Die During Sex!

Sex offers a variety of positive physiological and psychological impacts, such as lowering blood pressure, boosting the immune system, and promoting sound sleep. The hormone oxytocin, also known as the “love hormone,” is released during physical sex and orgasms which is crucial for fostering trust and interpersonal bonds. There is a negative side, though: occasionally, people die during sex or right after sex. Thankfully, the incidence is relatively low and only accounts for 0.6% of all cases of sudden Death.

There are numerous explanations for why this occurs in people. The majority of the time, it is brought on by the physical strain of sexual activity, prescription medications (such as those used to treat erectile dysfunction), illicit narcotics like cocaine, or perhaps both.

As people get older, the chance of any abrupt cardiac death increases. According to a German forensic postmortem investigation of 32,000 sudden deaths over a 33-year period, 0.2% of cases involved sexual intercourse.

The majority of sudden deaths (59 years of age on average) were male, and Heart attacks, also known as myocardial infarction, were the most common cause. Similar results have been found in studies on Sudden Cardiac Death and sexual activity in the US, France, and South Korea.

According to the inquiry, most men’s death were brought on by an extreme orgasm that ruptured brain vessels.

Despite this, there is evidence connecting a good sexual life to greater heart health. According to a recent study, long-term survival rates are higher for those who continue to have healthy sexual relationships after having a heart attack.

According to a study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, refraining from having sex out of concern that it might set off another attack may not be a sensible choice.

Experts’ Viewpoint

In two separate interviews, two medical professionals verified to The Nation that death can happen during consenting intercourse for a variety of reasons, typically due to the physical strain of the action or due to exceptional extenuating circumstances.

Dr. Samuel Bankole, the chief medical director at CKC Hospital in Sango-Ota, spoke about circumstances that could cause mortality during sex and described sex as an activity that drains energy and could result in death if one or both parties are not in stable health.

He attributed several reported cases of mortality to sexual enhancers, whose users didn’t pay much attention to the risks.

As an African, he believes in the thunderbolt known as Magun, but he asserted that the victim of Magun is not killed until they consume food, drink, or engage in prohibited behavior.

Sexual activity drains your energy. Some people use sexual enhancers to go above and beyond to please their lovers without considering the risk involved, while others die as a result of doing so despite their precarious health state.

Not simply Middle Aged Men

However, St George’s, University of London researchers recently discovered that this behavior is not just prevalent among middle-aged males. The investigation, which was published in JAMA Cardiology, focused on 6,847 cases of sudden cardiac death that were reported to the St. George’s center for cardiac pathology between January 1994 and August 2020. 17 of these (0.2%) happened during or an hour after sexual activity. In comparison to earlier research, the average (mean) age of death was 38 years, and 35% of cases involved women.

Unlike older men, their deaths were often not brought on by heart attacks. In 53% of the instances, a sudden irregular cardiac rhythm known as sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, or Sads, was discovered to be the cause of death despite the structural normality of the heart. The second-leading factor (12% of cases) was aortic dissection. Here, blood leaks between the layers of the big artery from the heart that supplies blood to the rest of the body, causing it to swell and burst.

The remaining occurrences resulted from structural abnormalities such as channelopathies, a rare group of hereditary diseases, or cardiomyopathy, a condition of the heart muscle that makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood to the rest of your body. The ion channels that allow sodium and potassium to enter and exit the cells of the heart muscle malfunction at this point. The electrical current that travels through the heart muscle and the rate at which it beats can change if the sodium and potassium levels in the cells fluctuate. An irregular heartbeat can result in myocardial ischemia, a lack of oxygen, and sudden cardiac arrest, in which the heart stops beating.

According to this recent study, cardiomyopathies or sudden arrhythmic death syndrome are the leading causes of sudden cardiac death in those under the age of 50. The risk of sexual activity should be discussed with a cardiologist by younger persons who have been diagnosed with these diseases. Even in those with pre-existing heart issues, the low rate of death in these studies implies the danger is quite low.

Patients who have a history of specific illnesses are more likely to die during sex, with cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension and diabetes, being the most prevalent in this region of the world.

It’s crucial that the general public and healthcare professionals understand that the current guidance stating that it is safe to participate in sexual activity is now supported by actual patient data thanks to this well-done study.