The Mental Health Benefits of a Healthy Sex Life

Studies show that keeping your sex life active into old age protects and even improves your brain’s executive functioning and recall. Analyzing data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, British researchers found that sexually active men between the ages 50 and 89 had increased cognitive function, as measured by number sequencing and word recall, even after adjusting for quality of life, loneliness, depression and physical activity.
The act of sex floods your brain with all sorts of feel-good chemicals while reducing the stress hormone cortisol. Dopamine, which impacts the brain’s pleasure and reward centers; endorphins, which can reduce pain and stress; and oxytocin, also known as the cuddle hormone, are all released during sex, with higher levels after orgasm.
Prolactin, a hormone that relaxes you, is also released after an orgasm. The combination of prolactin and all the rest of the “feel-good” hormones are why most people sleep better after sex.
A 2004 study published in the British Medical Journal studied the sex life of over 50,000 American males between the ages of 40 and 75. Men reporting 21 or more ejaculations a month were less likely to get prostate cancer than men who ejaculated four to seven times a month. A follow-up study published in 2016 showed the same results.