We have previously written about the benefits and risks of sexual intimacy. We thought it was worth delving into the topic for a specific demographic: men over 60.
Sex after a certain age is still perceived as a kind of taboo by many people. According to a study, only 40% of people over the age of 65 are sexually active in the United States. This figure is lower than many European countries, such as Spain, where 62.3 % of men aged 65 and over and 37.4 % of women in the same age group are sexually active. What are the reasons why so many people stop having sex?
The main reasons are illness, widowhood and not having a partner, as well as a low level of education and a poor perception of one’s own health and sexuality. In an attempt to break down these taboos, many scientists have conducted research on the advantages of sex in the second half of life. This means there can be great benefits of products like Erectin™. Based on the conclusions of these studies, several of the main benefits are listed below.
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1. Promotes brain health
Several studies conducted by specialists from the universities of Oxford and Conventry, in the United Kingdom, have analyzed the relationships between the frequency of sexual activity and cognitive abilities in people over the age of 50. One of them, published in 2016, was based on a pool of 6,833 people aged up to 89, part of the so-called English Longitudinal Study of Aging. It found “significant associations” between sex life and cognitive ability, the latter of which was assessed in terms of the ability to remember words and develop number sequences.
A year later, another paper came to similar conclusions, looking in more detail at 73 people in the same age range. The conclusions of this second study state that “older men and women who engage in regular sexual activity have better cognitive functioning than those who do not or who do so infrequently”.
However, the authors of these studies emphasize that, for the moment, they can only “speculate” about the positive effects of sex on cognitive function. Knowing the exact characteristics of these effects beyond the social and physical factors, the specialists point out, will be the objective of future research.
2. Makes you look and feel younger
Sexual intercourse is the second most important activity for maintaining youth, after physical and mental exercise. The benefits are even greater when sex is practiced with a steady partner rather than with occasional partners. This was pointed out as early as 1998, after a decade of research, by scientists David Weeks and Jamie James, in a book entitled Secrets of the Superyoung: The Proven Way to Stay Young Forever. The authors studied 3,500 people between 18 and 102 years of age in Europe and the United States.
More recently, Weeks, former head of psychology for older adults at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, told the British newspaper The Telegraph that people who have sex frequently look, on average, about seven years younger. This is due, he said, to the fact that sex causes the release of the so-called human growth hormone, which gives the skin greater elasticity.
For its part, a study published in 2017 in Ireland by Trinity College Dublin, based on surveys of more than 8,000 adults over the age of 50, found that sexually active people tend to have a more positive perception of their own age and are less likely to feel old and pay attention to the negative consequences of the passage of time. In addition, they see themselves as healthier and experience fewer signs of depression.
3. Reduces the risk of prostate cancer
Having sex reduces the chances of suffering from prostate cancer. A recent study, published in the journal European Urology, based on the observation of almost 32,000 men over 18 years, determined that the greater the number of ejaculations (regardless of whether it is with someone or alone, i.e., as a result of masturbation), the lower the risk of suffering from this type of cancer.
The study established 21 ejaculations per month as the “appropriate” number to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. The benefits are even more noticeable for older men. While among men aged 20-29 years this number of monthly ejaculations reduces the risk of suffering from the disease by 19%, among men aged 40-49 years this reduction is 22%.