Sexual healing

Anticipation is fraught with danger. Look at the emotional carnage that ripples through homes around the world on 25th December as little tykes find themselves without the latest Temple Blast computer game instead having been gifted a box-set of the complete works of Dickens. While yuletide anticipation is particularly acute it is probably overshadowed by sexual anticipation and frustrated sexual expectation is all too well documented being a dark night of the soul. What is more, a new study has found that while sexual gratification can promote healthy ageing, sexual frustration can have negative health effects.

The new study was conducted using fruit flies so before delving into what the research found, it is worthwhile considering why we pay any attention to research done on organisms that don’t appear to have a lot to do with humans. For a start, fruit flies share 75 per cent of the genes that cause disease with humans, so scientists can learn about human genetics by studying fruit fly genetics. Fruit flies are great to work with in a research setting because they are relatively easy to take care of, especially compared to larger and more expensive organisms like rats or fish. They are also small (only a few millimetres long) but not so small that they can\’t be seen without a microscope. This allows researches to keep millions of them at one time. They also only live for about two weeks meaning you can study multiple generations in a short time frame. Essentially, fruit flies are similar enough to humans to be useful and they don\’t ask for much.

So in this study the researchers exposed male fruit flies to pheromones from female fruit flies. This made the male fruit flies expect some sexual interaction but instead of female fruit flies they were only exposed to male fruit flies. The result was some embarrassing moments and more importantly decreased fat stores, increased stress, and shorter lives.

By contrast, fruit flies who were allowed sexual gratification lived much longer lives and aged better.

It must be said that most (emphasis on the “most”) humans have a higher and more complex sexuality than your average fruit fly. What this suggests is that for a long life you either need to be having healthy sexual gratification or at least managing your expectations.