Can Sex Cause A Heart Attack For Men? No, According To A Study

A common concern for older men is can sex cause a heart attack?  One study found middle-aged men can have as much sex as they like without increasing their risk of having a stroke.  In fact, the study found some protection from fatal heart attacks may be a bonus.

Having frequent sex is a good health benefit for middle-aged men. That's right, the more sex you have, the longer you'll live.

The benefits of a healthy sex life are nothing new.  Having sex can burn about 150 calories per hour.  Another study in Europe analyzed healthy men and found as the frequency of sex increased, their blood pressure decreased.  And yet another study by The National Cancer Institute tracked orgasms and the risk of prostate cancer in over 29,000 men and found as orgasms frequency increased, especially during the men's twenties, prostate cancer risk later in life decreased.

However one study, "Sexual intercourse and risk of ischaemic stroke and coronary heart disease: the Caerphilly study" sought to answer the question can sex cause a heart attack by examining the relationship between the frequency of sexual activity and the risk of strokes and coronary heart disease.

Nearly 1,000 men ages 45-59 were recruited between 1979 to 1983 from the town of Caerphilly, a former mining town in South Wales and participated in a 20-year followup.

Married men were asked about frequency of sexual intercourse by a medical interviewer at Phase I.  Responses were classified into "categories" ranging from never to daily, and these were reduced to three categories:

• Less than monthly
• Twice a week or more
• An intermediate category

Here's the breakdown of the amount of sex these men had:

• 197 (21.5%) reported sexual intercourse less often than once a month.
• 231 (25.3%) reported sexual intercourse twice or more a week.
• 486 (53.2%) men fell into the intermediate category.

At the 10 years follow up, the probability of dying was twice as common in men who reported having an "intermediate" or "low" level of sexual activity.

The researchers discovered the risk of a heart attack was directly related to how much sex men had.  The more sex the men in the study had, the lower their risk of a heart attack.  Over the 20 years of follow up, 65 of these 914 men suffered a first ischaemic stroke, or which 26 events were fatal.

The study found frequent sex isn't likely to trigger an increase in strokes.  On the contrary, the odds of having a heart attack is lower in men who have more sex and than meh who have less.

It's simple really; more sex equals a longer life.