Dr Michael Greger on how a cheerful love life will make you reside longer

Sex is not simply good for you, it’d even lengthen your life. Yesterday I described the newest cutting-edge science on learn how to slash your danger of illness and reside longer. 

Today, within the second extract from my new e book How Not To Age, which seems to be in any respect the very newest analysis on ageing, I’m going to let you know how intercourse protects well being and the way age is not any barrier in any respect to a satisfying intercourse life.

We’ll additionally have a look at how one can enhance the perform of crucial organ of the physique – the mind.

As we’ll see, Alzheimer’s illness may be very removed from a genetic inevitability, and reducing the danger can start proper now.

Plus, I’ll cowl learn how to enhance reminiscence just by tweaking your weight-reduction plan so you may by no means once more neglect what you’ve got simply walked right into a room to get (or no less than, not so typically).

I’m a physician and bestselling creator who’s made it his mission to search out the methods that really work to show the clock again. So this is the cutting-edge science on intercourse and brainpower…

Having weekly intercourse cuts mortality danger by half 

The science exhibits that common intercourse actually does seem to spice up psychological and bodily well being. In a research following greater than 2,000 women and men for about six years, these with a better frequency of sexual exercise had a considerably decrease danger of dying.

Those having intercourse 52 or extra occasions a yr – roughly weekly – appeared to have solely half the mortality fee of these having intercourse as soon as or much less a yr, even after making an allowance for different well being situations and age.

Why is that? Lots of causes. Sexual exercise releases feel-good chemical substances referred to as endorphins which lower irritation within the physique and have been proven to enhance the immune system.

Some researchers recommend intercourse prevents untimely dying as a result of it is a type of train. Well, sure, however do not overestimate how helpful your exertions are.

If a bout of sexual exercise burned a few hundred energy, you may suppose, hey, I can get a aspect plate of chips with that. Trouble is, it would not. If you hook folks up (actually and figuratively) and measure their oxygen consumption throughout the act, having intercourse seems to be the metabolic equal of bowling. The common man may expend 21 energy throughout intercourse – not way more than he’d have spent watching TV on the couch.

There is a stereotype that older adults are asexual, however that is ageist and inaccurate. In a 2016 research in England, 86 per cent of males and 60 per cent of girls aged 60 to 69 reported being sexually energetic, as did 59 per cent of males and 34 per cent of girls aged 70 to 79, and 31 per cent of males and 14 per cent of girls aged 80 or older.

Generally, nonetheless, roughly half of older women and men report issues, most frequently low sexual need in girls and erectile difficulties in males. So what can we do about them?

Lavender and apples enhance libido for ladies

Is chocolate actually the aphrodisiac that the Valentine’s Day business would have us imagine?

The flavonoid phytonutrients in cocoa may help open arteries and enhance blood circulate – peaking at 90 minutes after consuming – which in concept is nice for ladies’s sexual perform. But make it as darkish and as bitter as potential: fats and sugar in milk chocolate counteract the flavonoids’ advantages.

Flavonoid-packed onions might additionally work very properly – however the impact on breath may dampen the passion. Luckily, there’s a glad medium in… the common-or-garden apple. One Italian research discovered girls who ate apples each day scored considerably larger on an index of total sexual perform than girls consuming lower than an apple a day – although researchers solely counted girls who ate unpeeled apples as a result of phytonutrients are concentrated within the peel.

Scientists stated their findings might result in ‘figuring out new compounds and meals dietary supplements to make use of in feminine sexuality restoration’. But till they arrive, you can simply strive consuming an apple.

What else can older girls do to enhance their sexual need?

One is to eat soy-based meals. Studies present menopausal girls who drink a cup of soy milk day-after-day might have higher intercourse – however watch out what you want for. One 44-year-old went to her gynaecologist with an ‘enhance in need that required her to self-stimulate to orgasm about 15 occasions each day’, in accordance with a case report. A month earlier than she had began an virtually solely soy-based weight-reduction plan, consuming greater than 4 kilos of soy meals a day.

There are two aromatherapy regimens which will assist.

Women who smelled lavender for 20 minutes twice a day for 12 weeks loved a big enchancment in menopausal signs, together with a rise in sexual need.

Neroli oil, additionally referred to as bitter orange, appeared to work even sooner. A sniff of simply 0.1 per cent focus of the oil for 5 minutes twice a day for 5 days led to a big enhance in sexual need.

The extra orgasms for males the higher – however solely with their wives! 

A research of males in Caerphilly, Wales, discovered that these with ‘excessive orgasmic frequency’ appeared to chop their danger of untimely dying in half – and, apparently, the extra, the higher. But not when you cheat.

Extramarital intercourse in males was related to larger cardiovascular danger – coronary heart assaults – partly as a result of the lover is prone to be youthful and extra, ahem, exuberant.

Extramarital intercourse can also be extra prone to occur after ‘extreme’ consuming or consuming, which places extra pressure on the guts.

Researchers additionally concluded that secret sexual encounters could also be extra irritating and subsequently considerably elevate blood strain and coronary heart fee, each of that are dangers for cardiovascular occasions.

Two massive analyses of post-mortem outcomes have proved it, discovering that almost all of sudden deaths amongst males throughout coitus passed off throughout extramarital intercourse.

Now get your mind into tip-top well being 

Dementia impacts one in 11 folks older than 65 within the UK, and ‘benign forgetfulness’, akin to often misplacing your keys, is much more widespread – however it is not inevitable.

Once it was thought that we lose mind cells as we age, however that is been proved unsuitable. In previous age our brains have about 96 to 98 per cent as many neurons as we had once we had been younger. So how can we hold them wholesome and scale back the danger of dementia?

• Reduce salt. Increased stiffness of the arteries correlated with impaired cognitive efficiency in 14 research – and it is a excessive sodium consumption that causes it. We all eat an excessive amount of salt, however reducing it by lower than a teaspoon a day can considerably scale back artery stiffness, along with reducing blood strain.

• Eat much less meat, fried meals, baked items and processed meals filled with unhealthy LDL ldl cholesterol, which is related to reminiscence loss and mind illness. Humans seem to have developed to maintain an LDL stage of round 0.6 millimoles per litre of blood, however the common within the West is over 3 mmol/l. No surprise coronary heart illness is the main reason behind dying in larger revenue nations and dementia is killer quantity two.

• Sleep extra however not an excessive amount of. Fewer than seven hours an evening is assumed to extend your danger of cognitive decline, however so is greater than eight or 9 hours. Seven hours an evening would not sound like sufficient, however it might truly be pure for our species.

• Sleeping in your proper aspect might assist. Your place in mattress might have an effect on your danger of dementia and mendacity in your proper may be higher than in your again or entrance. That’s as a result of the mind may ‘drain’ waste merchandise extra successfully in that place through a serious vein operating down the proper of your physique.

One research – the primary to discover a hyperlink – discovered that folks with neurodegenerative illness are inclined to sleep on their backs: about 72 per cent spent no less than two hours sleeping on their again.

Food for mind health – and what to keep away from 

What must you eat to guard your mind and enhance your reminiscence? Our previous pals berries and inexperienced leafy greens (spinach has even been known as an ‘anti-Alzheimer’s plant’) make a star look right here.

For instance, one research adopted the cognition of tons of of twins over a decade and located that the anthocyanins – a blue or pink pigment – in lower than 50g of blueberries a day, or round eight massive strawberries, appeared to gradual cognitive ageing by 4 years.

Or strive cocoa. A chocolate drink containing the flavonoid content material of two and a half tablespoons of pure cocoa powder has been proven to considerably elevate ranges of a neuroprotective protein referred to as BDNF and enhance cognitive perform. (But be sure that it is pure cocoa and never ‘Dutch-processed’ cocoa, which has been alkalized. Look on the again of the packet for the phrases ‘acidity regulator’ – when you see that, it is Dutched).

As for what to not eat, only a few days on a high-fat weight-reduction plan can blunt cognition, which can take weeks to recuperate from. Even a single excessive saturated fats meal – a cheeseburger or deep-fried fish and chips – has been proven to impair cognitive efficiency in folks inside 5 hours, maybe due to the mind irritation it will probably trigger.

Why not simply eat fish to spice up brainpower?

It’s generally thought that fish is mind meals, and due to medical doctors recommending them, fish oil capsules have exploded right into a multi-billion-pound business.

Yet essentially the most in depth evaluation of the proof discovered that they gave ‘no considerable’ cognitive profit.

Four huge new trials discovered the identical factor, as have three placebo-controlled trials of omega-3 capsules for Alzheimer’s illness over intervals of six, 12, and 18 months.

In truth, some research have discovered larger fish consumption predicts worse cognitive perform, maybe due to the neurotoxins in fish polluted by heavy metals and plastics within the sea.

Where did we even get this concept that the omega-3 fat in fish and fish oil dietary supplements had been good for you?

Probably from one headline-grabbing research within the Eighties that has since been swamped by recent knowledge disproving it.

 Go nuts to treatment a low intercourse drive – however watch out for bikes

A person’s beard grows extra on the times he has intercourse than on the times he would not.

For males, intercourse will increase ranges of testosterone circulating within the blood – therefore the beard development – although the identical impact isn’t discovered if he self-pleasures.

Testosterone will increase with ‘aggressive success’, say researchers, and intercourse induces the ‘psychological state of a winner’, versus the psychological state after masturbation.

Eating no less than one serving of greens a day and greater than two servings of nuts per week was related to a greater than 50 per cent lower within the chance of erectile dysfunction. Men consuming three to 4 handfuls of pistachios, above, a day for simply three weeks skilled a big enchancment in blood circulate the place it issues.

Nitric oxide additionally permits blood vessels to loosen up, which is why leafy, nitrate-packed greens may be ‘veggie Viagra’. Fenugreek seeds may also enhance testosterone – in a single research males who took fenugreek capsules each day reported a doubling of morning erections. The solely aspect impact? It could make your sweat and pee odor like maple syrup.

Watermelon has a compound referred to as citrulline which turns into the amino acid arginine within the physique, which combats erectile dysfunction. Five each day servings of pink watermelon or a single wedge of yellow flesh watermelon may help the issue.

And common cardio train can enhance erectile perform virtually as a lot as the newest Viagra-type medicine – though there’s a caveat. Middle-aged males ought to pay attention to the upper danger of erectile dysfunction amongst cyclists, because of repeated compression of nerves within the pelvic area.

Even Shakespeare knew that rosemary improves reminiscence

In Hamlet, Ophelia notes that rosemary is for remembrance, an concept that goes again no less than a number of thousand years to the traditional Greeks, who claimed the aromatic herb ‘comforts the mind… sharpens understanding, restores misplaced reminiscence, and awakens the thoughts’.

Well, science has proved them proper. Older adults with a median age of 75 got two cups of tomato juice with both a half teaspoon of powdered, dried rosemary (an quantity you may use in a typical recipe), a full teaspoon, two teaspoons and greater than a tablespoon.

Compared with a placebo, reminiscence pace improved after the bottom dose, however worsened after the best dose, suggesting that extra is not essentially higher.

Or strive turmeric, which, in a research in 2012, dramatically improved the signs of three folks with Alzheimer’s who took a teaspoon a day.

It was so efficient it led investigators to conclude this was the primary demonstration of an ‘efficient and secure drug’ for treating the illness.

Of course, it isn’t a drug in any respect. Turmeric is only a spice you should buy in supermarkets.

© Michael Greger 2023 How Not To Age by Michael Greger (Pan Macmillan, £22). To order a duplicate for £19.80 (provide legitimate to 09/03/24; UK p&p free on orders over £25) go to mailshop.co.uk/books or name 020 3176 2937.