Research: For Older Adults To Get Smarter, They Should Have More Sex

Research Shows Sex Is Good For Your Brain, Cognitive Function & Mental Health

So, Are You Fucking Smarter Every Fucking Day?

Maybe. 

Could you be fucking stupid? If you are, then stop. Fuck someone smarter.

But, there’s a catch.

Fucking stupid may be good for your AND your partner’s brain. So fucking stupid might not be so fucking stupid.

Perhaps that may explain why some people in America are so fucking stupid. They’re not fucking. Hence, they’re fucking stupid.

Writing in Forbes, David DiSalvo cited a study of adults aged 50-83 which found that “weekly SA was a significant predictor of total ACE-III, fluency, and visuospatial scores in regression models, including age, gender, education, and cardiovascular health.” {SA=Sexual Activity, and ACE-III=Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-III, a cognitive assessment}

So, the frequency of sexual activity also figures prominently.

The study was entitled “Frequent Sexual Activity Predicts Specific Cognitive Abilities in Older Adults,” was conducted by researchers Hayley Wright, Rebecca A. Jenks, Nele Demeyere, and published in the peer-reviewed journal “The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences,” which is published by of the Gerontological Society of America.

What that translates into is this: “Increased engagement in mental, social, and physical activity is linked to a lower rate of cognitive decline in older adults, with different activities benefitting different cognitive domains. Research also shows a significant association between sexual activity (SA) and cognitive function in later life.” And for clarification, the research said “SA was defined as engagement in sexual intercourse, masturbation, or petting/fondling.”

As one might imagine, other measurements and aspects of health were included, such as whether participants had cardiovascular disease, including depression, loneliness, and included a self-reported quality of life social measurement. The participants were all relatively similar, and researchers found that “there were no significant differences in age, education, cardiovascular health, marital status, depression, loneliness, or quality of life.”

DiSalvo wrote that, “When the test results were lined up with the sexual activity results, it didn’t appear that having more sex had a direct influence on attention, memory or language. Those who reported having essentially no sex life did just as well as the most active of the group.

“But in the categories of verbal fluency and visuospatial ability, distinct differences appeared. Those reporting weekly sexual activity did significantly better on both tests, especially verbal fluency. A typical test of verbal fluency might include a mixed verbal challenge, like naming as many animals as possible and then saying as many words beginning with F as possible. The rapid shift from one verbal challenge to another shows how fluidly the brain can switch verbal tracks while also engaging memory. And for that sort of challenge, this study suggests, more frequent sex is a brain boost.”

Of course, researchers are not fully certain exactly how or why sexual activity improved brain function as it did, and speculation is ongoing, which will spur more research. Factors such as health and lifestyle may factor into the equation, but other more scientifically known reasons why sexual activity helps the brain could include a more well-known scientific fact that sexual behavior and orgasm flood the brain with numerous chemical compounds, including neurotransmitters and hormones, which have a known beneficial effect upon the brain, and possibly create new neural pathways, and opening up previously unused neural pathways. Dopamine, the so-called “feel good hormone,” also factors prominently in learning, and may have another effect of increasing cognitive ability. An increase in sexual activity increases dopamine levels, and that may be partially responsible for the observed effects. However, those are all matters which remain scientifically unanswered.

Another possibility suggested by earlier research performed on middle-aged rats, is that frequent sex helps the brain grow new neurons. That process, which is called neurogenesis, is critically important to the brain’s plasticity, which is its ongoing ability to adapt and change. We now know that plasticity occurs in certain areas of the adult brain, not only in younger brains. That research suggests that sexual activity has a role as as a buffer for protecting neuron growth against the negative and damaging effects of stress. And once again, that may be directly related to the connection between sex and the availability of powerful neurochemicals like dopamine.

See also:

Frequent Sexual Activity Predicts Specific Cognitive Abilities in Older Adults
https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article/3869292/Frequent-Sexual-Activity-Predicts-Specific

Sex on the brain! Associations between sexual activity and cognitive function in older age.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26826237

Sexual experience restores age-related decline in adult neurogenesis and hippocampal function.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23460298

Does Having More Sex Boost Your Brain Power?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2017/06/28/does-having-more-sex-boost-your-brain-power/amp/

Forbes contributor David DiSalvo may be found on Twitter as @neuronarrative; on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/David.DiSalvo; on Google Plus, and at his website, DavidDiSalvo.org.