When it comes to our brain, is sex the fountain of youth?
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
- Sex acts like exercise for the brain, increasing blood flow and releasing beneficial neurotransmitters.
- Regular sex can preserve cognitive function by as much as earning a college degree.
- The quality of sexual experiences, not just frequency, predicts better cognitive function in older adults
When it comes to our brain and cognitive function, is sex the fountain of youth?
The health benefits of sexual activity are widely recognized and well-documented. Research indicates that it not only boosts cardiovascular health but also alleviates stress, strengthens immune function, and contributes to overall happiness, reducing anxiety and depression.
However, the intriguing question remains: Can sex also enhance brain function and offer protection against neurodegenerative diseases? A new study published in The Journal of Sex Research answers this question.
Although the ability of sex to improve our brains may seem far-fetched, there are three pathways by which it could happen, each of which the authors of this study set out to test.
First, given its physicality, sex is considered (by those in the medical field at least) a type of exercise that studies show yields a powerful impact on cognitive performance by increasing the blood flow to the brain, reducing inflammation in the body, and increasing proteins that induce neuron growth and survival.
Second, sex mitigates stress, preserves cognition, and encourages the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with memory.
Third, arousal and orgasm lead to the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine. In older adults, dopamine has been found to improve episodic memory.
Taken together, as people move across the life course and into old age, sex may be one way to combat atrophy in the brain due to its ability to decrease cardiovascular risk, reduce stress, and release dopamine.
