Sex can kill you! That's what the headlines say. And we know. We know you're all sitting there staring blankly at the screen wondering what took them so long to catch up. But they did a study! And so now there's proof! And we should all pay attention, and thank them, or something. Or something.

(The article in Reuters Health even begins “Doctors have long known that physical activity can cause serious heart problems.”)

However! In their defense, by analyzing fourteen studies to look at the data linking sex and the risk of a heart attack or sudden cardiac death, they did find that people are 2.7 times more likely to have a heart attack during sex. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), they were unable to find any data on the link between sex and sudden cardiac death.

“These elevated risks are only for a short period of time (1 to 2 hours) during and after the physical or sexual activity,” Jessica Paulus of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, and one of the researchers on the project, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Yes, folks. Sex is a health risk. But as health risks go, it's pretty damn good.