if you thought that the only benefit of sex was, well, pleasure, here's some news for you. Making love is good for adults. And making love regularly is even better. Not only does it help you sleep well, relieve stress and burn calories, there are also several other reasons why you need to have sex more often.
Improves cardiovascular health A recent study says that men who have sex more than twice a week, have a lesser risk of getting a heart attack, than men who had sex less than once a month.
Increases immunity
Regular lovemaking increases the level of the immune-boosting antibody immunoglobulin A (IgA), which in turn makes your body stronger against illnesses like the common cold and fever.
Reduces stress Stressed out with work or family problems? Don't let it affect your performance in the bedroom. Not only will having sex improve your mood, but a study has also proven that folks, who indulge in regular bedroom
activities can handle stress better and are happier people.
If you're using a headache as an excuse to not make love, stop doing that. Have sex instead, because, when you're about to have an orgasm, the level of the hormone oxytocin increases by five times. This endorphin
actually reduces aches and pains.
Promotes longevity When one has an orgasm, a hormone called dehydroepiandrosterone is released. This improves immunity, repairs tissue and keeps the skin healthy. Men, who have at least two orgasms a week, live longer than men who have sex just once every few weeks.
Increases blood circulation Because your heart rate increases when you have sex, fresh blood is supplied to your organs and cells. While used blood is removed, the body also expels toxins and other materials that cause you to feel tired.
You sleep better
The sleep that you get just after you've made love will be much more relaxed. Getting a good night's sleep will make you feel alert and overall healthy.
Improves overall fitness
If you find going to the gym mundane or working out at home a task, here's another way to help you lose the flab and keep in shape. Regular sex will do wonders for your waistline. Half an hour of lovemaking burns more than 80 calories.
Increases levels of Oestrogen and testosterone
In men, the hormone testosterone is what makes them more passionate in the sack. Not only will it make you feel way better in bed, but it also improves your muscles and bones, keeps your heart healthy and keeps a check on your cholesterol. In women, on the other hand, the hormone oestrogen protects them against heart disease and also determines a woman's body scent.
If memory serves, it was some cool, pre-Tea Party pundit named William Shakespeare who once wrote, "Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself." With all the heat currently being felt in Washington -- and in so many places around the country -- let's all look out for ourselves and even for each other. Please stay cool as possible, America.
I asked my red hot Twitter followers of all political persuasions at @wildaboutmusic for their cool suggestions, and here's the playlist that we all came up with together. As always, please add your own cool ideas below.
TOO DARN HOT - Ella Fitzgerald HOTTER THAN HELL - Kiss TOO HOT - The Specials HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME - Sly & The Family Stone HOT AS SUN - Paul McCartney RED HOT - Robert Gordon SOMETHIN' HOT - Afghan Whigs SUMMERTIME BLUES - The Who DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT - Snoop Dogg WATER - Brad Paisley LONG HOT SUMMER - Keith Urban HOT SUMMER NIGHT - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals HOT CHILD IN THE CITY - Nick Gilder IN MY ROOM - Beach Boys SUMMER IN THE CITY - Lovin' Spoonful HOT FOR TEACHER - Van Halen HOT YOU'RE COOL - General Public HOT STUFF - Donna Summer SUMMER BREEZE - Seals & Croft HOT, HOT, HOT - Buster Pointexter I'M REALLY HOT - Missy Elliot TOO HOT - Coolio SHE WAS HOT - The Rolling Stones COOL IT NOW - New Edition
Men talk and think a lot about sex while womendesire it more often. We explore the reasons... 'Men think, while women desire.' Gone are the days when 'demanding sex' was considered exclusively a man's forte. Today women demand sex greater than men. And they have no qualms about getting vocal about it. "I read these funny E-mail forwards that stress on men begging for sex and women denying it. It sounds so funny to me. It's totally the opposite in my case. While men can have a good laugh over it believing that this notion exists, I literally have to seduce my husband to get him hooked on to the act," quips production assistant Megha Mehra. And she is not alone. Many girls/women had a similar story.
We spoke to women from different backgrounds to figure out what is making them addicted to sex.
It's physically pleasurable
Amongst all the other reasons to remain glued to sex, this is the most prominent one. Good sex satisfies your physical urge, which is very normal for anyone to experience. Psychologist Seema Naina opines, "Sex is the most basic need of any person. And I am increasingly getting cases where women are complaining that men are unable to satisfy their physical needs."
Creates positive feelings about oneself
Ideally, great sex means you are enjoying the sexual act and participating equally. It makes you feel good about yourself, thus adding to your self esteem. Shares housewife Neelam Nehra, "When my husband comes back from a whole day at work and we have our sack session, it increases my self esteem. The very feeling that I am able to satisfy him is a great pleasure. And since I never want to go out of shape to look unappealing to my husband (and other men), it even acts as a motivation to work out and feel desirable." Wondering why?
"Sex has healing powers. It generates positive emotions and makes one feel more confident. When a woman sees her man passionate in the act, admiring her body and moves, it infuses a lot of good feelings within her," opines psychologist Sunaina Bajaj.
Brings them closer to their man
Physical intimacy releases hormone Oxytocin, which is also known as the love hormone. Agreesrelationship expert Vandana Mitra, "I have always maintained that couples should never take sex casually. It's a very important ingredient for any relationship to sustain. It helps couples to nurture the relationship and strengthen the bond." So whoever said having more sex with your partner means lesser cases of infidelity, made sense.
Content developer Prachi Sinha states, "I feel a major connect with my boyfriend after we make love. I just feel like being close to him. My faith in him and our relationship grows stronger." Prachi's boyfriend agrees, "When she told me about the 7 days a week sex, I initially could not stop laughing. I mean, this is not the only thing we have to do. But honestly it has got us closer. I just can't take my eyes off her even when we are moving in a crowd."
Negates unwanted emotions/ Stress-reliever
Sex is not just a physical sensation but it's comforting and relaxing. Call centre executive Neetu Sharma shares her experience, "Whenever I have a bad day at work, sex really helps me unwind. It totally takes the stress out of my mind and makes me feel relaxed and rejuvenated." Psychologist Reena Kapur explains why. "Sex involves a lot of deep breathing and touching and the hormones that are released during the act calm you down."
Great form of exercise
Thirty minutes of sex burns more than 85 calories. We have read it almost everywhere that sex helps in burning calories. Confirms fitness consultant Stuti Batra, "While I do not suggest giving up work outs, doubling up the session makes you drop more weight." While this is the most deadly mix, many girls are seriously taking to it. "It may sound a little funny, but while making love I prefer to play the dominant role. It helps me burn greater calories, leaving my guy in ecstasy," says Payal Verma.
Invokes passion
"Sometimes I feel like a pervert, because I find myself always thinking about my boyfriend, and what we did the night before. It gives me a kick and makes me crave for our next sack session. He thinks I am crazy, but it really happens to me," shares call centre executive Richa Sharma.
"It is completely normal to fantasise about sex. But I have heard it can freak a guy out- we men are still adapting to the concept of women demanding sex more than us. But we love that passion," admits psychologist Prateek.
Traditional marriage (that is, a union between a man and a woman till death do they part) seems to be the subject of a tug of war recently. Same-sex couples around the world are demanding the right to marry. Heterosexual couples, who 10 or 20 years ago would have "had" to marry, are choosing to tie the knot later in life or not at all.
There seems to be a nuptial tectonic plate shift occurring. The only conclusion I can make of this trend is that the way society has viewed marriage for decades is no longer the definitive paradigm. After experiencing all the messy divorces first- or second-hand, the coming-of-age generations (Gen Xers and Yers) have decided to take matters into their own hands and break out of the "one-size-fits-all" mold that we know as traditional marriage.
According to American Demographics Magazine and the 2009 Census, we are now seeing that single heads of household and single women adopting children are among the fastest growing demographics in our country.
Greater numbers of couples are having children out of wedlock, living together, separating and never divorcing, marrying later, choosing same-sex marriages and open marriages. Many more people are marrying more than once. The societal "shoulds" seem to be losing their grip on us.
A 2010 Pew Study revealed that nearly one in four people under the age of 30 believe that marriage is headed for extinction. This same study showed that 80 percent of those surveyed believed there to be wider parameters around what defines a family than the husband, wife and 2.5 kids -- it can be single fathers or mothers with children, unmarried couples with children and married couples without children; it includes gay and straight couples as well.
While I don't think traditional marriage will (or should) go away completely, I do believe we need to take a serious look at adding other options that fit more with the lifestyles we have evolved into.
In 2002, Pamela Paul wrote a groundbreaking book that presented the novel idea of having what she called, a "starter marriage." This legal union would be a first marriage for couples in their 20s or early 30s who know they would not have children and who did not necessarily expect the nuptials to last a lifetime. Much like a learner's permit for driving, a starter marriage would be a way for young people to "play house" without risking their entire lives.
The book did not make much of an impact in our social norms. Nearly a decade later, most people have never heard of a starter marriage. More mainstream terms include domestic partnership, common law marriage and civil unions.
Many states in the U.S. have implemented some type of civil union to accommodate same-sex couples, but the federal government does not recognize these as legitimate marriages. Additionally, under the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, other states are not required to recognize the informal unions.
Vermont was the first to enact a law recognizing civil unions in 2000. Then Massachusetts and Connecticut. New Jersey followed suit a few years later, then New Hampshire in 2007 and Illinois in 2010.
California, Washington, Oregon, Maine and Washington, D.C. provide straight and gay couples with domestic partnership rights. This all appears to be movement in the right direction.
But let's take a look at what occurred in France when they decided to add a less formal option of marriage. In 1999, marital laws were amended to include a legal civil union (called PACS -- pacte civil de solidarité) as an alternative to traditional marriage. Like the others that states in the U.S. named earlier, PACS was created to accommodate gays who were fighting for equal marriage rights throughout the country.
Just over a decade later, France has surprising statistics: For every three marriages among straight couples, there are two civil unions. More and more French couples are opting for this less restrictive option -- this includes those who are not sure they are ready for a lifelong commitment, those who have already been married and don't want to go down that road again and there are those who are younger and don't believe in the ideology of traditional marriage (many of these young people have parents who are divorced).
Unlike conventional marriage with long, drawn out divorce proceedings, all it takes to end a civil union is a registered letter.
In 2010, a couple in Austria made headlines by demanding the right to a civil union that had previously been available only to same-sex couples. Helga Ratzenboeck and Martin Seydl stated that they didn't want a traditional marriage and insisted that the law allowing gays to have a "registered partnership" should apply to them as well and be blind to gender and sexuality.
Believe it or not, this option is actually similar to the way couples married and divorced in Greco-Roman times. The Greeks and Romans had several levels of marriage ranging from the very informal (a couple who cohabited for a year and a day was considered married) to the very formal (requiring witnesses and a vow-exchanging ceremony).
If we added a less formal civil union as a viable alternative to anyone wanting to be legally recognized as family, I believe it would actually strengthen the institution of marriage and that it would reduce the numbers of divorces in this country.
With traditional marriage as the only existing legal option for couples to enjoy financial benefits such as tax breaks and insurance coverage, people who are not be motivated by the lifelong commitment may opt to marry knowing they can divorce if or when the marriage stops being viable.
While I realize there is no quick fix or any alternative solution that wouldn't then cause a new set of problems, I think it's worth exploring the possibilities.
Click on pictures to enlarge.
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