Alternative Health Blog

In some ways, staying younger longer is all about feeling younger longer. You know, a perception is greater than reality scenario.

Rock star John Mayer sings in one of his hits, you can’t stop this train of growing older. And, seeking advice of his dad in the song, he hears that “you turn 68, you re-negotiate.”

Mayer has a telling line in the lyrics: He sings “I’m only good at being young.”

Part of being young and staying young, in all of our minds, is a healthy sexual/sensual life. It means different things to different people—and, trust me, the Alternative Health Blog is not looking to define any terms here. But there is no debate that feeling sexually energetic and sensually alive is part of feeling young.

So when the University of Chicago published its 2007 study showing that Americans in their 60s, 70s and 80s did not forego sex because they were too old, you realize staying younger longer is in part a choice we make. The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is considered the first comprehensive analysis of the sex lives of older Americans.

Lead researcher and gynecologist Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau explained that approaching the formerly taboo subject of sex among older adults provided a loud and clear message that age alone is no block to lovemaking.

One block is poor health, not to be confused with age. Eight of 10 healthy men between 57 and 85 years old said they had been sexually active in the past year, compared to 47 percent of men in poor health. Half of all healthy women in the same age range reported sexual activity, in contrast to just a quarter of women in poor health.

Contrary to myth, women are not less sexually active because menopause dulls the libido. Other studies have refuted that myth. The primary reason why the healthy women’s percentage is lower? They outlive their partners. Plus, some sociology researchers have published studies noting that a certain number of U.S. women 65 and older say they believe sexual activity is no longer age-appropriate, while men don’t tend to hold that view.

Yet a significant number of older Americans, men and women are thinking and acting younger in terms of a sex life. And that should be encouraging to all of us.

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.