I’m not surprised but it’s nice to have the numbers to back it up:

There’s new advice for older men who want to preserve their sexual function: have sex, and have it often, researchers say.

In a study that followed nearly 1,000 older Finnish men for five years, researchers found that those who were regularly having sex at the start of the study were at lower risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by the study’s end.

In fact, the more often the men had sex, the lower their ED risk.

The implication, say the researchers, is that men should be encouraged to stay sexually active into their golden years.

Dr. Juha Koskimaki and colleagues at the University of Tampere in Finland report the findings in the American Journal of Medicine. The study included 989 men who were between the ages of 55 and 75 at the outset.

Overall, those who said they had sex less than once per week were twice as likely to develop ED over the next five years as men who had sex at least once a week. Furthermore, compared with men who had sex three or more times per week, their ED risk was increased nearly four-fold.

This reminds me. At the reunion our classmate Les Schillings asked me how Barb managed to stay so young looking. I told him, “lots of sex” and you should have seen Barb blush as she explained “Joe’s cure for everything.” A half hour later or so John Anderson asked Barb how she managed to stay so young and she asked me to tell him. John responded with, “That doesn’t seem to be working for me. Maybe I need to be having sex with your wife.” I said that could be true and got a fresh blush out of Barb. I should have asked if he thought I could rent her out.