NOT A BAD WAY TO GO

Sex can kill — or at least put some people’s health at risk.

Older men who have sex once a week or more are at nearly twice the risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular issues like hypertension than those who are not as sexually active, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Furthermore, older men who say they find sex with their partner extremely pleasurable also had an increased risk of cardiovascular problems.

“Because older men have more difficulties reaching orgasm for medical or emotional reasons than do their younger counterparts, they may exert themselves to a greater degree of exhaustion and create more stress on their cardiovascular system in order to achieve climax,” says Hui Liu, an author of the study and an associate professor of sociology at Michigan State University.

For older women, however, frequent, good sex may actually improve their health. Indeed, women who have pleasurable sex are at a decreased risk of hypertension, the study revealed.

This may be due to the quality of the relationships those women are in, says Liu. Research shows that strong, close relationships can boost heart health, which “may be more relevant to women than to men because men in all relationships, regardless of quality, are more likely to receive support from their partner than are women,” Liu says. But “only women in good quality relationships may acquire such benefits from their partner.”

The study looked at more than 2,200 adults ages in their mid-to-late 50s and older.

And for those of you who aren’t going to abstain from sex, here’s some good news: Many studies show that sexual activity can improve your health. For example, a study published in the Journal of Cardiology found that men who had sex twice a week were at a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who did it less frequently — seemingly in contrast to the findings of the above study. Sex also burns calories and can lower stress levels, research shows.

The Journal of Health and Social Behavior study has some limitations: It can’t prove that frequent, good sex causes the heart issues in men, and the researchers only looked at older men and women.