OklahomaTrombone
1/31/2006, 01:47 PM
Amazing New Stress Cure: Last week's column included an item on the book The Velocity of Honey, which is about whether commonly believed truisms can be scientifically confirmed. A few days later this study (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T4T-4GD4SRW-2&_user=833592&_handle=V-WA-A-W-AW-MsSAYZA-UUA-U-AAVUEBUWDA-AABYCAAUDA-ZAZEUWZBB-AW-U&_fmt=summary&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F2006&_rdoc=11&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%234983%232006%23999289997%23614929!&_cdi=4983&view=c&_acct=C000044985&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=833592&md5=87f3228dd65b3aad6bdd1f19b21fd0e3) by the English researcher Stuart Brody found men and women have lower blood pressure and experience less stress for about a week following intercourse. This seemed scientific confirmation of a widely held belief among the married, namely that couples get along better if they've had sex recently. Brody speculates that intimacy boosts production of the hormone oxytocin, which in obstetrics is used to induce labor, but also has a mood-elevating and calming effect. So sex simulates a hormone that gives you a pleasant afterglow, making everything seem better for a few days.
A small point and a big point about this come to mind. The small point is that since studies show married people get more sex than singles (see the book The Case for Marriage by the University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite), lack of this afterglow hormone may be causing single people to be stressed out. The big point is that this study seems part of the answer to a mystery of biology: Why human beings alone among mammals engage in sex at almost any time, plus have far more sex than is necessary for reproduction. I've long thought the fact that sex is so very pleasurable is one of the arguments for God. Evolution did not need to make sex delightful; perhaps a loving Maker wanted us to experience physical joy with each other. The Garden of Eden stories have a sexual undertone, and a happy one: In the state of innocence, God expected men and women to enjoy life.
Switching to science, evolutionary psychologists speculate that the steady human desire for sex evolved to help ancient males bond with ancient females; men would stick around for more nooky, and in the meantime, assist women with the long phase of dependency human children require. Now Brody's study suggests another evolutionary pathway for the human desire for getting busy. If frequent sex lowers blood pressure and reduces stress, this may make the sexually active more fit in Darwinian terms, and thus more likely to pass along their genes. I don't know if "Hey baby, how's your oxytocin level?" will ever work as a pickup line, but Brody's study does indicate anyone in a committed relationship is advised to get horizontal. Science endorses sex!
http://www.superbowl.com/news/story/9199036
A small point and a big point about this come to mind. The small point is that since studies show married people get more sex than singles (see the book The Case for Marriage by the University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite), lack of this afterglow hormone may be causing single people to be stressed out. The big point is that this study seems part of the answer to a mystery of biology: Why human beings alone among mammals engage in sex at almost any time, plus have far more sex than is necessary for reproduction. I've long thought the fact that sex is so very pleasurable is one of the arguments for God. Evolution did not need to make sex delightful; perhaps a loving Maker wanted us to experience physical joy with each other. The Garden of Eden stories have a sexual undertone, and a happy one: In the state of innocence, God expected men and women to enjoy life.
Switching to science, evolutionary psychologists speculate that the steady human desire for sex evolved to help ancient males bond with ancient females; men would stick around for more nooky, and in the meantime, assist women with the long phase of dependency human children require. Now Brody's study suggests another evolutionary pathway for the human desire for getting busy. If frequent sex lowers blood pressure and reduces stress, this may make the sexually active more fit in Darwinian terms, and thus more likely to pass along their genes. I don't know if "Hey baby, how's your oxytocin level?" will ever work as a pickup line, but Brody's study does indicate anyone in a committed relationship is advised to get horizontal. Science endorses sex!
http://www.superbowl.com/news/story/9199036