When a man and a woman love each other very much, they want to be as close to each other as possible. Yep, when I was a naive young lad I read the basic sex intro book Where Did I Come From? too. I remember this widely read literary classic made the act of sex seem so easy - as it should be.

However, if memory serves me correctly, at no point in the whole book was it mentioned that the designated dad-to-be had a strong possibility of the associated blood lipid abnormalities, peripheral microvascular changes and waning testosterone level associated with the blood sugar problems that can often effectively stop things from going much further than a cuddle. As I recall, the romantic fellow in the book was a fuller figured fellow with the greatly increased girth which strongly suggests that diabetes may well be sneaking up on him - bringing with it the curse of erectile dysfunction, or impotence.

Well, I read the book thoroughly, and for those of you who didn't, I can assure you that the cuddly couple did get it on and managed to successfully carry on their genetic legacy. However, given that 50 per cent of all diabetic men over 50 suffer from impotence, let's hope that the little progeny got dad out kicking the footy for an hour a day to help chip away at his spare tyre.

Regular and reasonably vigorous exercise does seem to play a huge role in most cases of impotence, with research having shown that as little as a half an hour of cardiovascular exercise a day can significantly improve a male's sex drive, ability to achieve and maintain erection, the quality or firmness of his erection and his ability to orgasm.

A nice side effect of exercise is that fit people tend to be rated as more sexually attractive and thus more likely to get sex. By the way, sex can be a pretty good form of exercise in itself, rapidly increasing the heart rate and burning a good amount of calories with each session. Another bonus of more sex is that frequent ejaculation also seems to reduce your risk of developing prostate cancer in later life.

The reason that exercise is so helpful for a male's sex life is that it can raise his testosterone level, help him de-stress, increase fitness and thus energy levels and, most importantly, improve the health of his peripheral circulatory system. Reduced penile circulation is the most common cause of impotence, with contributing factors ranging from smoking (a well known enemy of the circulatory system), alcoholism, diabetes and several nutritional deficiencies. All of these are able to damage penile arteries, reducing the likelihood of attaining an effective erection.

But even the non smoking, healthy weighted, moderate drinking, blood sugar stable exercisers may still find it a bit difficult to get busy on the night shift, often simply due to a demanding work schedule.

These days people seem to have the potential to earn more money via less work, and yet they often simply see the "more money" scenario and so they choose to work more, often sacrificing quality of life in chasing the dollars. Work can sap your sex life both by taking up your time and by raising your stress level. Stress has a significant impact upon the sex drive by disturbing the body's stress response hormones putting the body into a sustained 'fight or flight' response mode, effectively making you more likely to feel jumpy than sexy. The remedy for this is usually quite simple - regular time out from work and incorporating some relaxation techniques such as meditation, yoga or Tai Chi into your schedule.

Essentially, a poor sex life may act as a marker for some other important aspects of your health such as cardiovascular disease, or perhaps a tap on the shoulder to say you are working too hard and need to slow down.

As you can see, there are definitely several obvious health benefits to be gleaned from a more active sex life. But it is worth maintaining a level head and still being careful with your new-found healthy pursuit. There are still the pitfalls of unplanned pregnancies and high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases to be wary of. Roughly 25 per cent of the population carry the genital herpes virus, with up to 90 per cent of them unaware that they actually have the disease.

The bottom line is that people who have more sex tend to be happier and healthier. So if your or your partner is missing their spark these days, don't worry, don't stress, do exercise and do see a Naturopath.

Good Health, Jeremy Hill.