A doctor on TikTok has argued that having sex can help stop you from getting ill, saying it can improve your immune system by as much as 30 percent.
Dr Faith Coats (@faithfuldoc) shared a video on the platform to her 618,000 followers, saying: "More doctors should recommend it."
Advert
Coats had posed a question about the role that orgasms and feeling aroused can play in your general health.
She said: "True or false: arousal and orgasm help you not get sick?"
In response, Coats claimed the idea was actually true, explaining: "True! 'Getting down' 1-2 times a week improves your immune system by 30%.
"Tell them it's doctor's orders."
It's probably worth bearing in mind that short TikTok videos aren't usually able to offer up the same levels of detail as, say, an in-depth scientific paper, but this certainly sounds like the sort of medical advice many of you will at least hope is legit.
Advert
Plus a little digging online suggests it's not just Dr Coats who believes in the power of sex.
A 1999 article from NewScientist outlined a study from psychologists in Pennsylvania, which showed that 'people who have sex once or twice a week get a boost in their immune systems'.
Experts were able to evaluate the strength of immune systems by measuring levels of immunoglobulin A (IgA) - an antigen found in saliva and mucosal linings - which Carl Charnetski, of
Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, said is 'the first line of defense against colds and flu'.
Charnetski and his colleague Frank Brennan asked 111 Wilkes undergraduates aged 16 to 23 how frequently they'd had sex over the previous month.
Advert
They measured levels of IgA in the volunteers' saliva, with the results showing that those who had sex less than once a week had a tiny increase in IgA over those who had abstained completely.
Those who had one or two weekly sexual encounters, meanwhile, had a 30 percent rise in levels of the antigen.
Clifford Lowell, an immunologist at the University of California at San Francisco, said the high level of IgA in volunteers who had moderately frequent sex was easy to understand.
Advert
"Sexually active people may be exposed to many more infectious agents than sexually non-active people," Lowell said.
"The immune system would respond to these foreign antigens by producing and releasing more IgA."
However, the study found that people who had frequent sex - three times a week or more - had lower IgA levels than the abstainers, so it looks like it's a bit of a fine balance.
Charnetski said: "My feeling is that the people in the very-frequent-sex group may be in obsessive or poor relationships that are causing them a lot of anxiety.
Advert
"We know that stress and anxiety make IgA go down."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: World News, News, Sex, Health, tiktok