Sex is bad for you!

Got your attention, didn't I? Today, let's talk about this study from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Apparently, the risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac death increase after bouts of workin' out, doin' the nasty, or any combination thereof. From WebMD:

The risk is higher for those who are occasional exercisers compared to habitual exercisers, says researcher Issa Dahabreh, MD, a research associate at the Center for Clinical Evidence Synthesis, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.

"For those individuals habitually physically active, they are less susceptible to the triggering effects of physical activity and sexual activity," he tells WebMD.

This is an interesting study, I guess, but it really shouldn't influence you in any way. If you're fit, the massive benefits one gets from sex, including stress relief, cardiovascular fitness, increased immunity, and decreased cancer risk, far outweigh the minute risk. In fact, here's a study from a year ago suggesting that when men throw it in a couple times a week, it can decrease their chance of heart attack by 45%. So, while there might be a slight risk after each "event," overall it'll work to your advantage. It looks like Nietzsche was right when he said that what doesn't kill us will make us stronger. Yay, German nihilist philosophy!

On the other hand, if you're so out of shape that doing the humpty-hump might cause your ticker to stop going thumpty-thump - and you're unwilling to increase your fitness level - I don't think abstinence is such a bad thing. With obesity rates soaring, we need to get lazy attitudes like that out of the gene pool.

It's Darwinism in action, really.