Use it or lose it. The old wives' tale is true. Frequent sexual intercourse could prevent erectile dysfunction among older men, according to Finnish researchers from the Tampere University Hospital's department of urology.

"This is the same as any other part of the body. It's what we in vascular surgery refer to as the 'use it or lose it' concept," Dr. Hossein Sadeghi-Nejad, an associate professor of urology at UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School Hackensack University Medical Center, told HealthDay News. "Sexual activity will promote maintenance of normal erectile function down the line."

Led by Dr. Juha Koskimaki, the researchers collected data on nearly 1,000 Finnish men ages 55 to 75 years old. They found that men who had sexual intercourse less than once a week had twice the risk of developing erectile dysfunction, compared with men who had sex at least once a week. Specifically, among the men who had sex less than once a week, there were 79 cases of erectile dysfunction per 1,000 men, a number that dropped to 32 out of 1,000 for men who had sex at least once a week. Among men who had sex three or more times a week, there were only 16 cases of erectile dysfunction per 1,000 men.

Another clue: Men who had less than one morning erection a week had a 2.5-fold greater risk of developing erectile dysfunction than among men who had two to three morning erections a week. "Regular intercourse has an important role in preserving erectile function among elderly men, whereas morning erection does not exert a similar effect," Koskimaki said in a statement. "Continued sexual activity decreases the incidence of erectile dysfunction in direct proportion to coital frequency."

The takeaway: The more sex men have, the lower their risk of erectile dysfunction.

The study findings were published The American Journal of Medicine.

--From the Editors at Netscape