The Joy of Sexercise

By:
Carol Krucoff

It's been locker room talk for years: Getting fit improves your love life.

New research supports this "jock wisdom" about the connection between physical fitness and sexual ability, with studies suggesting that some of the declines in male sexual functioning often attributed to age are actually the result of sedentary living.

"It's always amazed me that men come here so out of shape they can't walk up the stairs, then they wonder why they're impotent," says LeRoy Nyberg, director of urology programs at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK). "Physical fitness is important to keep all bodily organs functioning at their peak -- especially those that require a good blood supply."

"Erectile dysfunction isn't inevitable" with age, say Nyberg, who echoes other experts in encouraging patients to exercise for physical and sexual health. Two recent studies support this "sexercise" link, indicating that regular exercise boosts sexual performance while inactivity increases men's risk of impotence.

"The only behavior we found that can reduce the problem of erectile dysfunction is regular physical activity," says John McKinlay, an epidemiologist at the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Mass., and co-author of several recent reports based on the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, the largest random-sample study ever done of the condition known as ED.

"The prevalence is higher than previously thought," says McKinlay, whose research indicated that 10 percent of men ages 40 to 70 had severe ED, while about half had at least mild ED. "We also found a very strong relationship between ED and coronary heart disease that is independent of all other risk factors, such as high cholesterol, hypertension, smoking and diabetes."

Like heart disease, ED is "in some ways a plumbing problem, related to system-wide blockages in blood vessels," he says. "If there's going to be a blockage, it makes sense that it will turn up first in the microvascular penile bed before it turns up in the large blood vessels of the heart."

For this reason, McKinlay calls ED "possibly the best marker we have of coronary heart disease, the biggest killer of aging men." Yet he says "most primary care physicians routinely dismiss this very common problem" as an inevitable part of aging without considering the possibility that it may be a symptom of a life-threatening illness.

The Massachusetts Male Aging Study found a direct correlation between ED and physical activity, with sedentary men at highest risk for impotence and active men at lowest risk. The data suggest that sedentary men may be able to reduce their risk of developing ED by adopting regular physical activity equivalent to taking a brisk two-mile walk each day.

More evidence that exercise may improve men's sexual performance is offered by new research from the Harvard School of Public Health.

"Physical activity was strongly associated with better erectile functioning," concluded Eric B. Rimm and colleagues in a report presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Urological Association in Atlanta. His analysis of nearly 2,000 male health professionals, aged 51 to 87 years, revealed that men who exercised vigorously for approximately 20 to 30 minutes a day were about half as likely to have ED as men with the lowest level of physical activity. In addition, he found that as a man's waist size increased, so did his chance of ED.

These findings support previous research documenting the link between physical and sexual fitness, for both men and women. Among the most intriguing:

A University of California, San Diego, study of 78 sedentary, but healthy, middle-aged men who started exercising vigorously three to four days a week, for 60 minutes per session, found that new exercisers reported more frequent sexual activity and orgasms, more reliable function during sex and a higher percentage of satisfying orgasms. "The degree of sexual enhancement correlated with the individual's fitness gain," reported study author James White.

Vigorous exercise facilitates physiological sexual arousal in women, according to a study by Cindy Meston, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research on 35 women who watched a travel film and an erotic film on two separate occasions -- once after cycling vigorously for 20 minutes -- found that in the presence of a sexual stimulus, vigorous exercise appeared to have a "kind of priming effect," increasing blood flow into vaginal tissue.

Fitness appears to enhance sexuality through a variety of mechanisms that affect both body and mind. Physical boosts in endurance, muscle tone, body composition, blood flow and flexibility may all improve sexual functioning. In addition, regular exercise reduces the risk of diseases associated with sexual dysfunction, such as diabetes and hypertension. Fit people also may be less likely to engage in behaviors linked with ED, such as smoking, or to take medications, such as high blood pressure drugs, that may produce ED as a side effect.

Psychological benefits of regular exercise -- including stress reduction, mood elevation and heightened self-confidence -- also may enrich a person's love life.

Since fitness improves physical and mental health and enhances appearance, it's not surprising that regular exercise is linked to a better sex life. In fact, now that drugs are available as a quick fix for ED, some health experts fear that they will undermine what has been a powerful incentive for getting sedentary men to take steps to improve overall fitness.

"Viagra and other medications are not without side effects and risks," notes epidemiologist McKinlay. "Before taking these drugs, it's important to start healthy lifestyle changes."

And it's also important to remember that exercise's benefits extend far beyond the bedroom, says NIDDK's Nyberg. "Sedentary behaviors and their ill effects build up over a period of years," he notes. "So even though problems won't go away overnight with exercise, people who stick with their programs can get in shape and will boost their health."

Resources:
Information on ED and other urologic conditions is available from:

• The National Kidney
  and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse,
  3 Information Way
  Bethesda, MD 20892-3580
  www.niddk.nih.gov/health/kidney/nkudic.htm.
• The Sexual Function Health Council of the American Foundation for Urologic Disease, call 1-800-242-2383, or visit their Web site, www.afud.org.

Carol Krucoff is co-author, with her husband, Mitchell Krucoff, M.D., of Healing Moves: How to Cure, Relieve and Prevent Common Ailments with Exercise (Harmony Books, 2000).