Maggie's Farm

The Associated Press reports the most extensive study yet of whether engaging in sex causes heart attacks.

In its first science-based recommendations on the subject, the American Heart Association says having sex only slightly raises the chance for a heart attack. And that's true for people with and without heart disease.

Surprisingly, despite the higher risk for a heart patient to have a second attack, there's no evidence that they have more sex-related heart attacks than people without cardiac disease.

However,

The doctors' group offers advice for heart patients based on scientific research involving sometimes provocative sex-related topics:

—Who's most at risk for sudden death related to sex? Married men having affairs, often with younger women in unfamiliar settings. Those circumstances can add to stress that may increase the risks, evidence from a handful of studies suggests.

Still, “sexual activity is the cause of less than 1 percent of all heart attacks," says the lead author of the report.

Another good reason to be part of the 1%?