Fun_People Archive
4 Dec
Sex (with your spouse) Reduces Stroke Risk

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon,  4 Dec 100 10:45:24 -0800
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Subject: Sex (with your spouse) Reduces Stroke Risk

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http://news.excite.com/news/r/001128/01/science-cardiovascular-sex-dc

Have Sex to Reduce Disease Risk, Researcher Says
Updated 1:24 AM ET November 28, 2000
By Paul Tait

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Men can halve the risk of a major heart attack or stroke
by having sex three or four times a week, a specialist in cardiovascular
disease said on Tuesday.

Men who see themselves as athletic in bed will be also heartened by
University of Bristol research which says doctors now believe that sex is
as legitimate a form of exercise as a game of squash or a long run.

The British university's Professor Shah Ebrahim said a study of 2,400 men
in the Welsh town of Caerphilly had forced cardiovascular specialists to
redefine the relationship between exercise and the prevention of
cardiovascular disease.

"In the past we thought it had to be activity at least three times a week
and lasting 20 minutes or longer, causing sweatiness or being out of
breath," Ebrahim told Reuters.

"That's quite vigorous activity. Most men of course think it's sex, which
most women think lasts only a few minutes and isn't nearly as sustained as
that," he said.

In the groundbreaking Caerphilly study, men with no history of major
diseases were asked a wide range of questions, including whether they had
sex once, twice or three or more times a week.

"What was found when the men were followed up over the next 10 years was
that those who'd had three or more orgasms a week were half as likely to
have had a heart attack or a stroke," Ebrahim said by telephone from the
fourth World Stroke Congress in Melbourne.

"We're now moving to a situation where we would say that even mild to
moderate levels of physical activity are likely to have some cardiovascular
protective effect," he said.

The World Stroke Congress was told on Monday of Japanese research into a
possible link between strokes and infidelity.

Tokyo-based cardiovascular researcher Dr Izumi Toyoda said he had found in
a study of 42 people who had suffered fatal cerebral strokes while having
sex that almost half were being unfaithful.

Of the 42 fatal strokes, 19 "resulted from sexual relations that were
extramarital or with prostitutes," Toyoda said.

Other researchers cautioned that factors such as high alcohol intake could
also have been a factor among those 19 cases. Toyoda's speech notes said
more study was needed in these cases.

The congress heard on Tuesday that extreme snoring was also a serious risk
factor for strokes and could be made worse by alcohol consumption.

© 2000 Peter Langston