What happens after a few weeks of abstinence? Two studies shed light on how a body changes after a sexual dry spell.
THE MATING GAME
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times – Health Section
August 18, 2008
Before a big day: A study of 46 men and women in Scotland looked at whether sex affects the body’s blood-pressure response to a stressful event — in this case, a nerve-racking combo of public speaking and verbal arithmetic.
The results, published in 2006 in the journal Biological Psychology, showed that people who’d had no sexual activity (no intercourse of any kind, no masturbation) in the two weeks before the stressful day had the worst blood-pressure responses.
Those with the best reactions? Folks who’d had penile-vaginal intercourse only. (Those who’d had other types of sexual activity with another person still fared worse than those who’d had vaginal intercourse; masturbation was barely an improvement over no sexual activity.)
