MONDAY July 7, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- A Finnish study has found an association between the frequency of having sex and the odds of erection dysfunction (ED) in older men.

Researchers said the study implied that men should be encouraged to stay sexually active into other golden years because their study showed more sex was linked to less chance of having ED.

A foodconsumer.org health adviser cautioned that there is no evidence to suggest the association between having sex and odds of having ED is a causal relation.

One possibility he suggested is contrary to what the researchers suggested. That is, those who were able to have more sex at the beginning of the study had better sexual health in the first place.

And too much sex could actually lead to development of ED, according to some theory.

The study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Medicine involved 989 men age 55 to 75 at the start of the study.

In the study, Dr. Juha Koskimaki and colleagues at the University of Tampere in Finland found those who had sex less than once a week were twice as likely to have ED during the five-year study period as those who had sex at least once a week.

And they also found men who had sex three or more times per week, their risk of ED were four times higher.