Thanks for this interesting post. One bone to pick, however:

You wrote: "Among 5559 cases of sudden death, only 18 were related to sexual activity. But among the 18 cases, 14 occurred while having extramarital sex... The moral for heart patients, as well as other people, seems to be quite straightforward: If you want safe sexual relations, stick to your partner..."

Straightforward? Really? Do you really mean to imply that these numbers suggest that there is even a shred of physical danger in extra-pair sex for people without heart problems? If so, we don't follow your reading of the numbers, as our conclusion would be precisely the opposite.

Imagine the following. Among 5559 cases of sudden cardiac death, 18 occurred at the gym. Of those 18, 14 (remember, of 5559 total cases: 0.0025%) occurred on the treadmill. Would we then conclude that The moral for heart patients, AS WELL AS OTHER PEOPLE, is straightforward: if you want to be safe, stay away from the treadmill? Really?

To speak of novelty and boredom along with affairs without speaking about depression is a huge mistake. Peter d. kramer's book's can be helpful here.He is the leading great thinker in personality dysfunction,brought on by depression on all levels. sincerely David