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.

[ArrogantBustard]

Still waiting for the Czar to admit he cherry-picked his data. Still wondering if you even know what that means.

[Pyro7480]

Ah, the old left-wing tactic. If you can't refute the argument, make the person crazy.

[JackDanielsOldNo7]

As I said before, it isn't the enjoying of sex that is the problem. It is separating, in an artificial matter, the pleasurable aspect from the reproductive aspect, that is sinful.

See Post #436 to wideawake. You might need to be fitted for one also.

[JackDanielsOldNo7]

I am not a left winger. Show me proof that man and wife can not enjoy sex and not reproduce at the same time. If I were to have kids I could not afford, you would be all over me as a loser who can not support his children.

[wideawake]

Your collectivist error is neatly encapsulated in three words.

The West is not a "collective" in the socialist sense.

The West is a culture, not a five-year plan or a cooperative farm.

Is the USA a collectivist fiction as well - or is it a real nation?

[Killborn]

Not a fan of the show. One man's meat and all that. Just curious, why does it appeal to you?

[CzarNicky]

Still waiting for the Czar to admit he cherry-picked his data. Still wondering if you even know what that means.

Go back and read what I wrote. I highlighted a few countries and said most of the rest were within a certain range and that there were some outliers. In fact I used those certain countries because they are the ones I constantly hear about on Free Republic as "taking over Europe". Your reading comprehension is abysmal.

[Pyro7480]

Show me proof that man and wife can not enjoy sex and not reproduce at the same time. If I were to have kids I could not afford, you would be all over me as a loser who can not support his children.

That kind of overlap, as I said earlier, is less than you think.

[Pyro7480]

See Post #436 to wideawake. You might need to be fitted for one also.

LOL! You can't escape your M.O.

[JackDanielsOldNo7]

LOL! You can't escape your M.O.

I am assuming you mean Modus Operendi. I do not have an agenda. I asked you to show me where it is wrong for a man and wife to have sex without procreation.

Let me guess. Only missionary position is acceptable.

[ArrogantBustard]

My research, which begins to approach what you should have done, annihilates your claims. The fertility rates in Western Europe and Canada, which you had access to but refused to publish, are all less than 2. Meanwhile, fertility rates in countries that are actually representative of the islamic world are more in the 3-4 range than the 2-3 you claim.

Iran, which you attempt to hold up as representative of the islamic world, is clearly an outlier.

Again, I give your research in #331 a grade of "F" ... I reject your paper.

[CzarNicky]

The story arc was interesting and I liked the character interactions. Now that it is serialized I'm addicted to it.

I never thought I'd be discussing a kids cartoon show on a thread about the scientific reasons for having sex. :p

[RandallFlagg]

[Pyro7480]

Let me guess. Only missionary position is acceptable.

You're the one making the assumption not me.

[steve-b]

Iran

...on which your homework assignment is now late.

[Gone_Postal]

That my friend is the best reason NOT to have sex

[RandallFlagg]

I'm not interrupting, am I?

[Pyro7480]

Ah, the homosexual-influenced notion of what is "attractive" - big boobs, no hips whatsoever.

[ArrogantBustard]

Once again, both you and your friend REFUSED and continue to REFUSE to post anything resembling complete data. Your continued refusal to post complete data is noted. Your research receives a grade of "F", for its gross incompleteness and evidence of cherry-picking.

Come back when you have something meaningful to add to this discussion.

[Pyro7480]

And I could do without pics of the grotesquely overweight as well. ;-) The traditional notion of feminine beauty is good enough for me. As late at the 1960s, it was the norm.