How Important Do You Think Sex Is To Your Overall Health?

So you know that there are health benefits to having sex: it's a stress reliever, the hormone release helps ease your body's aches and pains, it boosts your immune system, and, depending how you do it, it can burn anywhere from 85 to 250 calories. 

And here's a new one...

Research by the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland has shown that women who have sex four times a week can look 7 to 12 years younger--apparently, sex helps boost skin's production of vitamin D, and estrogen (which is released in higher amounts during sex) can make your skin smoother and hair shinier.

So it's interesting to see that, according to the WomenTALK 2011 Survey, commissioned by Healthy Women, only 42 percent of women rate sex as "very or extremely important" to their overall health. In an email, I asked Naomi Greenblatt, M.D., medical director of The Rocking Chair LLC in Englewood, N.J., what that meant. Here's what she had to say:
"Women are not having as much sex, and when they do, it is often obligatory because they are not prioritizing it. There are only 24 hours in a day and women have a lot to fit in during that time. Unfortunately, the benefits of sex are either not something women are aware of, or not valued enough."
Dr. Greenblatt also says that women also "juggle their many roles all day, and unless they consciously make an effort to disconnect from the day-to-day stress and feel romantic, it may not naturally occur."