According to researchers at the University of Michigan, sexual frustration can lead to physiological changes and a shorter life span – for fruit flies, at least.
In the latest study published in the journal of Science, sexual frustrations shorten the lifespans of fruit flies. The study shows that male fruit flies that received sexual signals from females but didn’t actually mate, experienced decreases in fat storage and more stress.
Male or female, doesn’t that sound all too familiar?
The male fruit flies were also found to be less resistant to starvation and had shorter life spans. When male fruit flies were allowed to mate, those same physiological dynamics were partially reversed, leading to longer lifespans.
If you’re starting to wonder what fruit flies have to do with humans, you should know that fruit flies have been studied to explain numerous human conditions for decades now. Findings about what affects the fruit flies’ lifespans have proven to be true in other animal studies, including mice. All this valuable data provides a deeper understanding about the factors affecting human lifespans.
Furthermore, about 75% of human diseases have a comparable match in the genome of fruit flies, which makes the insects useful genetic models for studying diseases including Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s.
Scott D. Pletcher, Ph.D, senior author of the study and professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the U-M Medical School, says that the cutting-edge genetics and neurobiology used in this research suggests that for fruit flies at least, it may not be a myth and sexual frustration is indeed a health issue. “Expecting sex without any sexual reward was detrimental to their health and cut their lives short,” he said.
Pletcher also added that sexual rewards specifically promoted healthy aging.
So much ponder at with this new study, don’t you think?
