Having sex once a week could help women live longer —Study

Well, if women had a scientific reason for having sex frequently , here it is: According to a new research , having sex at least once a week could slow down the ageing process . Hooray!

A study published in peer reviewed journal, Psychoneuroendocrinology , in March found that women who have regular sex have longer telomeres – the caps on chromosomes that protect the integrity of the DNA.

That ’ s a good thing . As you age , your telomeres shorten , and the shorter they are , the more likely you are to develop a degenerative disease and die prematurely.

The study analysed 129 women , and found that those who had sex at least once a week were likely to have longer telomeres.

This relationship held up even when the researchers took other factors into account , such as stress and the quality of a relationship, which suggests that there’ s a strong connection between an active sex life and longer telomeres.

Longer telomeres could point to longer life, a slowing down of the ageing process , and a reduced risk of degenerative disease. Which all sounds splendid .

But before you get too excited, it ’ s important to note that the study was pretty small , and that there could be a whole host of other factors coming into play .

Researchers only gathered data on 129 mothers in committed relationships , so there’ s currently no evidence of the ‘ sex = longer life’ connection for single women having regular sex or women who haven ’ t had children.

The researchers note that the findings are ‘ largely exploratory , ’ and state that they can only generalise them to partnered mothers in long- term relationships .

It ’ s also possible that there’ s a ‘ self -selection bias’ , meaning healthy women with longer telomere length may be more likely to have regular sex , rather than the opposite cause -and - effect relationship .

Basically , a lot more research needs to be done before we can sack medical treatment and bang our way to better health.

But in the meantime, having sex won’ t do much harm. Go for it , if you fancy it.