“Those were the days, my friend … “
By Herb Drill
Sexual healing is good for me,
Makes me feel so fine, it's such a rush,
Helps to relieve the mind, and it's good for us.
“Sexual Healing”
- sung by Motown star Marvin Gaye
Remember the movie “Shampoo,” with Warren Beatty? In 1975. he played the gigolo hair dresser in the blockbuster comedy, and in addition to his starring role, he co-wrote and produced the film.
His character ran a pretty lucrative - and rewarding - business any way you cut it, no pun intended.
As for Marvin Gaye, for years prior to his death he was a Motown label star as a soul singer, not a scientist. Still, there's growing evidence his sensual rendition and proposition was right: Sex is good for you. It keeps you healthy mentally, which helps you in today’s stressful business world.
It’s little late for a Valentine's Day gift from Cupid, but 'a good sexual relationship is essential to good health,'' says Dr. Barbara Bartlick, psychiatry professor who founded the Human Sexuality Program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Even apart from its psychological benefits, having sex creates physiological changes which relieve anxiety, mask pain, aid sleep, reduce stress, foster fitness, boost immune systems, stave off heart attacks, maybe even promote longevity, experts say.
In describing how love-making helps, attention is being focused on three neurotransmitters released by the brain before, during, and after sex – and they aren’t Moe, Larry, and Curly, The Three Stooges: They are: Oxytocin, the ''cuddle'' hormone, which promotes emotional bonding – especially as a “date rape” drug; Endorphins, which dull the perception of pain, relieve stress, strengthen immune systems, provide that well-known “runner's high,”
Serotonins, which foster the feeling of satiety, the ''afterglow''
of sex.
The value of committed sex is described in a bit of doggerel sex researchers quote about the perils of sex after heart attack: Heart beats stay at normal rate, when one beds down with legal mate. But roosting in another's nest, flirts with cardiac arrest.
“It would not be surprising if a good sexual relationship made for better physical and mental health,” says Dr. John Bancroft, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. “The difficulty is that it works in the opposite direction also, and I am not aware of any research which has disentangled this.”
Even if not every benefit is firmly nailed down, it can't hurt to try – even before the next Valentine's Day – to present that box of chocolates, chill the wine, flambé the steak in butter and brandy, put on that Marvin Gaye CD, swallow that Viagra, and see what Cupid has in his quiver for you and yours.
Then, the next day you can get to the office and really Take Care of Business.