Sex and the Pretty: How Good Sex Keeps Your Skin Looking Young, by Shirley Lord

Editor’s Note: Shirley Lord has had a front-row view of the beauty business for years. Born in London, she was working on Fleet Street at the age of 18. In the early 70s she moved to the United States and became beauty editor of Harper’s Bazaar. In 1980 she left for American Vogue, where she has had a long and distinguished career. She is the author of five novels, two "Bibles" on health and beauty and an autobiography.

Being in love and being loved back and having a good SEX life is VERY, VERY good for the skin.

The late and great cosmetic scientist, Marguerite Maury (a founder in London of aromatherapy, the use of essential oils to cure problems from acne to obesity), pointed out in The Secret of Life and Youth: "The sexual life of a woman is of the greatest importance to her appearance. Whereas the functions of the man are exogenous and extroverted and he will suffer most from premature old age by abuse of these functions (in other words overdoing it !), the woman- being introverted and endogenous –will grow older and swifter by deficiency" (not enough sex in her life).

In fact, the way you cope with life – your temperament and whether you can handle your problems or not — can also show significantly on your face. Losing your temper on a regular basis can age you. You have only to look in the mirror after a lover’s quarrel, tears or no tears, to see its affect on your looks. And what you see is your skin disturbed by signals sent from the brain.

As the famous European dermatologist, Dr. Joseph Hoffman, wrote in his tome The Life and Death of The Cell, "…if one went to the trouble it would be feasible to measure the degree of love, hate and anxiety experienced by a human being by the rate of his or her cellular destruction."

Think of the phenomenon of blushing. The brain sends subliminal (or embarrassed) signals to the skin, which responds with the blood vessels dilating, filling with blood and turning the skin pink. Fear works in reverse; blood flow reduces to produce a deathly pallor. When we are unhappy or cry skin can look mottled because of “unhappy” signals; when we’re in love and have a satisfying sex life our skin can and often does look "radiant" with joy.

There is a scientific explanation for all this. Before birth, at the embryo stage, we are two things, the ectoderm and the endoderm. The ectoderm becomes the skin organ, the largest organ of the body, which wraps up the endoderm, our insides. As the nine months progress, part of the ectoderm becomes the brain, creating a link between brain and skin that is far more intimate than that between the brain and any other organ of the body.