Ugh oh… “Could too little sex lead to dementia?” (In men!!)

Real research. Not a joke. 

Falling levels of sexual satisfaction in middle age, and rising incidence of erectile dysfunction, could be risk factors for age-related memory decline and ultimately for dementia in men, according to a new scientific research.

In the study about sexual satisfaction, researchers at San Diego State University, Penna State, the University of California San Diego and Boston University tracked more than 800 men aged 56 to 68 over a 12-year period. 

Their conclusion: that those who reported declining satisfaction with their sex lives over the 12-year period also performed worse on average in a variety of standardized memory tests. Those for whom erectile dysfunction was more common also tended to perform worse on memory tests, as did those who saw their incidence of ED increase over the course of the study.

“Decreases in erectile function and sexual satisfaction were both associated with memory decline,” the researchers write in the latest issue of the medical journal the Gerontologist. “Decreasing sexual health may signal an increased risk for cognitive decline.”

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More sex may not ward off dementia. But better safe than sorry, right?