The Issue Erection Meds Can’t Fix

BY ASHLEY BALCERZAK

Looks like that little blue pill can’t solve all your problems.Erection drugs won’t improve your relationship, suggests a new study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. 

Men who were treated for erectile dysfunction (ED) with PDE5 inhibitors, or medicines including Viagra or Livitra, for roughly half a year reported higher levels of sexual gratification and confidence after treatment. Yet they saw no notable improvement in overall life or relationship satisfaction. 

Is Your Height Hurting Your Love Life?

BY MARKHAM HEID

Looks like size really does matter: Men who are 6’2’’ and up are 17 percent more likely to be contacted for a date than guys who are average height (5’8”), according to a survey from AYI.com, an online dating site.

What’s more, for fellas on the shorter side—those below 5’5’’—the odds of drawing interest from a prospective match dropped by 55 percent compared to the tall guys.

How Many Calories Do You Burn During Sex?

BY AMY RUSHLOW,

Ever wonder what kind of workout you get between the sheets? Thanks to new research from the University of Montreal, we have the precise answer: Men burn 100 calories in the average sex session, while women expend 69. (Yes, 69.)

The typical romp lasts 25 minutes from the start of foreplay to the end, but that’s just an average—the times varied widely in the study, and ranged between 10 and 57 minutes. The longer the session, the more calories burned.

Your Brain on Junk Food

BY JESSICA GIRDWAIN,

Skip the Taco Bell run: Five days of eating a junk-food diet can deteriorate your memory, finds new Australian research.
After that amount of time, rats that ate high-fat, high-sugar foods performed worse on special memory tests, and couldn't locate things as well as rodents fed a normal diet. These rats had problems noticing if an object had moved; for you, that’s like when you can’t find your keys.

Dwindling sex life? How to get more action

by AFP Relax

If stress is taking a toll on your sex life, here's your action plan to getting more action.

A large-scale study published this week in the journal The Lancet finds that Britons are having less sex these days, all due to the pileup of work and money stress and technology replacing fun romps in the bedroom, researchers said.

Prevention magazine also cites a recent study that found that the stress hormone cortisol, sparked by hectic schedules and tightening bank accounts, decreased physical arousal in women. 

Sex Studies: Blushworthy Headlines of 2013

By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer | LiveScience.com

The worst stereotypes of science suggest that it's boring, staid, or overly complex.

Not these studies. More often than people may think, science gets downright dirty, peering into bedrooms and asking nosy questions about secret fantasies. The science of sex is anything but dull.

With that in mind, here are 10 of the sex stories most likely to have caused blushing in 2013.

The Surprising Things Women Choose Over Sex

By Vanessa Golembewski, Refinery29

It's taken us a long time, but we think the population at large is finally convinced that women not only want, but enjoy sex. Wild, right? But, according to a new study by British beauty brand Sanctuary Spa, women do have a very interesting set of priorities. The data from the study reveals that 55 percent of women surveyed chose skin moisturizer over their sex life. Ninety-four percent also chose watching the newest episode of Downton Abbey over sex, too.

Can anxiety give you a stroke? New research says yes

By Lisa Collier Cool

The more anxious you are, the greater your risk for stroke, warns a large new study conducted over a 22-year period. The new research—the first to uncover a link between stroke and anxiety—suggests that anxious people may have an up to 33 percent greater risk of stroke compared to more easygoing folks.

Earlier research linked stroke risk with depression . However, the new study—published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke—found that anxiety is an independent risk factor. When researchers accounted for incidents of depression among the over 6,000 study participants, the connection between stroke and anxiety remained strong.