Antique valentine (source: Wikipedia)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Sex and the threatened male heart are increasingly being studied, but more could be done to see the impact of sex on the hearts of women with heart conditions and the elderly, according to the American Heart Association. The group says in a statement 8 February that according to a new scientific statement with recommendations by heart specialists “it is probably safe to have sex if your cardiovascular disease has stabilized”.
The AHA notes that cardiovascular events “such as heart attacks or chest pain caused by heart disease—rarely occur during sexual activity, because sexual activity is usually for a short time. ‘Some patients will postpone sexual activity when it is actually relatively safe for them to engage in it,’” according to Dr Glenn Levine, director of the Cardiac Care Unit at the Michael E DeBakey Medical Center in Houston. “‘On the other hand, there are some patients for whom it may be reasonable to defer sexual activity until they’re assessed and stabilized.’”
News agency AP noted in an article related to the study led by Levine, which was published in January, that “surprisingly, despite the higher risk for a heart patient to have a second attack, there’s no evidence that they have more sex-related heart attacks than people without cardiac disease.”
The UK’s Telegraph, reporting on the US report, says “American researchers who carried out the investigation are calling for doctors to screen men for sexual activity when assessing their risk of heart disease. Every year, around 270,000 people in Britain suffer a heart attack, and coronary disease remains Britain’s biggest killer.”
The Circulation article is available in full online (Levine, Circulation, pdf)
