It comes as no surprise to most people that scientific evidence is mounting that sex is good for your health. It adds enjoyment to our lives and may even make us live longer.
In a book called Sexual Healing, Dr. Paul Pearsall, Director of Behavioural Medicine at Detroit’s Beaumont Hospital, writes that the joys and pleasures of living life and loving may provide us with something called an ‘intimacy inoculation’ that actually protects us from disease.
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There is growing evidence that health does not only depend on genetics, diet and exercise, but also on the social and emotional health of the individual.
Sexual healing requires the maintenance of a close intimate relationship, which could, in turn, lead to balance between our health and healing systems.
The flip side of this is that a lack of sexual intimacy can create a risk factor for certain diseases. Sexual dissatisfaction seems to be prevalent prior to heart attacks, while sexual contentment appears related to less severe migraines, less severe premenstrual syndrome in women and a reduction in symptoms related to chronic arthritis for both men and women.
Researchers have not exactly determined how our thoughts, feelings and immune system and genital system interact and how this influences our health. There is a strong indication that when we experience intimate, mutually caring sexual intimacy, we may experience a measurable change in neurochemicals and hormones that pour through the body and help promote health and healing.
Psychologist Gina Ogden stresses that this does not mean just having sex more often, but that it is that feeling of openness, connection to and bonding with a partner that makes sex such a healing experience.
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