To celebrate Valentine's Day the Federation Française de Cardiologie has voiced the many physical virtues that arise from making love, apart from the obvious, of course.

Sex not only helps to relax love-makers and work as an anti-depressant by encouraging the production of pleasure hormones, there are also multiple benefits to cardio-vascular health, the cardiologists have said.

According to the French heart experts, “sexual activity requires a physical effort of a moderate intensity, which is comparable to climbing two flights of stairs at a brisk pace”.

So every time you faire l'amour it “helps eliminate toxins, increases the heart rate, helps blood circulation and strengthens the muscles in the heart,” the doctors say.

The cardiologists even encourage French people suffering with heart problems to make more love and assure that they “can generally maintain regular sexual activity and will benefit from its protective effect on the heart.”

In the same way a healthy sex life leads to a healthy heart, the federation stresses that those men who can’t make love because of erectile dysfunction should get to a doctor, as impotence is a sign of impending heart problems. 

So there you have it. Get climbing those stairs.

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