Do it or die.
A titillating new study shows that women can live longer if they have sex more often — thanks to the deed’s heart-healthy benefits.
The randy research, recently published in the Journal of Psychosexual Health, found that females aged 20 to 59 who had sex infrequently — less than once per week — were at a 70% increased risk of all-cause mortality.
Researchers at Walden University in Minnesota, analyzing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data of 14,542 American adults over the age of 20, concluded that women could benefit from enjoying intimate relations more than once every seven days.
“Sexual activity,” the authors wrote, “is important for overall cardiovascular health, possibly due to reduction of heart rate variability and blood flow increase.”
The team also found that depression, when combined with low sexual frequency, also resulted in a higher risk of mortality.
Depression in sexually active people, however — specifically women — had far less harmful effects, lead author Dr. Srikanta Banerjee told the Daily Mail.
“The theory,” he said, “would be that depression affects men in different ways than females.”
“Depression is something that leads to more increased mortality due to health outcomes,” he explained, musing that endorphins released by sex could be the key to preventing negative health outcomes.
“So perhaps sex is more effective because of the severity of how depression impacts females.”
Where women could benefit from more sex, however, it seems men might benefit from less.
Researchers found that too much sex could increase men’s mortality risk by six fold, compared to women.
“This shows that sexual frequency interacts with gender to increase mortality,” they wrote.
“The implications are that by addressing sexual frequency, other health disparities can be addressed more directly.”
