The Best You'll Ever Have by Valerie Frankel, Shannon Mullen Page B

that they handle stress better. The profound relaxation that typically follows lovemaking, with orgasm for women and ejaculation and/or orgasm for men, may be one of the few times people actually allow themselves to completely let go, surrender, and relax.
Boost your immune system. A 1999 study involving college students found that the levels of immunoglobulin, a microbe-fighting antibody, in students who engaged in intercourse once or twice a week were 30 percent higher than in those who were abstinent. Also, sex might make you actually heal faster when you’re injured. Researchers in Sweden have found that oxytocin, one of the hormones released during sexual arousal, healed sores on lab rats twice as fast compared with the nonaroused levels of oxytocin in the blood.
Reduce depression, anxiety, and even physical pain. Hormones that are released during sexual excitement and orgasm can lower levels of “arthritic pain, whiplash pain and headache pain,” according to Dr. Whipple. Just being sexually excited causes various hormones to surge into the blood. Two of these hormones in particular that seem to have a very positive health impact are oxytocin and DHEA:
Oxytocin, what’s been described as a “feel-good” hormone, * surges up to five times as high as its normal blood level during orgasm and is responsible for helping us forge close emotional bonds (it’s often known as the cuddle hormone); but it also regulates body temperature and blood pressure and speeds wound healing and relieves pain (from headaches to cramps and overall body aches). The release of oxytocin triggers the release of endorphins (hormone-like chemicals that are also natural painkillers and depression fighters). Orgasms boost levels of the female sex hormone estrogen, which also adds to mood improvement and helps ease premenstrual symptoms, according to University of Virginia researchers.
DHEA, a steroid hormone derived from cholesterol and * produced by the adrenal cortex, is important for a healthy libido and has been linked to reducing the risk of heart disease (seems ironic that it is derived from cholesterol, doesn’t it?). DHEA is the hormone that proves that the more sex you have, the more you’ll want to have it. In a DHEA supplement study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999 women reported “significant increases in frequency of sexual thoughts, degree of sexual interest, level of mental satisfaction with sex, and their level of physical sexual satisfaction.” They also reported improvements in depression and feelings of anxiety. “Just before orgasm and ejaculation, DHEA spikes to levels three to five times higher than usual,” says Theresa Crenshaw, M.D., author of The Alchemy of Love and Lust .
Strengthen your heart. Sex helps increase blood flow to your brain and to all other organs of your body. All that deep breathing and increased heart rate saturate organs and muscles with fresh oxygen and hormones. As the used blood is removed, waste products that cause fatigue and even illness are carried away. “Regular lovemaking can also increase a woman’s estrogen level, protect her heart and keep her vaginal tissues more supple,“ states clinical psychologist Karen Donahey, Ph.D., Director of the Sex and Marital Therapy Program at Northwestern University Medical Center. Also, DHEA has been found to actually strengthen the heart muscle after a heart attack, which is why doctors recommend sex as soon as a heart attack victim is strong enough. It seems to me that the old myth about sex being bad before the big game can be dispelled once and for all now that so many athletes find that DHEA supplements improve their performance. They might as well have sex before the big game!
Maintain good sexual health. Use it or lose it. Good sexual health has to be maintained. “Women who abstain from sex run some risks,” according to recent article in Forbes Magazine on the necessity of sex. Dr. Winch, a gynecologist from