Three reasons why you should be having more orgasms

The physical and emotional benefits of orgasms are undeniable — but did you know sexual arousal has a number of health benefits too? 

Studies have found that toe-curling feeling can relieve stress, pain, insomnia and a number of other woes. Renee Jacques of HuffingtonPost.com is expanding your knowledge about the “big O" with these surprising facts:

An orgasm could help men get over their colds faster.

Forget the apple — could an orgasm a day keep the doctor away? A study conducted by the University Clinic of Essen, Germany found that even your immune system can be activated by sexual arousal.

Researchers studied 11 men who volunteered to masturbate until orgasm, while continuously having their blood drawn throughout the process. The findings revealed that orgasms increased the number of natural "killer" cells called leukocytes in the subjects’ peripheral blood. In other words, a quickie could help your man fight off that bug sooner.

A man's orgasm could make a woman less depressed.

Did you know semen is a natural antidepressant? A study of 293 college students in relationships at the State University of New York at Albany found that women who had unprotected sex showed significantly fewer signs of depression than their (arguably) more responsible counterparts.

Gordon Gallup, lead psychologist of the 2002 study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior journal, discovered that semen carries several mood-enhancing hormones including estrone, oxytocin, cortisol and melatonin. During unprotected sex, researchers found that the vagina can absorb those components, which were detected in women’s bloodstreams within only a few hours of ejaculation.

They just get better as you age.

There are plenty of things to worry about as you age but your sex life shouldn’t be one of them. A 2008 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that more than half of those over age 50 and a quarter of those 75 to 85 were still sexually active. Yet, those numbers seem awfully low when you consider a study published in The American Journal of Medicine that found sexual satisfaction in women increases with age.

Researchers measured the sexual activity of 806 women living in a community home, who had a median age of 67 and were all postmenopausal. “The findings reported that sexually satisfaction actually increased with age, with approximately half of the women over 80 years old reporting sexual satisfaction almost always or always,” writes Jacques. Yes, you read that right — at least there’s one upside to growing old!