cidpusa.org
Men's Chance to Develop Prostate Cancer
Excessive
Masturbation Reduces Men's Chance to Develop
Prostate Cancer Believe it or not,
masturbation appears to have more benefits than
previously thought or at least this is what
Australian researchers suggest. According to the
latest study in this field, men could reduce
their risk of developing prostate cancer through
regular masturbation.
For the study, the
researchers questioned over 1,000 men who had
developed prostate cancer and 1,250 who had not
about their sexual habits. They found that men
who had ejaculated the most between the ages of
20 and 50 were the least likely to develop
prostate cancer.
More than that, the
researchers also have an explanation for their
findings. Apparently, ejaculating may prevent
carcinogens accumulating in the prostate gland.
The prostate provides a fluid into semen during
ejaculation that activates sperm and prevents
them sticking together.
According to Dr. Graham
Giles, of the Cancer Council Victoria in
Melbourne, who led the
research team, fewer ejaculations may mean the
carcinogens build up.
"It's a prostatic
stagnation hypothesis. The more you flush the
ducts out, the less there is to hang around and
damage the cells that line them," he told New
Scientist.
A similar process seems to
take place when a woman breastfeeds her baby.
Apparently, lactating "flushes" out carcinogens,
this way, reducing her chance to develop breast
cancer, New Scientist reports.
Dr. Giles goes even further
and says sexual intercourse may not have the
same effect because of the higher risk of
contracting a sexually transmitted disease,
which could in turn raise the risk of cancer.
"Had we been able to remove ejaculations
associated with sexual intercourse, there should
have been an even stronger protective effect of
ejaculations," he said.
Anthony Smith, deputy
director of the Australian Research Centre in
Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University
in Melbourne, welcomed the
findings of the study. "Masturbation is part of
people's sexual repertoire. If these findings
hold up, then it's perfectly reasonable that men
should be encouraged to masturbate," he told BBC
News.
Prostate cancer develops
most frequently in men over fifty. It is the
most common type of cancer in men in the
U.S., where it
is responsible for more male deaths than any
other cancer, except lung cancer. Around 35,000
men in theUK are diagnosed per year; where
around 10,000 die of it
65