Fun_People Archive
2 Dec
Don't worry, be happy.

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon,  2 Dec 96 11:40:43 -0800
To: Fun_People
Subject: Don't worry, be happy.

Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bsdi.com>
Forwarded-by: jim@hosaka.SmallWorks.COM (Jim Thompson)
Forwarded-by: jes@boggle.demon.co.uk (Jes Wills)

International News
Friday 29 November 1996                           Issue 555

Sex 'can ward off stomach ulcers'
-- by Bruce Johnston in Rome

SEX can help prevent a stomach ulcer, providing it is with a regular
partner, an Italian medical congress of specialists in digestive illnesses
was told.

Prof Romano Carratu, president of the scientific committee of the congress
in Naples, listed regular sexual relations with the same partner as the
second most important preventive measure against ulcers after that of having
at least three square meals a day. Other preventive measures included not
smoking, getting a good night's sleep of seven or eight hours, and
practising a non-athletic sport.

Casual sex, the congress was told, was likely to cause stress and
indigestion. The risk is even worse if sexual activity occurs within two
hours of mealtimes. More innocent relationships also carried risks, Prof
Carratu, professor of gastro-enterology at the University of Naples, said.

This was because the bacteria responsible for stomach, duodenum and peptic
ulcers, were transmitted via saliva, and hence, kissing.

But while about half of all people carried the bacteria, not all were
affected by it. "What is really important is other triggering events," Prof
Carratu said.

Sexual activity, providing it was not too physically taxing, came second in
the list of advice on how to avoid an ulcer, only if it did not act "as a
stress factor".  Sex caused stress when it created "expectations of
performance", as with a casual lover, while a regular partner "creates
little stress, and gives tranquillity".

© 1996 Peter Langston