 Heart Attack Risk: Can Sex Over Tax Your Heart?
New Study Finds Spike in Risk During and Right After Sex, but Overall Benefit
For years both men and women have worried about whether having sex can increase their risk of having a heart attack. Now, new research from Tufts Medical Center published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that sex can and may increase the risk of a heart attack, but that this risk is quite small and only occurs during and right after having sex.
In this study researchers looked at heart attack victims, mostly men in their 50s and 60s, who were questioned about their activities just before or during having a heart attack. The researches want to see how often sex served as at rigger for a cardiac event. While they found that sexual activity caused a 2.7increased risk of heart attack, they ultimately suggested that this risk rate was quite small and should not dissuade individuals with heart disease from indulging in sex. While this study suggested that there was indeed an increased risk, several other studies had previously suggested that regular sexual activity (defined as two or more times a week) actually decreases one's risk of heart attack over time.
Dr. Issa Dahabreh, the lead researcher on this study told reporters, “People shouldn't take this new report to mean the sex is harmful for those with heart disease, because the absolute risk is really small." The study suggested that individuals could ultimately decrease this risk by being physically active on a regular basis. Regular exercise made sex and other types of physical exertion less likely to be a trigger for heart attack. Co-author Jessica Paulus, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, reported, there is "a 45 percent reduction in the relative risk of heart attack with every additional weekly exercise session."
Regular exercise training, especially when it relates to cardio respiratory fitness… “will markedly reduce the risk associated with both acute exercise/exertion as well as sexual activity," says Dr. Chip Lavie, medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention at John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute.
Many people with “heart disease” are very fearful of returning to normal types of physical activity following a heart attack or stroke. They often believe that sex carries an increased risk because of both physical exertion and emotional excitement which is generally part of the sexual experience, and because of this they may be very apprehensive about returning to a normal active sex life.
This conflicting information regarding whether sex is good or bad for the heart doesn't make this situation much easier. Many specialist believe that anything that increase heart rate and blood pressure could put a strain on the heart and those who are not used to being physically fit then may be at a higher risk of a cardiac event.
In a 2010 study published in the Lancet, researchers found that sex served as a trigger in only 2.2 percent of heart attacks. By comparison, indulging in a heavy meal was connected with triggering 2.7 percent of heart attacks. What's more, the emotional and physical benefits of sexual satisfaction have been linked in several studies to overall health and specifically cardiac health.
In another 2010 study published in the American Journal of Cardiology, a group of men between the ages of 50 and 70, were followed for 16 years and quizzed about sexual activity. Researchers found that sex twice a week reduced the risk of heart disease in these men by as much as 45 percent, when compared to peers who had sex only once a month or less.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, heart surgeon and host of the "Dr. Oz show," is also famous for recommending frequent sex (three times a week) as a way for men decrease their risk of heart attack and stroke by 50 percent.
In the end most researches now agree that the exertion of a romp in the bedroom may briefly increase risk of heart attack in some men, especially those men who do not exercise regularly, but the cardiovascular and emotional benefits of regular sexual satisfaction far outweigh the downside, especially in those who are regularly active in other ways as well.
As one researcher put it, "The bottom line is that people should not fear sexual activity, but should fear sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity."
For more information on What is a Heart Attack?, click here.
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