What are the scientific reasons for having sex?

The Register (UK) ^ | 10 oct 06 | Dr Stephen Juan

[white trash redneck]

What are the scientific reasons for having sex?

Asked by Jill Howard of Alexandria, Virginia, USA

The reasons for not engaging in sex include transmission of diseases, heart attack due to exertion, and many others. The reasons for engaging in sex are numerous. Among these are:

• Sex helps boost the immune system. According to Dr Carl Charnetski of the Department of Psychology at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, people who reported one or two sexual "episodes" per week enjoyed higher levels of Immunoglobin A. This is an antibody that helps fight disease.

• Sex helps boost longevity. In one study cited by Dr Charnetski, men who had more orgasms over a 10 year period boosted their longevity compared with those who had fewer.

• Sex helps ward off cancer. In another study cited by Dr Charnetski, men who had more ejaculations over a 35 year period had 33 per cent less prostate cancer compared to those with fewer ejaculations.

• Sex results in a more youthful appearance. According to a study by Dr David Weeks, a clinical neuropsychologist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland and co-author of Superyoung (1999), men and women who reported having sex an average of four times per week looked approximately 10 years younger than they really were.

• Sex helps reduce stress. Numerous studies show that it does this through lowering anxiety levels, boosting relaxation, and aiding sleeping.

• Sex helps fight depression. A study by Dr Gordon Gallup of the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York at Albany found that women who regularly engage in heterosexual sex in which they come in contact with semen were significantly less depressed than those women that did not. he causal relationship is unclear. Dr Gallup speculates that "possibly because when absorbed through the vagina, semen may have an effect on mood in women". However, Dr Gallup is quick to point out: "Regardless of the findings, this study does not advocate that people abstain from using condoms. Protecting oneself from an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease is far more important."

• Sex helps coping with middle age. This is the inference drawn from research by Dr GA Bachmann at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey and published first in 1995 in the International Journal of Fertility and Menopausal Studies and continuing in The Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2006.

• Sex is good exercise. Exercise helps circulation, lowers cholesterol, and releases helpful endorphins.

• Sex helps in losing weight. Well, at least a little. One burns approximately four to five calories per minute or perhaps 300 calories per hour during sex (depending upon how, shall we say, "vigorous" the sex is). About 7,000 to 8,000 excess calories must be burned to lose one kilogram of fat (3,500 to lose one pound). You do the calculations.

Stephen Juan, Ph.D. is an anthropologist at the University of Sydney.

[wideawake]

How is it, pray tell, that those people aren't doing any better after generation after generation of breeding like flies?

Because the cultural institutions on which their societies are based - namely Islam - are inferior to those of other cultures.

Of course, the English population skyrocketed at the end of the 1700s and through the 1800s - one of the most enormous reproductive bursts of any nation in history.

And the English standard of living transformed dramatically in that period - to a height no nation had ever seen previously.

Why? Good cultural underpinnings that motivated almost all of those many children to undertake useful, positive endeavors.

Rapid increase in population does not prevent improvement in standards of living, but rapid depopulation certainly erodes standards of living dramatically.

[ArrogantBustard]

Think of Richard Gere ... (yuck!)

[Warren_Piece]

Not only that, but, being from the south, I've heard this argument before from oldtimers, about how "they" are breeding like rabbits and will soon overtake "us".

When taken from the point of view of black/white as opposed to Muslim/West - it's all rather unseemly.

[najida]

I heard that it was an unfounded rumor about Gere....

Not that I would know...

[wideawake]

how is that statement any different from that of the Muslim extremists

The difference is in what the Muslims are praying for.

[steve-b]

It sorta falls into social engineering

The sad thing is that it's the same people who know better, because they easily recognize the failures of social engineering (at least when it's leftist social engineering), but develop a blind spot when Professor Harold Hill explains how he's worked out the bugs and developed a new miracle formula of social engineering that happens to advance their preferences.

[najida]

You still hear that 'they are out breeding us'.....
EVERYONE is outbreeding us....Blacks, hispanics, Muslims, Chinese, fruit flys, roaches, dust mites, naval lint...

We just aren't good breeders now are we....

Don't mean we can't practice a whole lot though :)

[wideawake]

This solitary little FReeper is only concerned about freedom.

Freedom only exists if there are free people to enjoy it.

[wideawake]

It helps if you read the thread before making easily refuted arguments that have already been easily refuted.

[najida]

LOL!

I've never seen a prophecy come true that has to do with the whims of humans.....

[spunkets]

"You can duck and weave all day, but the facts of demographic change won't go away."

I haven't ducked, or weaved at all. I said that the idea that the purpose of giving the gift of life to staff an armed force is abhorent. Your last post, #337, makes it clear that you think the purpose of giving the gift of life is to staff a force.

[valkyrieanne]

Look at Western birthrates and compare them to Muslim birthrates and get back to me.

Muslim birth rates are high because Muslim women are often forced into marriages at young ages, and not allowed to do anything else except serve as baby factories. Given the same freedom (to not marry, to limit their family size) as their non-Muslim neighbors, the Muslim birth rate will go down. That's why freedom for Muslim women is so unpopular. They know their whole system is based on force.

[GOPJ]

I think libs just come up with that stereotype about conservatives, to make their horrid over the top acting out behavior justified.

When it comes to sex, liberals look like they're trying too hard... When liberals have to flaunt their sexuality, talk about it endlessly, and use all the "things" they have to use, it might just mean they "don't get much satisfaction..."

[billhilly]

"Billhilly,

With your sense of humor this thread could be even more hilarious, so jump in."

Well, I just woke up from my nap where I'm pretty sure I dreamed about this subject. Mostly the science part, so I'll read up on the thread, then add anything new I can remember.

[TightyRighty]

Well bully for them! Have you ever been to a city like Oakland where welfare babies are the norm? Have you seen the complete dessimation of a city where the budget goes to feeding these families? They can't take care of their cities because they are to busy putting food in the mouths of children whose parents can't afford them and yet continue to have them. Oakland looks like a third world country.

I on the other hand have two kids I can afford. My husband works a full time job, I work a couple of days a week so that I can stay at home and raise my children. My children are homeschooled and will thankfully never grace the halls of a government school (unlike Salimah's children). I could have more kids but then I'd have to get a real job, put my kids in daycare, a public school and let the state raise them.

Now, I ask you which is better? Six kids who will become indoctrinated by the state, six kids who will be raised by others and by themselves, six kids that will most likely take a different path that their father and I wouldn't want because they had two parents that didn't have time for them? Or two children who had a mother that stayed at home and raised them herself (along with Dad's help of course!). Two children that will know right from wrong because Mom and Dad were there to teach them and two children that will vote Republican :)

[spunkets]

"Freedom only exists if there are free people to enjoy it."

No. Freedom is a condition that exists, because it's extended as a gift by one's fellows. If it's not coded in law, then the folks in charge, by hwatever mechanism, are not interested in freedom.

[mysterio]

Societies with decent standards of medicine are quite capable of not only replacing themselves but growing at a very good clip if 80% or so of the female population have three children each.

So you're not about to marry off your young teenage daughter so she can start having babies, I take it. You're making me suspicious. Your hesitation makes me think you might be one of the terrorist sympathizing contraceptive users who want the Islamic population to outstrip ours.

[Pyro7480]

I am not going to dignify any substantive response to your post above. I agree, it would be a waste of time on both our parts. You have revealed enough to me where you stand.

[Pyro7480]

The difference, is that we will conquer hearts by prayer, by and large. Events like Lepanto are the exception.

[steve-b]

One can have a fulfilled Western life and have a nuclear family with a minimum of three children

That may be, or it may not. It depends entirely on the individual.