Other Good Reasons to Have Sex

Everyone wants to have a healthy sex life, but having a sex life can also make you healthier! Here are a few ways the rest of your body benefits when you respond to mankind's oldest urge:

Sex is exercise. It burns about five calories per minute. That won't replace your 45 minutes at the gym daily, but it beats binge-watching House of Cards.

Sex makes prostate cancer less likely. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, men who ejaculated at least 21 times per month were less likely to get prostate cancer.

Sex eases stress, and improves your sleep. (You probably knew that already.) Just cuddling actually releases serotonin, your body's “feel good” hormone. And following orgasm, the hormone prolactin is released, which causes relaxation and sleepiness.

Sex can ease your pain. The hormone it releases can actually raise your pain threshold and even block chronic leg and back pain.

Sex lowers the risk of heart attack. It's a great way to raise your rate, and it helps keep your estrogen and testosterone levels in balance.  If either of these is low, it can lead to osteoporosis and heart disease. One study found that men who had sex at least twice a week were 50 percent as likely to dies of heart disease as men who had sex only rarely.

Sex lowers your blood pressure. Multiple studies have shown that having sex lowers your systolic blood pressure – that's the top number of your blood pressure reading.

Sex improves women's bladder control. Incontinence affects 30 percent of women at one point in their lives, but it can often be avoided by having a strong pelvic floor.

Sex actually boosts your libido. Having sex makes having more sex better! For a woman, having sex increases vaginal blood flow, lubrication, and elasticity, which not only makes her enjoy sex better, but also makes her desire it more.

Sex benefits your immune system. Sexually active men and women have higher levels of defense against germs and viruses.