Researchers reveal 3% of women suffer from extreme sexual addiction
APPLES are often said to be healthy snack and a good low-calorie food – but could they also be a promising aphrodisiac? That is the case according to a study that says the fruit can boost sexual pleasure in women.
The researchers found a link between enhanced sexual function in healthy women and regular daily apple use.
An apple a day could stop you having a heart attack – and may even be as effective as taking a statin, claim Oxford University researchers. They say healthy over-50s who add a daily apple to their diet can benefit as much as those who start taking a tablet.
Their study goes some way to proving the proverb coined by the Victorians: ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’
The scientists’ calculations suggest that prescribing an apple a day to everyone aged 50 and over would prevent or delay around 8,500 heart attacks and strokes a year in the United Kingdom (UK).
The health benefits are similar to giving statins to everyone over 50 who is not already taking cholesterol-lowering drugs.
In the study published in Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics they analysed 731 healthy Italian women aged 18 to 43.
All of the participants were asked to report on their daily apple consumption and their eating habits. They were then split into two groups, one that ate apples regularly – more than one a day – and another that ate less than one a day.
The participants were then also asked to fill out the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). The FSFI required them to answer 19 questions about their sexual activities including frequency and overall satisfaction, reports Huffington Post.
It was found that eating an apple a day was linked with higher FSFI scores, suggesting it increased their sexual pleasure. Eating more apples apparently increased their lubrication and sexual function, enhancing the experience according to the study.
The researchers think the reason for this may be because apples contain phloridzin. This is a compound that is quite similar to the female sex hormone called estradiol, which plays a large role in sexual arousal.
“This study suggests a potential relationship between regular daily apple consumption and better sexuality in our young women population,” the researchers conclude.
Also, the first major study on women who have sex so often it impacts their life have found that three per cent of women are ‘hypersexual’.
German researchers found problems may be linked to high rates of masturbation and pornography use.
The researchers in the study published in Journal of Sexual Medicine called for more research into the issue – and recommended those who suffer to get therapy.
Researchers called for more research into the issue – and recommended those who suffer to get therapy.
The researchers asked almost 1,000 women in Germany how much they masturbated or watched porn, and how many sexual partners they had. Most of the women surveyed were college students.
The participants answered questions called Hypersexual Behavior Inventory, which includes 19 questions about how often a person uses sex to cope with emotional problems, whether engaging in sexual activity is outside one’s control and whether this sexual activity interferes with one’s work or school.
The researchers asked almost 1,000 women in Germany how much they masturbated or watched porn, and how many sexual partners they had.
The researchers, led by Verena Klein, wrote in the Journal of Sexual Medicine: “Masturbation frequency, pornography use, and the number of sexual partners were associated with higher degrees in hypersexuality measured by the HBI.
“Especially the frequency of impersonal sexual activity was a stronger predictor for hypersexual behavior compared to the number of sexual partners in logistic regression analysis.”
The researchers said it had previously though women with the condition only used passive forms of behaviour.
“The results of the current study do not support the idea of previous research that hypersexual women are typically engaged in more passive forms of sexual behavior, and contradict the assumption that hypersexual women only use sexual behavior to control and influence interpersonal relationships,” the authors wrote in the study.
The team say it is not clear if hypersexuality in women differs from men, as most studies on hypersexuality have been done on men.
The study found that hypersexual behaviors in women mirrored those found in hypersexual men. Such behaviors include pornography dependence, excessive masturbation, and promiscuity. The study also found that hypersexual women tend to be bisexual.
Most hypersexual men tend to me heterosexual. “It is still a challenge for researchers to identify individuals who may require treatment, without falsely stigmatizing others and their ‘normal’ or nonpathological sexual behavior,” the researchers said.
The problem is not yet recognised, although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) includes an entry called Sexual Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (Sexual Disorder NOS).
This applies to, among other conditions, “distress about a pattern of repeated sexual relationships involving a succession of lovers who are experienced by the individual only as things to be used.
Story from the Nigerian Guardian
