Next time you have a headache, migraine, or backache, instead of popping the usual over the counter medication or prescription, some scientists say you should have sex instead. Beverly Whipple, PhD, a sex researcher and co-author of “The Science of Orgasm,” has found in studies that when the G-spots in women were stimulated, their pain thresholds elevated by 80 percent, and when they climaxed it increased to more than 108 percent.

Although there is no evidence directly linking pain relief with orgasms, it is known that orgasms increase the chemical Oxytocin, a natural opiate, which is released in high amounts during sex and especially at climax. Orgasms also increase circulation, which can lead to pain relief. In fact, in Eastern medicine, it is believed that most disease or pain is caused by a lack of chi flow, which is your natural energy life force and is linked with blood circulation. When you scream to the heavens and your toes curl, a fresh supply of blood and oxygen arrives to all your cells, organs, and muscles and old, toxic blood that cause illness is removed.

Not that I need to convince anyone why sex is a good idea, but there have been actual studies that show if you have at least two orgasms a week you’ll live twice as long as those who don’t. But all of the studies and contemplations aside, I left the laboratory behind and did some real word investigating, which brings me to a hospital room in Gainesville Florida, where Ed Johnson was recovering from a very painful broken collar bone. “It’s one of the most painful injuries you can imagine,” recalls Johnson. Instead of taking a painkiller, his girlfriend—very carefully—had sex with him and it temporarily relieved the pain. “After having the orgasm, I felt this rush of pain relief all over my body. I had been taking pain killers earlier that day, but the orgasm definitely worked better for pain relief,” says Johnson.

Although the pain relief from orgasms is only temporary, Natalie Lederman of Brooklyn, New York, says that it helps with her severe chronic pain of fibromayalgia, which is a widespread pain all over the body. “I was having a really bad flare up one day.” She had tried everything—painkillers, a massage, yoga, nothing was getting the pain under control. Then that evening she recalls getting intimate with her boyfriend and then feeling this rush of blood flowing all over her body and then being completely out of pain. “And we hadn’t even gotten to the sex yet!” she happily recalls. “Not even pain killers can completely get rid of the pain. The relief was only temporary, but in all the years that I’ve been suffering with this pain, being intimate and having sex has been the one thing that works the best in getting rid of my pain,” Lederman says.

Of course, none of us hedonistic, pleasure-seeking humans need convincing to have sex, but if you or your loved one is suffering from any kind of pain--acute or chronic--a roll in the hay might work better than popping a pill. Whether it works for you or not, it would definitely be fun to investigate.