Having Sex Helps You Live Longer?

Past research on aging had shown that sexual reproduction and the gymnastics that went with it was usually biologically costly and decreased lifespan. But a new study by researchers Philip Dammann and Hynek Burda from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany has shown that in fact the opposite may be true in species with a backbone or spinal column.

The authors studied Zambian mole-rats and analyzed breeding data gathered over more than 20 years. Besides looking like a mix between a rabbits and rats, Zambian mole-rats are a little different in that they live in family groups with one breeding pair and the offspring living with their parents for their entire lives as helpers. But what makes them different is while the breeding pair is sexually active throughout the year, the helpers are totally inactive.

Using this uniqueness, the researchers compared the long-term survival of breeders and non-breeders. What they found was that the the sexually active mole-rats lived extraordinarily long (up to 20 years) and on average about twice as long as their non-breeding counterparts.

To solidify their claim, they were also able to show that this was not caused by differences in biology, social rank, or workload between the two.

These results were a little unexpected for the researchers given past studies but it does shed some interesting new light on the old question of the connection between sexual activity and aging. And with results like these, who can complain?

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