Worried that your brain is not quite as sharp as it once was? Having trouble remembering names or finding just the right words to express your thoughts? Well, a recently published study thinks one solution to your problems might well lie in having sex more often. The study found that older men and women who have sex at least once a week scored significantly higher in tests of cognitive ability than those who were of comparable ages but had sex less frequently.

The study, a collaboration between researchers from England’s University of Coventry and Oxford University, was published in a June 2017 issue of “The Journal of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences.” The study was designed to test and elaborate on some of the findings from an earlier study entitled Sex on the Brain! Associations Between Sexual Activity and Cognitive Function in Older Age, which was published in “Age and Ageing” in January 2016.

73 Volunteers Polled on Sex Frequency

For the most recent study researchers from the two British universities recruited 73 older adults who were willing to candidly discuss their sex lives and submit to tests of their cognitive functions. The 73 study participants ranged in age from 50 to 83; 45 were women and 28 were men. They were recruited through local newspaper advertisements seeking volunteers who were 50 or older and had no history of brain injury, dementia, or memory impairment. The advertisement also indicated that volunteers must be willing to discuss their sexual activities in general terms and could also include volunteers who were not partnered and not sexually active.

Participants were asked to select one of the following three categories as the most accurate description of the frequency of sexual activity in their lives: Never, Monthly, and Weekly. In addition to identifying their levels of sexual activity, study participants were required to complete questionnaires about their general health and lifestyle. The common yardstick for evaluating cognitive abilities was Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-III, also known as ACE-III.

Cognitive Tests Assigned

They were then asked to undergo a series of cognitive tests that measured memory, spatial awareness, and verbal fluency. Examples of the tasks assigned to volunteers included naming as many animals as possible in 60 seconds and compiling a list of words beginning with a specific letter of the alphabet. To evaluate participants’ spatial awareness, they were assigned different drawing tasks. One involved copying an intricate design, and another challenged participants to draw the face of a watch from memory.

Test subjects who reported the most frequent sexual activity posted the highest scores on verbal fluency and spatial awareness. Little difference was seen between participants on other measures of cognitive function, such as attention span, language skills, and memory, regardless of their frequency of sexual activity.

Just a Preliminary Step

Although the most recent study was fairly small in scope with only 73 participants, one of the study’s co-authors said she sees it as only a preliminary step in an ongoing process to evaluate the link between sexual activity and cognitive function. Nele Demeyere, associate professor in Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology, said she and her colleagues “look forward to applying these measures in large population studies to give both increased depth and breadth of cognitive measures, moving away from a singular focus on memory as the key domain of research into aging and dementia.”

Two of the three researchers, both associated with the University of Coventry, involved in the most recent study were also the authors of the study published in early 2016. While the earlier study showed an association between sexual activity and cognitive function in both men and women, its findings indicated that men got a bigger boost than women.

Earlier Study Broader in Scope

For the earlier study, the University of Coventry researchers analyzed data collected from 6,800 men and women between the ages of 50 and 89, all of whom were participants in a long-term study on aging. Participants in that study were asked about their level of sexual activity during the previous 12 months. Sexual activity was broadly defined to include fondling, petting, masturbation, and intercourse.

Cognitive function was then evaluated based on scores from two tests. For the first, participants were asked to recall a list of 10 common words shortly after hearing them and then again after a brief delay. Designed to evaluate executive function, the second test tasked test subjects to supply the missing number in a numerical sequence.

More Sex Benefits Men the Most

Sexually active men and women scored higher on both the memory and executive function tests than those who identified as less sexually active or sexually inactive. This finding held true for men even when other variables such as education, financial status, health, and physical activity, were taken into account. However, after adjustment for the same variables, sexually active women performed better than those less sexually active only on the memory test. Nevertheless, the researchers concluded that “maintaining a healthy sex life in older age could be instrumental in improving cognitive function and well-being.”

Researchers recommended further studies, preferably even broader in scope, to better assess the link between sexual activity and cognitive function. Older men and women experience a higher incidence of sexual dysfunction than the general population, not simply as a consequence of aging but rather as a result of the toll taken by years of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors for many. Erectile dysfunction drugs have allowed many older men to continue to be sexually active well into their golden years. Older women, particularly those who suffer from a loss of sexual desire, do not yet have a drug to address their loss of interest in sex, although one — Addyi — is now available for premenopausal women.

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