Just by the title I am sure a lot of you are thinking that I must be crazy for writing about this topic in school. However, I think it is a legitimate question to consider, especially at a college level where sexual intercourse is a natural human thing to do. I am not promoting pre marital sex in any way, but the question that something immoral to do before marriage could actually be good for a human intrigues me.
So what is it about sexual intercourse that could possibly make someone healthier? Does it make you feel more confident therefore making you feel better in general? Does it make you want to believe you are not sick so that you can have sex again? Does it make you feel closer and more in love with your partner so you are not lovesick?
I read a scientific article that talked about reasons that sex could promote happiness. One of those reasons that stood out to me the most was that sex helps cure the common cold. With the amount of coughing and sneezing going on in the classrooms lately it was something that I wanted to take a look at for myself.
I came across an observational study done by Dr. Charles Charnetski of Wilkes University that said he observed 111 undergraduate students whom ranged from age 16-23. In this study he asked these students how often they were engaging in sexual activity. He also had the levels of immunoglobulin, IgA, measured in the saliva of the volunteers. This helped to measure the immune systems of the people partaking in the study. The study concluded that having sex once or twice a week caused an increase in IgA in the body by 30%. However, if students were frequently having sex with a partner, their levels of IgA decreased which could have been because of outside factors dealing with the quality of their relationship such as stress or anxiety about the relationship itself. These could have possibly been some confounding variables in the study (BBC News…Cure).
If you are thinking about it rationally the quality of the intercourse could also be a confounder. It would be interesting to ask if the length of the intercourse effected the rate of IgA in the body as well. Other factors of the study to consider whether or not it was accurate would be that the illness that was thought to have been cured by sex may have been a very minor cold, whereas a more severe cold may taken a bit more care than sexual activity to go away.
So, should a rational person engage in sexual intercourse once or twice in a week to try and stay healthy when the cold is on the move? I cannot see why it would necessarily be a terrible thing, but then again morally it could be an issue. Having sex that frequently perhaps with different people could eventually lower self esteem causing a reverse effect where the occasional sex actually makes you unhealthy by causing some depression in the brain due to the lack of self respect. However, if you can live with an occasional hookup there is some scientific evidence that shows you may escape the common cold from doing so.
“BBC News | Health | Sex: The Cold Cure.” BBC News. BBC, 14 Apr. 1999. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.
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http://stylecaster.com/more-sex/
Wow! Every time I am sick with a cold I refuse to even kiss my boyfriend because I don’t want to make him sick. It’s crazy to me how people are having sex while they have a cold and it is actually making them feel better. I completely understand that obviously not everyone has sex, but I loved how you went out of the normal “comfort zone” and wrote an article about this. It was very interesting to read the findings. There are definitely some moral issues in this as well, like you stated. Overall, a great blog post and it really got me thinking!
Hi Hannah! After reading your post I saw that lots of your explanations to the question of how sex affects ones health dealt more with mental process, but for me, my first inclination as to why it may help was through the spreading of germs. I Googled it and the very first answer I found explained it could also be that when you’re kissing someone else you are mixing salvia and taking in that other persons germs. Since it’s probably a small amount though, your body is able to quickly fight off any sickness and create a greater defense system to any other viruses that you may encounter after the hookup. Just another explanation to your question! http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/guide/sex-and-health
Hi, Hannah Margaret Mears. Your title is amazing but interesting. At the beginning, you use a survey to tell me what is IGA, and the effect of IGA. There are two aspect be given related to IGA and happiness. Your result does impress me that sex sometimes prompts happiness, but too much sex will damage emotion and energy. More IGA
Hi, Hannah Margaret Mears. Your title is amazing but interesting. At the beginning, you use a survey to tell me what is IGA, and the effects of IGA. There are two aspects given related to IGA and happiness. Your result does impress me that sex sometimes prompts happiness, but too much sex will damage emotion and energy. More IGA seems like a good news for human, and making IGA in an appropriate situation, we need to control our sex in a neutral frequencies. In my perspective, I think one thing can be added in your blog that you just discuss people’s feedbacks whose age is 16-23. Not only teenagers ought to focus on this topic, but also middle age or older people also should take a look for this. Here is a video related to your topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7kPrupVPE
Naturally sex is beneficial to the human organism. Not only can it increase the efficiency of the immune system as you mentioned, it is calming, eases the brain into sleep, can relieve headaches, and can even increase cognitive abilities. Here’s an article that tells of the effect sexual activity can have on cognition; basically sex stimulates the brain’s memory centres, increasing its ability to remember more accurately and for longer.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/how-sex-affects-intelligence-and-vice-versa/282889/
It’s funny how if you’re in a relationship the stress of the relationship cancels out the positive effects that sex has on your immune system. I never realized stress had such an impact on the immune system! This blog made me wonder if or if not the health effects of sex vary if it’s casual sex or relationship sex? I researched it and found an interesting article! http://www.thehealthsite.com/sexual-health/casual-sex-vs-sex-with-someone-you-love-which-is-better/
Hows it going? I found your article intriguing because i have never thought about this topic before and i think it could help raise a question for future research. It makes sense that stress involved in a relationship can hinder health and increase risk of getting sick. A recent post i read on web MD confirmed from a a medical standpoint that sexually active people take fewer sick days at work. http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/guide/sex-and-health Thanks for bringing up this interesting topic.