What are the scientific reasons for having sex?

The Register (UK) ^ | 10 oct 06 | Dr Stephen Juan

[white trash redneck]

What are the scientific reasons for having sex?

Asked by Jill Howard of Alexandria, Virginia, USA

The reasons for not engaging in sex include transmission of diseases, heart attack due to exertion, and many others. The reasons for engaging in sex are numerous. Among these are:

• Sex helps boost the immune system. According to Dr Carl Charnetski of the Department of Psychology at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, people who reported one or two sexual "episodes" per week enjoyed higher levels of Immunoglobin A. This is an antibody that helps fight disease.

• Sex helps boost longevity. In one study cited by Dr Charnetski, men who had more orgasms over a 10 year period boosted their longevity compared with those who had fewer.

• Sex helps ward off cancer. In another study cited by Dr Charnetski, men who had more ejaculations over a 35 year period had 33 per cent less prostate cancer compared to those with fewer ejaculations.

• Sex results in a more youthful appearance. According to a study by Dr David Weeks, a clinical neuropsychologist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland and co-author of Superyoung (1999), men and women who reported having sex an average of four times per week looked approximately 10 years younger than they really were.

• Sex helps reduce stress. Numerous studies show that it does this through lowering anxiety levels, boosting relaxation, and aiding sleeping.

• Sex helps fight depression. A study by Dr Gordon Gallup of the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York at Albany found that women who regularly engage in heterosexual sex in which they come in contact with semen were significantly less depressed than those women that did not. he causal relationship is unclear. Dr Gallup speculates that "possibly because when absorbed through the vagina, semen may have an effect on mood in women". However, Dr Gallup is quick to point out: "Regardless of the findings, this study does not advocate that people abstain from using condoms. Protecting oneself from an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease is far more important."

• Sex helps coping with middle age. This is the inference drawn from research by Dr GA Bachmann at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey and published first in 1995 in the International Journal of Fertility and Menopausal Studies and continuing in The Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2006.

• Sex is good exercise. Exercise helps circulation, lowers cholesterol, and releases helpful endorphins.

• Sex helps in losing weight. Well, at least a little. One burns approximately four to five calories per minute or perhaps 300 calories per hour during sex (depending upon how, shall we say, "vigorous" the sex is). About 7,000 to 8,000 excess calories must be burned to lose one kilogram of fat (3,500 to lose one pound). You do the calculations.

Stephen Juan, Ph.D. is an anthropologist at the University of Sydney.

[Texas Songwriter]

Randall. Seriously, I am just teasing you. Don't do anything your parents or your wife would take offense to.

[Eagle Eye]

Yeah, well...neither did a lot of people.

[spunkets]

"I'm not interrupting, am I?"

Course not. I was just fixin' dinner and now I know I'll still be hungry after I eat.

[vetvetdoug]

Monday night football is for men to rest so later they can have sex. It is necessary.

[Argh]

That Doc, always on the ball.

[Professional Engineer]

What's foreplay?

Getting undressed.

[NRA2BFree]

I prefer to cultivate the virtues of hope and courage as much as it is in my power to do so, and to shun their opposites.

Virtue, hope and courage aren't something that fit into the equation when you're talking about ISLAM. End of story!

You see, I'm a Christian and a conservative.

Very cool. So am I, but, I still won't be having any kids. I will; however, buy more ammunition. :o)

[ArrogantBustard]

what would France, Germany, Italy, UK, and Canada birthrates be WITHOUT muslims?

THAT would be worth knowing.

[RandallFlagg]

Randall. Seriously, I am just teasing you. Don't do anything your parents or your wife would take offense to.

Oh, LOL!! No. I was at work using their 'puters.
Now that I'm home, though.....


This thread was getting way too series.

[phoenix0468]

OH, oh, yeah, right, I remember now. So do I miss my Saturday college game if the little miss feels frisky? Or should I have to ask? LOL.

[NRA2BFree]

Maybe we could use our Western propoganda muscle and make contraceptives popular in the Middle East,then they will become extinct.

Now, THAT sounds like a good plan to me. :o)

[phoenix0468]

Somebody poked holes in your condems didn't they, LOL /sarc

[phoenix0468]

Get Fonda on it right away, send her to Pakistan with condems and literature and a bullhorn.

[RandallFlagg]

One more before bed:

[SDGOP]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

TROLL HOW DARE YOU

[SDGOP]

Talk about torture

[LibertarianInExile]

"There is no practical difference between using contraception and converting to Islam."

I bet that's what all the jihadis say.

'Hey, pretty baby, if you just put this burkha over your hump I won't need a rubber...'

[LonePalm]

A Evangelical minister was once asked what his position on sex was for Christians.

He replied, "Missionary."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[RightOnline]

"There is no practical difference between using contraception and converting to Islam."

You're kidding, of course........and if you aren't, just say that you are.

[wideawake]

Read the thread. I for one wish the West's culture of death was kidding.