase stress does not surprise me in the least. The objective of the first article we were to read was to examine the relation between frequency of orgasms and mortality. Mortality risk showed to be 50% lower in individuals with higher orgasmic frequency. This shows that huge difference it makes. I would have guesses that there were positive benefits, but no where near a 50% lower mortality rate. Their conclusion was that having an active sex life was a positive effect on men's health. This made me wonder about women's health and what the statistics were for women. The second article examined the amount one experiences after having sex the night before, sex and masturbation, masturbation alone, and no sexual interaction. The results demonstrated that sex alone lowered stress levels the most. The point was interesting and made me think of many possible explanations and posed several questions as to why this were true. I Initially thought that sex and masturbation would lower stress the most, since it was the most sexual activity. It is likely that sex provides much more than a physical release for partners in committed relationships. It allows for couples to open up and share their feelings more. As I was sent to Catholic school for 12 years (though my family doesn't follow it), we were taught that masturbation is a sin. This made me wonder if since those who follow Christianity believe this to be true, if they have added stress since they believe what they just did was wrong. In the case of this article, looking into religious beliefs would only be relevant to those married, since premarital sex is a sin as well. I don't mean to get all Religious on everyone, but since I went to these schools for so long, it is something that has always been ingrained into my head. Luckily, I had parents who taught me otherwise!

sex

2011-06-09T15:55:37Z

Sex and death: are they related? Findings from the Caerphilly chohort study

The short answer is, yes, sex and health are related. This study examined the frequency of male orgasm and its relationship to mortality. Men between the ages of 45-59 were questioned about the frequency of their orgasms, their plasma testosterone and oestradiol were measured, and then all death certificates following the study (for up to ten years) were reported. Although the relationship between frequency of orgasm and mortality was also affected by age, social class, and health status, frequency of orgasm was still strongly correlated. Mortality risk for those who orgasm more often was less than 50% than of the men who experienced orgasm less frequently.

Blood pressure reactivity to stress is better for people who recently had penile-vaginal intercourse than for people who had other or no sexual activity

This study questioned whether penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI) has more benefits in relationship to blood pressure and its reactivity to stress than other sexual activity. For example, does PVI alone have greater benefits than masturbation, or oral sex combined? The answer is yes. They found that, after surveying participants about their sex lives, those who participated in no sexual activity experienced the highest levels of stress while under the Trier Social Stress Test and also maintained those high stress levels for longer after the test was done. People who participated in other non-PVI sexual activity experienced less stress than people who did not engage in any sexual activity but their stress levels were still higher than people who had engaged in PVI alone. It was interesting that people who had PVI and other sexual activity had lower stress levels than PVI alone. This may be because masturbation or other activity might "detract from the benefits of intercourse".

Let's see... What do I feel comfortable adding from my own experiences to this blog? Well, I guess I'll just say that I'm pleased to know that aside from sex being pleasurable that it is awesome to know that it has valid health benefits as well.

Caregiving

2011-06-09T15:52:35Z

This topic always hits a nerve for me because my family struggled so much taking care of my grandmother. I can see the direct physical and emotional strain it provides on the caretaker and even those in vicinity to the caregiver. In my case, my mom was taking care of my grandmother and the relationships my mom had gravely suffered for many years. This unfortunate situation still effects her relationships today. Whether to care for someone who has a serious illness, or give them to a care facility must me a difficult choice for anyone to make. I did not always see it this way, but I think my mom made the right decision even though there were so many negative effects for my family. If I were put in the same situation, I would make the same decision as she did, despite the negative consequences. She was able to help someone in dire need of her help, and I believe that is what family is about, regardless if its family by marriage. While the article touched on spouses who are caregivers in a later time in life than my mom was, I still think it is relatable. However, my mom is not suffering from any health problems today. This could be due to the age she was when she was taking care of my grandmother. Also, the physical toll may play a different role on a spouse and a mother-in-law.

sex

2011-06-09T15:51:51Z

How would you describe between sex and your life, people would simply connect these two thing only because of their desire. But did you ever think about sex could bring about your death?

Here is a finding by George Davey Smith, Stephen Frankel and John Yarnell which talked about 'Sex and Death: Are They Related? Findings from the Caerphilly chohort study'. This is a ten years follow up study which subjected to 918 men aged 45-59, it experiment the relation between frequency of orgasm and people's mortality. With the research outcome, for those who had high orgasm frequency, they resulted a 50% lower mortality risk than those with low orgasm frequency. The finding stated that the measure mainly focuses on all deaths and from heart disease, somehow death from other causes revealed some similar statistics with the orgasm frequency. In this case, sexual activity seems to have an effect on men's health, but there are still several aspects must be considered to write a firm conclusion.

On the other hand, with the articles 'Blood pressure reactivity to stress is better for people who recently had penile-vaginal intercourse than for people who had other or no sexual activity' by Stuart Brody, it stated that how your sexual behavior pattern in a relationship correlated to the blood pressure and its reactivity to stress, which means if penile-vaginal intercourse had done anything associated with stress than other sexual activity. Surprisingly, the research result shows that the PVI did benefits the participants than the others by the Trier Social Stress Test. For those who had PVI and other sexual activity with their partner resulted in the lowest stress level than people had PVI alone. On the other hand, those participants with no sexual activity had the highest level of stress as a result.

These two articles is really worthy to read and spread to everyone, yet more research or other aspects should be considered as many other factors can also affect the result. But if I am not reading these, maybe I could never suppose orgasm lead to mortality risk, you will think about how stressful of your work but never correlated your level of stress to your sex practices. Does everyone agree having those private times with your partner is a way of relaxation?

Sex

2011-06-09T14:27:57Z

I think sex is a beautiful thing that is way too stigmatized. People refer to it as "doing the nasty" when I feel the only way that concentual intercourse should be referenced is "making love." There are so many benefits to having sex, which were outlined in today's readings. Benefits include longevity, stress relief, and overall improvement in health. One big reason that couples who have regular sex are healthier and live longer is that they feel like they have someone to live for. If one member of the couple is ill, the other is likely to encourage him to go to the doctor so that they can get back to the pleasureful activity of intercourse.

I think it is really interesting that masturbation and pretty much any other sexual activity other than PVI does not give nearly the same results for stress relief ability. I would attribute this to the fact that PVI is the most primitive way, and the only with an evolutionary benefit. Because we are driven to reproduce, PVI is stress relieving and makes us feel the best so that we continue the race.

I think this research should be known to the world. Everyone feels stress, and few know how to alleviate it. If people knew that having sex would make them feel better, they may engage in it more often and not put it off until that particular project is complete and they have more time. Quickie sex still gives the results needed, so people should have lots of sex in order to maintain happiness and health.

Sexy time

2011-06-09T14:20:09Z

In the article by Smith, Frankel, and Yarnell, 918 men between 1979 and 1983 were followed after 10 years to see how many deaths occurred because of coronary heart disease. It was found that the mortality risk was 50% lower in the group of men with higher orgasmic frequency. The researchers concluded that sexual activity seems to have a protective effect on men's health. It seemed to be that for men, the quantity was important and as for women the quality was important. Sexual dissatisfaction was found to be a risk factor for heart attacks in women.
In the article by Brody, PVI but no other sexual behavior was found to be associated with better psychological and physiological function.
It's too bad that there isn't more research on sex since it's such a big part of human existence. I hope that as my current generation ages, there will be more research done on sex. I thought Alaina had a good idea for a study by asking men to do the dishes to see if their decreased inhibition would apply to other things besides sex.
I wonder if these findings can generalize to couples who have a bad relationship but have good sex. I know of couples that fit this bill- I don't think my friend should be dating her boyfriend but she talks about how great the lovin' is. So if the sex is good for both of them, but they fight and bicker, do the results from the studies apply?

Caregiving

2011-06-09T13:49:56Z

The current study looked at the relationship between caregiving demands among older spousal caregivers and mortality after 4 years. The researchers checked in with the caregivers and noncaregivers between 1993 and 1998. The participants were followed up an average of 4.5 years. The data indicated that caregivers who provide support to their spouse and report that caregiving is a strain are more likely to die within 4 years than noncarevigers.
I found the results surprising, but not shocking. I figured that caring for someone 24/7 would be incredibly stressful. I watched my aunt take care of my grandmother, her mother, her handicapped brother, and her 2 daughters- all in the same house! To say the least, she was incredibly stressed out and I do not blame her for increasing the amount of wine she drank at night. I'm curious if that strenuous caregiving took years off of her life....
I was curious if these findings only generalize to older populations of caregivers or if it really is possible to "take years off" of someones life through stressful caregiving. In my mind, I was thinking about nurses because they seem to be 24/7 caregivers, working long hours and in hospice situations, literally giving the best care that they can for many hours of the day. It was hard for me to fathom an older husband or wife taking care of their spouse because I've never seen that situation before. All of my grandparents had a severe case of Alzheimer's and couldn't even take care of themselves.

Sex, Death, & Stress

2011-06-09T04:27:43Z

The articles bring up blood pressure, stress, and health based on frequency of sex, whether it was intercourse with another person or masturbation. The studies showed that sex is very good for your health, intercourse with another individual was the most beneficial and then masturbation & Intercourse and then just masturbation. I found it interesting that the next beneficial thing to just having sex with someone was masturbating and having intercourse. I think a lot of importance questions are raised in this article. If someone is in a good marriage and having enough sex then is masturbation still important? I think if both partners are satisfied with their sex life, then masturbation might not be needed.

The statistic that intercourse is the most beneficial is very interesting. I think a lot of other factors go along with that. The time that is spent after sex, the intimacy before, during and after sex is probably just as rewarding, at least from a health stand point, then the actually sexual act. The connectedness of the two individuals might not otherwise be met. Strong relationships are such an important aspect of a healthy sex life and vise versa. Sex will help the two people bond and connect on a level that they may not be able to do in their busy lives.

Benefits of sex

2011-06-09T04:03:14Z

Both of the articles assigned for class today concerned sex and its link to health. Smith et al.'s study revealed that sex acts as a sort of protective shield for men. This means that the more sexually active they (men) were, the lower their mortality rate was. The second article by Brody concerned type of sex and stress. Interestingly, only PVI intercourse predicted less stress when participants where asked to give a speech.

It is stated before that sex obviously has many health benefits, especially the mental and physical relief of stress and the release of oxytocin that promotes bonding. I thought that Brody's article explained it very well and clearly why pvi might later induce better stress regulations, citing that pvi "stimulates the pelvic nerve". However, how the pelvic nerve comes into play when releasing oxytocin was not explored. Does oxytocin get released from non-pvi activities as well? Less? Why would this be so? Does preference play a part? These are some questions that still need to be answered because homosexual couples won't be getting the benefits of pvi.

For the first article about sex and mortality in relation to men, I thought that there might have been too many confoudning variables. For one thing, the researchers briefly mentioned a baseline of health and that some men started out healthier than other men. In this case, the healthy person is likely to get more healthy and vice versa for the sick.
Another issue is the implication of sex: less stress, marriage, network of friends from that marriage. Perhaps people who had more sex and lived longer simply had more social support and benefits from their marriage. I'd imagine a participant who was not reporting in engaging in sexual activity as frequently as others would be in a casual relationship or somewhere along those lines.

It is interesting that in the social networking unit, too much sex with too many partners entails STDs. I'd only been assuming that the articles we read for this unit was on the grounds of committed relationships and only studied pairs of men and women (especially Brody's study). I think that was left rather ambiguous in the sex and mortality study though.

sex and health

2011-06-09T03:33:50Z

The first article described the way sex effects mortality rates. Not surprisingly individuals who were having regular sex lived longer than those who did not. It has not been a secret that a good sex life is predictive of good health. There is usually so much more than just the act itself, there are emotions and bonding involved not to mention the chemical processes involved. All of the parts combined lead to the health benefits. I cant help but wonder if healthier people are just having sex more because they are able to or if the sex is making them healthier. Certainly there is the immune system benefits of sex as well as cardio. These can definitely lead to being healthier.

The second article looked at the difference between different sexual act and lack there of. The researchers found that having sex without solo masturbation lead to the most stress reduction. I thought this was a little surprising at first because even an orgasm from masturbation can release many of the same chemicals in the brain. But after considering the information a little i began to think about the bonding and support that couples give each other after sex. This bonding can sometimes be some of the most intimate moments in the relationship. They can make for a really high satisfaction of the relationship. You can't have those moments with someone else if you just masturbated. Also in the group that had sex and masturbated the sex may not have been satisfying leading the individual to masturbate.

Thoughts on Sex

2011-06-08T23:01:35Z

The first article about sex and mortality was actually depressing. I have known that having sex regularly is good for couples' health, and it is just sad to know that people who have no partners are at greater risk of death. And it makes me think that losing sex partner is one of the reasons why losing spouse is bad for health. Even when their spouse is alive, it could create more stress when the spouse has illness and other disabilities as they get old.

I also think, however, that sex cannot always be a good thing. Just like anything, intuition tells me that too much sex would not be good for health. I don't know how much sex would be the right amount, but it would be interesting to know the answer.

On a side note, it's interesting to compare this study to the widespread notion during the Renaissance: the link between sex and death. Back in the days people believed that sex is linked to death, and it is often found in Victorian literature. Maybe it did ring true to them because they were not as protected from STDs as today's people are.

The second article goes along with the first one, and it was a very weird study. Not all orgasms have the same effect, according to this psychoneuroimmunological evidence. I am dumbfounded by the fact that noncoital sex and masturbation deter the health effects of genital intercourse and only coital sex was truly beneficial, yet I don't think the article was clear about why intercourse entails better stress coping than other types of orgasm or non-orgasm. (It quotes Freud's perspective, but who still believes Freud nowadays?)

On the other hand, this study seemed like reinforcing the traditional view on sex. The result that only genital-to-genital sex is ideal reminds me how sodomy has been deemed undesirable throughout history. It also excludes homosexual relationships, so more research seems needed.