You Choose: Sex, or a Face Lift?

Just in case you needed another reason to get horizontal, Amy Wechsler, MD, a dermatologist and psychiatrist (and overachiever?) has a new book called The Mind-Body Connection: 9 Days to Reverse Stress Aging and Reveal More Youthful Beautiful Skin.

In it, Dr. Wechsler explains how stress is really what’s making us wrinkly, crinkly and old! But, some of her advice, while not so entirely groundbreaking, sure sounds fun: have more sex!

Yes, it’s true that getting busy boosts beta-endorphins, natural opiates that help to combat the effects of bad things like cortisol. Cortisol is seriously one of my least favorite things in the world. Really, who needs some stress hormone making your belly bulge and skin sag? And cortisol, Dr. Wechsler says, thwarts collagen production, and collagen is the thing that keeps your skin supple and smooth, and let's not forget, sexy.

But see, herein lies her point, and the upshot: the more we stress about our looks, the more we'll ravage them, but she says you can halt the stress havoc is wreaking in just nine days! Nine days of sex (and things like good sleep and exercise) over needles filled with Botox (a toxic protein)? Someone hit the lights and turn up the Barry White!

photo by obyvatel@sxc