Long, Intense Exercise Linked To Lower Libido In Men

(Reuters Health) ― Men who routinely do unusually intense or long workouts may be less likely to have a normal libido than their peers who don’t work out so hard, a recent study suggests.Even though being overweight and sedentary has long been tied to low sex drive, or libido, some previous research has also linked endurance workouts like marathon training or long distance cycling to reduced levels of the male sex hormone testosterone and lower libido.For the current study, researchers examined survey data on exercise habits and libido for 1,077 healthy men. Compared to men with the most intense exercise regimens, men with the lowest intensity workouts were almost 7 times more likely to have a normal or high libido, the study found.Similarly, men who spent the least time on exercise were about four times more likely to have a high or normal libido as men who devoted the most time to training.”Our study is the first to examine the influence of large volumes of exercise training over a period of years,” said lead study author Dr. Anthony Hackney, a researcher in exercise physiology and nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.The study isn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove that intense exercise lowers libido or why this might occur. But low testosterone after years of hard-core training is a likely culprit, Hackney said by email.”Our goal and research question was not to examine how to boost men’s libido, but to ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news