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Researchers in Italy examined monogamy among men and discovered an interesting correlation -- having an extramarital affair increases men’s risk of having a deadly heart attack.
It’s almost cliché: a middle-age man having sex with a woman who is not his wife keels over in flagrante delicto, what’s known as sudden coital death (oh yes, it has a medical name). But like some stereotypes, it appears to be based in truth, says Dr. Marc Gillinov, a heart surgeon at The Cleveland Clinic and co-author of the book "Heart 411," which looks at cases of sudden coital death, among other cardiac events. (Gillinov did not participate in this study.)
The researchers -- from the University of Florence -- examined the medical literature related to cheating by searching for “unfaithfulness,” “extramarital affairs,” “infidelity” and “men.” Reliable statistics about cheating are hard to find because most people claim to be morally opposed to cheating and don’t chat to scientists about it. The authors report that anywhere from 15 to 25 percent to as many as 30 to 50 percent of men cheat at least once in their lives. Then the researchers looked at a variety of physical and mental health factors and the rates they occur in both monogamous and un-monogamous men.
Doctors have long known that men live longer if they consistently have sex into old age, but knocking boots only provides a health boost if it occurs with the same partner in a familiar place. Sex into old age only helps if you’re doing it with your spouse. Sudden coital death occurs most frequently when a man engages in coitus with a woman who is not his long-term partner.
While scorned wives might believe these results make sense on a karmic level, the authors found them surprising. Generally, cheating men have better hormonal and vascular function, meaning they’re healthier than monogamous men (finally, a reason to be excited that your man is a couch potato).
But the authors believe that the act of trying to keep an affair secret might contribute to cheating men’s increased risk of a deadly heart attack.
“It’s the added stress of trying to have a secret affair,” says Gillinov. “You are doing things that you don’t normally do.”
Cheating men frequently have affairs with younger partners and these men feel they have to drink, smoke, and eat more to keep up with their mistresses. All this adds up to increased heart rate, blood pressure, and anxiety, which can contribute to a heart attack. Although, sex itself is no more strenuous than walking up a few flights of stairs.
“It’s also like there is a medical reason for fidelity,” Gillinov says.
The article appears online in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Related:
- The scent of a man? It could be an STD
- Are we wired to cheat?
- The economy may be killing your sex life
Leave a Comment:
They forgot one factor. The extra "heart attacks" were via knife, scissors, or whatever was handy at the time the wife walked in on them.
Dying wouldn't be so bad. My luck would be not to die .... then I'd have to spend the rest of my married life sleeping with a catcher's mask on.
LOL - good. The sluts get what they deserve for cheating on their wives. Too funny!
Could it possibly be because married men (and women) on average tend to let themselves go, and stop exercising, in comparison to their unmarried counterparts, resulting in a person who would be more prone to a heart attack when doing a 'strenuous activity' like sex? No, it couldn't be something as obvious as that.
Dr. Cat,
You're right on both counts: married men and women exercise less than their single counterparts, and it probably isn't something as obvious as that.
A study done in 2000 on more than 13,000 subjects showed the average amount of exercise per two-week period (hours:minutes) was
8:03 for single men 5:25 for single women
4:47 for married men 4:00 for married women
That does show that married men and women exercise less than their single counterparts. It also shows that men in both categories exercise more than their female counterparts, and yet women still outlive men, on average. So you might be implying a false causality. That would be akin to noting that in the summer months the consumption of ice cream increases and so does deaths by drowning and inferring that eating ice cream causes death by drowning.
This study and many more like them merely tend to make people truly concerned with their health, ambiguous towards health studies.
Cheating is not the cause of heart attacks stress is, and this particular form of stress is not what causes the heart attack. An underlying heart defect or pre-existing heart problem or cardiovascular woes are the troubles. Stress itself, whether exercising or work related, is not unhealthy. Its the amount of stress with the amount of irregularity (or rather the extent of constant stress without relief or relaxing from stress) that is the factor.
To judge what is heart attack related, we would be reading that CEO's have the highest rate of heart attacks in the nation. Yet good medical checkups and care are the reason they aren't, for stress is an everyday occurrence for them.
If you smoke allot, drink too much and cheat on your spouse, then yes you are at risk for a heart attack. Cheat on your spouse, exercise regularly and lead a healthy life style and this myth of a study is laid to rest.
If you're wise enough to not smoke, eat well and exercise regular, one would wonder why if all your other wisdom is prevalent, you'd be married to an incompatible spouse in the first place, for stress free relationships are ones where a good woman is by your side. Cheaters seldom lead healthy lifestyles out of shear ignorance of what is good for them.
Unwise people cheat, and unwise people seldom lead a good life with a good wife.
Also, as an added bit of wisdom, if wisdom has failed you and you DID cheat on your wife, don't confess to her that you had a serious loss of wisdom while you were smoking your lungs out, and getting drunk and thus led to an affair, while standing in the kitchen. You might consider doing so in the pool in the shallow end, where there are no sharp objects and she can't drown you either. Safe ground is wiser. Then get wise, don't ever cheat again and put your wisdom to good use by figuring out how to express your faithfulness to her for years to come. A woman CAN get too many roses, so open a credit account at her favorite fashion store and buy some worthy gifts from your local jeweler. It won't replace fidelity, but it can help soothe the pangs and put a smile on her face when she is feeling down. You might be prepared to afford the long protested interior decorating she has wanted. There's nothing that's too much for a loving wife that is forgiving you for the one most deceitful action your could perpetrate.
When you see your wife coming at you with an ax, you just might have a heart attack.
Ha ha. Good one.
Now this is a positive turn for social justice.
Too bad it's only "more likely". A$$holes really should be "most likely"!
Hiarious. Must be a woman or lovely lady running the MSNBC web site today.
I'm pretty sure, going by the consistent man-hating stories, that MSNBC is run by spiteful cows everyday.
What about women who cheat on husbands? Do they die too?
Psssttt, von, it's a medical story on the medical page of the weekend site. With a dash of humor.
Your funny bone is obviously broken. Might wanna look into that. Along with prick-ly rash. :)
Good.
I drive way too fast to worry about my heart...
I guess its fun to wrap this in a "relationship" story. But I'll be hard earned CASH that people who are habitual liars and have to conceal their lie on a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute basis, suffer from a level of anxiety and stress that could, well, cause a heart attack. Just my guess. The sociopaths are fine, I'm talking about the sneaky folks who find something to lie about most of the time. IF those people had to live with the person they were always lying to, their stress SHOULD kill them.. LOL
Three words you hate to hear while you're making love:
"Honey, I'm home."
Why? Ricci's right. The anxiety and stress of cheating is what makes karma bite so hard.
A heart attack would be welcome relief compared to what I would do to my husband if I caught him cheating!
Yep, sounds like you could be a real pecker wrecker.
Ooh, tell me, tell me! Don't leave out anything! Wait, I gotta get "comfortable". There much better, Okay, you can start.....
I'm thinking she'll use a car battery, a fishing hook, a gun, jumper cables, duct tape and a well thought out no flawed alibi. Am I wrong. (and not one of those small fishing hooks the one you seen in I Know What You Did Last Summer)
Am I supposed to be sorry for these guys, just don't hold your breathe.
TheWhiteJudge -
Wait! No, don't stop now! OMG, I was so close!
Normally, this costs me $4.95/min and they want a credit card so keep it going!
A car, some rope, some live electrical cords, the same knife they used to kill Gaddafi's (same way to kill your husband if you want. Right up the ass.), About four maybe five cinder blocks and a big ass river. I'm all out of ideas now hunny. Sorry
TheWhiteJudge
Perfect just Perfect
TheWhiteJudge and AtomAnt: There's no need to be so elaborate! Some super glue to the ____, attaching it to the stomach, while the adulterous man is sleeping, will suffice. Come morning time, when he wakes up to the normal happenings of his body, he will rather be dead...
Nothing as sadistic as some embittered hick trash broad.
COmommy -
Super glue his tallywacker (Thank you Porkys) to his stomach! Oh Thank God, I'm safe then.
Actually, the mind picture you paint with your description opens up a whole new avenue of jokes - "Finally we see eye to eye" Or "Is that what you look like? Christ you got ugly as you got older! Or "I wonder if my pants will cover this" Or "Hey guys look I gotta built in towel hanger!" Or .....
You got me with the towel hanger, woooooo!
Thank you AtomAnt. And All that came from a guy. People say the gay communitie doesn't have any violence but we do have idiots who cheat on us.
Community* Oh and do remember I hold no liability for anyone who gets arrested for using my methods. (someone want to tell me if I misspelled anything my spellcheckisbroken. [Who likes my username pun?])
I do remember a story about rope around the privates, a brick tied to the rope and it being thrown out a second or third story window.
How about the one about the wife stitching her husband into the sheets and then boiling water and dumping it on his private parts.
I hope it's not true, but the rumor going around when my ex-husband was stationed on a Marine base, was:
A woman acted like she wanted to have sex with her hubby, was kinky and tied him up. Then lubed up a curling iron, stuck it where the sun doesn't shine and then plugged it in and left him there.
Oww!
Amanda it's no rumor. I wish it were but it's not.
If your 55 , overwieght and you are in a marathon with a 25 year old your either going to give up , run out of gas , or drop dead of a heart attack. If your 55 and in bed with a beautiful 25 year old same thing. Sometimes things are worth dying for though.
Well, at least with the beautiful 25 year old, you'll have the feeling of coming and going at the same time!
And if you're a 25 year old woman in bed with a 55 year old married man you need go to therapy, get over your daddy issues and date people your own age.
practicesayingidontknow-
Well said!
practicesayingidontknow/tracyisright
Not if the 55 year old married mad is worth a bundle and has a bad heart. You just spilt the "rewards" with the wife.
I'm 50 and just bedded a 26 yr old and she was the one who was out of breathe and extremely satisfied.
I feel fine and looking for the next encounter.
worn out: as long as you're not married, then whatever floats your boat... If you're married, well, I have no pleasant words.
worn out -
Have any videos, pics, audio? I'm running out of product.
COmommy, I am divorced after 19 yrs, Wife cheated on me and kicked her to the curb. So don't judge me.
I pay no child support or receive any(kids live with me) I pay no alimony, I own my house and land. All she got was her stuff and a 12 yr old van. GOOD RIDDANCE. Where I live it's always the women who cheat. TO Atomn t sorry
PS: My boat is floating fine with a good strong mast. FYI
worn out: That was my point... you are NOT married so I have nothing to say, I'm not judging you; if you WERE married, I would view you the same way that you view your ex-wife. I'm very sorry that happened to you. My second husband is an amazing person, but my first husband thought he was God's gift to women and there was no such thing as fidelity. I would never wish the emotions I experienced as a result of his betrayal(s) on my worst enemy, nor would I ever do that to someone else. I understand that men and women alike can cheat, I was just hoping, based on your first comment, that you were not one of the cheaters. That's all.
worn out
Quit bragging. Everyone knows those obese 26 year olds are easy to catch since they can't run very fast. That's why she was out of breath.
Since half the women in this country are obese, your ship may have come in.
That's a happy thought!
you may survive a heart attack, but you own't survive the angry wife!
I used to kid my wife by saying when she hit 40 I would trade her in for 2 20s. She said, "trust me, you're not wired for 220!" I always figured she had a point.
Funny stuff, Jerry.
Funniest thing I've heard all day!
Wife to Coroner - Doc, can you tell me what killed my husband?
Coroner to Wife - No, but we can't seem to get that smile off his face!
Good!
Hahahahahahahaha..............................................
Well, I HAVE had three, but not dead yet LOL
Ed - Do you have any videos? Pics? Audio? I am running out of product.
Was that three heart attacks or affairs?
Must be a bitter ugly MSN skank that came up with this nonsense. Too funny.
Brock Spencer
Now, you are not being PC here. We don't call them bitter ugly skanks anymore - We call them distressed visually challenged women who have temporarily lost their way.
"Men who cheat on their wives more likely to die of a heart attack"
Not reliably
Bad boy Ed !!!!! Your'll be sorry
Let's hear it for honest, faithful, loyal men -- who never had an opportunity to cheat. :)
Silence (crickets chirping) more silence
If they never had an opportunity, how do you know they're faithful?
I was honestand faithful in my marriage.
this sure gives a new meaning to " was it worth it"
Yes!
The dead guy with the smile on his face must've thought it was at the time. What a way to go!
Hmm....now this sounds like an opportunity. The more men that have the big one, the better the F/M ratio becomes for men. Hell, if this continues, we'll have a new one every day 365yr. In America, this would be a piece of cake!!!
I'm surprised everyone in Congress is still alive. Even Bill Clinton had bypass surgery; he made it.
Women who cheat on their husbands more likely to die of lead poisoning!!!!!!..............
One bullet at a time!!!!!!!
Ammo is cheap! A lot cheaper than a divorce.
Great! Maybe my hopes for my ex will come true!!
This is amazing. I share the same response that it is a women that is writting this article. Let me be honest, this is up to the individual. People who cheat are insecure and in fact the number of women that have extra marital affairs is rising. To single out a singel sex or group is just a generalization.
Sometimes people who cheat aren't insecure. Sometimes they are just blank eyed immature skeezers I never should have married in the first place.
This is too funny! See, there are consequences for your actions.
How about let's hear it for the ones that had PLENTY of opportunity and still remained faithful.......like me.
Silence (crickets chirping) more silence
David Your wife is not reading this thread, so now u can be honest, what really happened?
Moron alert.
David: Thank you for proving to me that there is hope for men yet!
MrShin -
I had to pick being labeled a moron or the mean spirited prick your posts make you out to be - I'd pick the moron. At least I can get better. You? Forget it. Oh BTW BIOYA!
You know, there really are men..and women..who don't cheat and have had plenty of opportunity. Really...geez.