Ronald Glasser, Ph.D. professor of medical microbiology and immunology at Ohio State University Medical Center postulates that “Our family and social ties translate into social support and social support seems to play an important role in buffering the stress in our lives. It may translate into physiological changes...important to our health.”
Sex and Longevity
We all know that sex feels good but now we have evidence that it can make you live longer too! In a recent study published in the prestigious British Medical Journal it has been shown that men that have frequent sex are less likely to die at an early age. The authors studied nearly 1,000 men aged 45 - 59. The men were divided into three groups: those that had sex twice or more a week, an intermediate group and those that reported sex less than monthly. A decade later it was found that the death rate for the least active men was twice as high as the most active. The researchers adjusted for differences in age, social class, smoking, blood pressure and existing coronary disease
Can you imagine some of the consequences of this research? You might show up at your doctor’s office with some complaint and be told to go home, have intercourse and call back in the morning. I bet a lot of men will start getting those medical checkups with this one.
The results have led researchers to strongly suggest further research in this area.
Marriage and Life Expectancy
There is more and more evidence available showing that happy marriages have a dramatic affect on life expectancy. Startlingly, a man who is happily married can expect to live nearly ten years longer than those who are unmarried. According to the authors of Mind/Body Health "The unmarried have higher death rates from all causes of death...U.S. mortality rates for all causes of death are consistently higher for divorced, single, and widowed individuals of both sexes and all races."
Good marriages seem to inoculate people to a wide assortment of disorders and diseases. Various studies have shown that those that are separated have lower immune function, whereas those that reported themselves as happily married had much higher immunological functioning. Happily married people have lower blood pressure. In fact, married men and women are 20% less likely to have high blood pressure. Married people have fewer accidents and injuries, according to the National Health Interview Survey. Cancer rates are also lower for the married population. In a very ambitious study in 1987, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it was found that the percentage of persons "surviving at least five years was greater for married persons than for unmarried persons in almost every category of age, gender, and stage of cancer."
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Robert M. Oliva's Healthy Aging topic, please visit the Discussions page.