'Regular sex keeps you younger' claims are unsupported

Conclusion Despite the media headlines that regular sex keeps you young, only limited implications can be drawn from this study. This was a small sample of a specific group of women. All were mothers or caregivers, in heterosexual relationships from one region of the US. About half of them were caring for children with autism spectrum disorders and were perceived to have high stress levels as a result. Therefore they can't be assumed to represent all women. Researchers only assessed relationship quality, intimacy and telomere length over the space of a single week. This can't prove that intimacy that week directly caused the telomere length at that point. There are other important aspects this study couldn't account for: how telomere length changed over time the long-term nature and quality of the relationship various factors that may influence the relationship quality and the health and wellbeing of the person Simply asking a person how satisfied or not they've been with their partner in the past week and whether they had sex the night before tells you very little. And it doesn't tell you anything about the quality of that sexual relationship. Even if it were proved that a regular sexual relationship was linked with telomere length it is unclear whether this would actually be a relevant finding. Telomere length my help protect against cell damage, but this is not the same thing as looking and feeling young. Nevertheless, a healthy and fulfilling sexual life can ...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news