If you laugh every time the narrator of the Cialis bathtub commercial says to ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex, prepare to feel terrible about the future: A new study indicates that sexual activity can increase the risk of heart attacks in older men. Even worse? The men who like sex the most are also the most at risk. (Damn, tough year for sex.)
Researchers at Michigan State University, led by sociologist Hui Liu, studied medical records of 2,204 people who were ages 57–85 in 2005 and 2006; the incredibly bleak findings were then published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
Per The Guardian:
“We found that having sex once a week or more puts older men at a risk for experiencing cardiovascular events that is almost two times greater than older men who are sexually inactive,” Liu said. Those who found sex with their partners “extremely pleasurable” or even merely “satisfying” had a higher risk than others.
On the flip side, women in the same age range who frequently have sex and enjoy it showed lower blood pressure, with Liu saying that “good sexual quality may protect older women from cardiovascular risk in later life.”
The matriarchy grows closer by the day.
