Monday 6 October, 2008Got stage fright? Get busy!

Have to make a speech? Got a job interview coming up? Pre-performance jitters make an anxious situation even worse. But instead of imagining your audience in their underwear, try taking that trick a few moves further. Turns out that having sex is an excellent way to calm your nerves.

A psychologist in Scotland studied nearly 50 men and women to find out how they responded to acute stress. Turns out that subjects who indulged in a regular roll in the hay were the least stressed. After an anxiety-provoking event, their blood pressure returned to normal more quickly than it did for those who went in for "other" kinds of sex. People that avoided sex altogether reacted to stress with the highest blood pressure.

Better yet, the relaxing effect of sex isn't due just to the short-term relief of orgasm, but evidently lasts for at least a week.

The only downside is that, although heightened stress seems to pump men up for sex (unless it's about money), it tends to dampen desire in women.