Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCPPresident at Five Journeys, Functional Medicine & Wellness Provider, Best Selling Author, Passionate Champion for Health

How a Healthy Sex Life Can Help You Live Longer

25 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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1:21

Short transcript excerpt from a talk about how sexual activity (and related behaviors) raise oxytocin—far more with orgasm than with hugging—and how oxytocin produces physiological effects (increased nitric oxide synthase, vasodilation and lower blood pressure, cardioprotective effects, anti-inflammatory effects, reduced anxiety/depression, and resetting the HPA axis). The speaker links these effects to improved health and potentially increased longevity.

Chapters

Talk to me about the relationship between healthy sex and longevity. So some people know oxytocin as like, oh, the cuddle hormone. Hugs will increase oxytocin in the blood 20 to 50%. Orgasms will increase oxytocin in the blood 200 to 500%. Way more efficient. Oxytocin we see it do, it does so many different things. It has a cardiovascular protective effect. So it increases something in our body called nitric oxide synthase, which is the enzyme that makes more nitric oxide, which then leads to our blood vessels dilating. And so it leads to this lowering of blood pressure. We see it has like a cardio protective effect on the heart muscle itself. And the cells of the heart. We see that has an anti inflammatory effect. We see that has an anti anxiolytic. So it lowers anxiety, it lowers depression. It actually resets and can help to reset the HPA axis. So people are, you know, using all the buzzwords around adrenal fatigue and cortisol problems, you know, cortisol imbalances, oxytocin can really reset that. So as we, you know, we change all of these, these things that are associated with more disease and the body not functioning as well, and we use oxytocin to bring some of those things back in balance. It's easy to see, like how this can be related to longevity and health.