SLÁINTE - TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH!
February is for Lovers
By MAUREEN KEANE
February is the love month because of St. Valentine's Day. The latter is named for a Saint but is usually celebrated with perhaps some less than saintly activity. What may surprise you is that activity can actually be good for you.
According to research at Cardiff University in Wales, men who have two or more orgasms a week tend to live significantly longer than do those who have only one or none.
Researchers in Belfast monitored 900 middle-aged men from the Welsh village of Caerphilly for 10 years. They found that over 10 years, men who had sex twice or more a week had a lower risk of heart attack than men who had sex less often.
The fountain of youth may be closer than you think - your bedroom. Scottish researcher David Weeks claims that making love three or more times a week can make you look seven to 10 years younger.
Weeks and his colleagues had volunteer judges watch subjects through a one-way mirror and guess their age. They found that a vigorous sex life was the second most important factor of how young a person looked. The first was physical activity.
Other experts agree but warn that casual sex or cheating on a partner do not count and may have the opposite effect of premature ageing. In order for sex to be beneficial it must be part of a good relationship. Fittingly love, sex and Valentine's Day are symbolized by a pink heart.
How much damage can marital stress cause to that nice healthy pink valentine heart? Turns out a single six minute squabble can cause quite a bit. Dr. Tim Smith, professor of psychology from the University of Utah gave 150 married couples, mostly in their sixties, a list of hot topics to discuss.
The couples were filmed during their discussions and their statements scored for degrees of hostility and whether they were submissive or controlling in nature. The degree of heart blocking atherosclerosis was measured before and two days after the sessions with a CT scan.
Smith found a measurable increase in atherosclerosis after an argument. However, men had different causes of heart damage than women. Men had more hardened plaque in their arteries when controlling statements were made by either themselves or their wives. Women showed more atherosclerosis when either they or their spouses made hostile statements.
"Till death do us part" is a familiar part of the marriage vows but research from the most recent issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that the personality of that new spouse can have a lot to do with just when we part.
Lead researcher for this project was John M. Ruiz, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University who studied 111 coronary artery bypass patients and their spouses.
Ruiz found that spouses who cared for partners who were neurotic and anxious were more likely to be depressed and to report high levels of strain a year and a half later. These long term effects can worsen any chronic disorders in the care-taker spouse. In essence the sick spouse with a negative personality can make the healthy spouse sick also.
It works in the other direction too. Ruiz noted "Spouses caring for an optimistic, as opposed to a pessimistic, patient reported fewer depressive symptoms and significantly less burden and strain over time."
In the end, however, the research indicated that another maxim might be true and "love may conquer all." If you are happy being married to your neurotic and nervous spouse, their personality had little effect on your heart and health.
Another group of researchers looked at the effect of marital happiness on blood pressure. If the marriage was unhappy the man's blood pressure rose when he was near his spouse and it decreased when they were apart.
If the marriage was happy, his blood pressure went down when they were together. What is more amazing it that a good marriage can actually affect the structure of the heart. Couples in good marriages have thinner heart walls than those in bad and that translates into lower blood pressure too.
Sláinte suggests you celebrate this month by buying your lover four-six pieces of high quality dark chocolate and sharing them over a glass a red wine before engaging in some heart-health promoting activity.
February is also America Heart Month. February 11-17 is Heart Failure Awareness Week, the 11th is Satisfied Staying Single Day, the 19th is Spunky Old Broads Day, and the 20th is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.
Maureen Keane MS CN is a graduate of Bastyr University and member of the merican Dietitic Association. She is the author of What to Eat When You Have Cancer, What to Eat When You Have Diabetes and 14 other health books.
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