Sex Is Killing Our Nation's Couch Potatoes

Beware: If you're an out-of-shape "older person" who gets neither very much sex nor very much exercise, you might die of a heart attack from doing either, according to a new study. This is not to say that you shouldn't exercise, says the study's author, Dr. Issa Dahabreh of Tufts. Au contraire, you should exercise more! If you don't die of that, you will probably survive sex, too. If not...sorry.

The study, reports the Daily News, analyzed 6,000 patients who'd had heart attacks or died suddenly from a heart problem. Embarrassingly,

The studies looked at what the people were doing during the hour or two before their heart attacks and compared that to the same people's activity on normal days with no major heart problems.

It turned out that "physical activity" and sex increased the chance of heart attack by "a factor of about three," while exercise increased the chance of sudden cardiac death by five times. But the risk in general, for any person, is low. And, the more you exercise, the less likely you are to die of it, or sex.

All this is to say, maybe take a brisk walk to the TV to turn it off instead of using the remote. Your heart (and partner) will thank you for it. Probably.

On the other hand, if you never exercise or have sex, maybe you'll live forever!

Couch potatoes more likely to die from heart attack from strenuous sex than active lovers [NYDN]