Stay sexually active in old age to ward off illness

Here’s something to look forward to: a sex life that lasts throughout the last decades of life. Many people remain sexually active into old age, surveys suggest, and those who have a greater sense of intimacy are less likely to get sick and die prematurely than those who don’t, notes University of California, San Francisco, prevention guru Dean Ornish. Yet, for some, sex slips away as the years add up.

“There are realities of aging that can affect sexual function,” such as illness and certain medications, says Chicago-based gynecologist Stacy Tessler Lindau. In 2007, research she led found that about half of more than 3,000 sexually active 57-to-85-year-olds reported having at least one bothersome sexual problem. She also found that, for many such problems, physical health was a better barometer of sexual function than age alone.

The key to preserving a healthy sex life is to “live healthier so that you can anatomically perform,” Ornish says. That includes stubbing out the cigarettes, meditating, eating a nutritious diet, avoiding heavy drinking, and exercising regularly to boost energy and blood flow and maintain a healthy weight.

Such changes may help mitigate cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, which are strongly linked to erectile dysfunction and which emerging data suggest may be linked to some sexual problems in women, says Robert Kloner, a cardiologist at the University of Southern California.

If a medical condition or waning hormones do interfere, a couple’s sex life depends on how they cope. “While we can’t necessarily protect our bodies from breaking down, we can certainly ward off the sexual impact by maintaining the strength of the relationship,” says Cleveland psychologist Sheryl Kingsberg.