According to the findings of recent research that was just released, males in Japan who do not have any sexual attraction may have an elevated chance of passing away at an earlier age.
The specific association between mortality and libido is a topic that researchers will need to break out; nevertheless, the researchers suggest that a decreased sex desire might be a more prominent symptom of subtle underlying health difficulties.
The information was collected from 20,969 individuals in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, a mountainous area known for its hot springs, temples, and natural beauty. There were 8,558 male participants and 12,411 female participants in the study. The participants were at least 40 years old.
A group of scientists from Yamagata University examined the levels of sexual desire that were self-reported by the individuals in an initial questionnaire, as well as in a follow-up survey that was carried out many years later. In the period since the study began, 503 of the initial 20,969 participants had died.
According to the findings of the study, the risk of dying from cancer as well as dying from any cause was dramatically increased for males who reported having little sexual desire.
This link persisted even after the researchers accounted for other characteristics such as age, hypertension, diabetes, nicotine, alcohol use, body mass index (BMI), schooling, etc.
Despite the fact that engaging in sexual activity and experiencing sexual pleasure is thought to be beneficial to the mental health and overall welfare of older populations, the link between sexual desire and lifespan has not been examined. This is the first research of its kind to prospectively investigate links between sexual desire and all-cause mortality, as well as death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, in a community-based population.
According to the findings of the research, females are more prone to admit to a lack of sexual attraction than males are. In their sample, 16 percent of the female participants reported doing so, but just 8 percent of the male volunteers did so. The research, however, did not discover a substantial relationship between decreased libido and mortality in women, as it had in males, but it did detect such an association in men. Due to the fact that this was just observational research, it is impossible to determine which of the two factors was the cause and which was the effect. The researchers think that men’s unhealthy lives may be to blame for their lack of sexual attraction, and they indicate a relationship between the two.
The fact that a possible relationship like this has been uncovered at all is an essential step, according to the researchers who conducted the study. However, further research will be required to understand what is going on fully.
The research should also be interpreted with a number of crucial qualifications in mind. A first question on the first baseline questionnaire was used to establish whether or not a person had any sexual interest in individuals of the opposite sex. Even though everyone knows what the inquiry is asking, individuals who are attracted to an individual of the same sex are not included, which is something that the researchers admit.
There is a cause to mistrust at least some of those findings owing to the fact that the researchers asked just a limited number of questions, and they estimate that their sample may have had around 200 people who identify as LGBTQ. The authors of the study recommend that this factor be taken into consideration in any future studies.
Due to the fact that a baseline survey was not conducted on the participants, the new research did not make any adjustments for medically relevant components known to impact sexual performance and lifespan, as written by the authors of the study. These “medical relevant aspects” include neurological problems and drugs that the participants were taking.
Nevertheless, keeping one’s sexual attraction alive may very well result in beneficial impacts on one’s lifespan. The researchers conclude that older people in Japan should have a greater awareness of sexual desire as a determinant in public health, despite the limitations of the study.
