Immunity is affected by almost everything: the presence of diseases, nutrition, sleep, daily routine, stress. So it's not surprising that sex should also have some effect. But it is impossible to say exactly which one, because there is little evidence.
There are studies that confirm that indirectly sex is more useful. However, there are also negative effects. This does not mean that someone is right and someone is wrong ‑ it's just that the effect on the immune system specifically is not particularly pronounced.
So don't have sex for your health. Just have fun.
In 2004, scientists conducted C. J. Charnetski, F. X. Brennan. Sexual frequency and immunoglobulin A (IgA) / Psychological Reports a study on a group of 112 students. They were divided by the frequency of sexual intercourse and determined that those who had sex 1-2 times a week, the level of immunoglobulins in saliva is higher than those who did it several times a month. The difference was almost 30%.
These immunoglobulins are the first line of defense against viruses and bacteria.
On the other hand, it is not only the amount of immunoglobulins that determines the reliability of our immunity. And there have been no other experiments that would confirm this until now.
In the same year 2004, 11 men were compared P. Haake, T.H.C. Krueger, M.U. Goebel, K.M. Heberling, U. Hartmann, M. Schedlowski. Effects of sexual arousal on lymphocyte subset circulation and cytokine production in man / Neuroimmunomodulation several indicators of the activity of the immune system before and after orgasm. As it turned out, the amount of biologically active substances (interleukins and tumor neurosis factor) did not change, but the content of lymphocytes temporarily increased.
No generalized conclusions and recommendations on how to use this information have been received from scientists. So it is unlikely that these changes have somehow affected the overall health.
But this is serious: chronic stress is dangerous for us. It acts on the whole body, including weakens S. C. Segerstrom, G. E. Miller. Psychological Stress and the Human Immune System: A Meta‑Analytic Study of 30 Years of Inquiry / Psychological Bulletin Journal the immune system. You can measure its severity using a blood test for cortisol: the more hormone, the worse.
And sex fights stress and reduces the level of cortisol. So it indirectly helps us to resist harmful factors.
The body controls L. Besedovsky, T. Lange, J. Born. Sleep and immune function / Pflügers Archiv: European Journal of Physiology immunity with the help of cells and proteins. If sleep is disturbed, the balance of these agents changes, and the immune response worsens. Also, lack of sleep causes chronic stress, which, as we have already written, further weakens the immune system.
Sex can help you cope with problems. During orgasm, is released into the blood Orgasm / Cleveland Clinic a cocktail of different hormones that give us peace of mind and improve sleep.
It is clear that this is not about any sex. To be honest, with a conditional jog in general, rare sex can be compared. But in any case you will lose How Many Calories Do You Burn During Sex? / Everyday Health more calories than just sitting in front of the TV. And if you lengthen the foreplay, dance, kiss and fool around, it may be possible to replace the conditional Pilates.
Physical activity pumps Exercise and immunity / MedlinePlus our resistance:
There could be an enticing headline here: "Men who often change partners have worse immunity than their more loyal counterparts." Some research does exist K. A. McKean, L. Nunney. Increased sexual activity reduces male immune function in Drosophila melanogaster / PNAS , but the subjects were fruit flies — small fruit flies. So it's probably not worth drawing parallels.
But immunity from sex can really suffer. For example, when infected with sexually transmitted infections, and especially with human immunodeficiency virus. So never forget about precautions.
Well, immunity always falls B. Abu‑Raya, C. Michalski, M. Sadarangani, P. M. Lavoie. Maternal Immunological Adaptation During Normal Pregnancy / Frontiers in Immunology — fortunately, temporarily — in women during pregnancy. So you can blame sex for that too.
