Podcast 472: How sex can improve your mind

CLEANING UP YOUR MENTAL MESS with Dr. Caroline Leaf

Dr. Caroline Leaf

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Download my new and improved brain detox app here: https://neurocycle.app

SHOW DESCRIPTION: In this podcast I talk about relationships, communication, sex, and the mind. This is part 1 of a 3-part series. High-quality intimate relationships are good for our health—we all know this! But did you know that sexual intimacy is also good for us? I recently interviewed Dr. Elissa Epel about her work with telomeres and stress, and she mentioned that one of her most interesting and popular studies, published in 2017, was on a correlation she and her team found between longevity and safe and consensual sex. In this study, Dr. Epel and her team observed that couples that are more sexually intimate have longer telomeres, which contribute to our cellular health and longevity.

Read the blog here: https://drleaf.com/blogs/news/how-sex-can-improve-your-mind

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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

0:37 The science behind relationships & the mind

5:48 Sex, relationships & longevity

9:10 How improving our relationships can improve our health

10:33 Why communication is so important in a relationship

11:22, 18:28 Ways to improve your communication so you feel supported in a relationship

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

-Get my new book Cleaning up Your Mental Mess here: https://www.cleaningupyourmentalmess.com

-Get a free Cleaning up Your Mental Mess workbook when you subscribe to my weekly email at drleaf.com!

- Visit my website at https://drleaf.com for more free resources

-Instagram: @drcarolineleaf: https://www.instagram.com/drcarolineleaf/-

-Facebook: Dr. Caroline Leaf: https://www.facebook.com/drleaf

-Twitter: @drcarolineleaf: https://twitter.com/DrCarolineLeaf

-Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/drcarolineleaf

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast and blog are for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. We always encourage each person to make the decision that seems best for their situation with the guidance of a medical professional.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Dr Caroline Leif and welcome to my podcast, Cleaning Up the Mental Mace.
0:10.1	In today's podcast, I'm going to be talking about love, sex, relationships and our brain,
0:17.2	specifically how intimate relationships can actually help improve our telomeres, which
0:23.5	are the ends of chromosomes.
0:29.1	You may have heard me talking about this quite often.
0:31.6	I've done research on this and I recently interviewed Dr Elisa Eppel, who's one of the leaders
0:36.7	in the world when it comes to research on telomeres and chronic stress.
0:42.9	And so basically you've got your chromosomes and your chromosomes look like little exes
0:47.7	and where you see my nails.
0:49.6	Those would be considered telomeres.
0:51.0	So I'm just using the analogy.
0:53.3	So it's the ends of a chromosome and they basically protect the chromosome.
0:57.9	And what they do is as the cell divides, so the telomeres are involved in that process
1:03.5	and then they shorten and then regrow and they shorten and regrow and all kinds of factors
1:08.3	are involved like telomeres, which is an enzyme to help that process.
1:12.4	And it's a whole complicated biochemical process.
1:15.0	But what the research is showing is that chronic unmanaged stress, which is long-term, toxic
1:21.8	unmanaged stress, is a fixed-haar telomeres, the length and the health of our telomeres,
1:27.9	and that works with our immune system and it works with the mitochondria, which are the powerhouses
1:32.2	of the cell.
1:33.2	And altogether with a bunch of other biochemical reactions in the brain and the body, and
1:38.6	that then influences and increases or decreases our vulnerability to aging in terms of biological
	...

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