Can masturbation protect from prostate cancer?
Cancer of the prostate is the most frequent cancer in men in Jamaica.
We have all heard that masturbation is a bad habit. But now new research seems to be pointing out that frequent masturbation may protect against cancer of the prostate.
Dr Giles in Australia subjected over 1000 men with cancer of the prostate to a questionnaire about their sexual habits. He compared those results with that of over 1000 men who did not have cancer of the prostate.
The research showed that the more a man ejaculates between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely he was to develop cancer of the prostate and that the most effective protection occurred while the men were in their 20’s.
The men who had ejaculated more than 5 times a week were less likely to develop cancer of the prostate later in life.
This study is in direct contradiction of earlier studies which showed that men who had frequent and many sexual partners were more likely to develop cancer of the prostate.
The problem seems that these earlier studies defined sexual activity as sexual intercourse. This new study, however, was based on the number of times a man ejaculated rather than the number of times he had sexual intercourse. In fact, Dr Giles is of the opinion that if he could remove the ejaculation associated with sexual intercourse from the study, the protective effects of masturbation on the prostate would have been far better. The medical researcher thinks that masturbation may decrease the risk of developing cancer of the prostate because it prevents the build-up of carcinogens, ie cancer-causing chemicals, in the prostate gland.
This prostate secretion is rich in Potassium, Zinc, Fructose sugar and Citric acid. What is not generally known is that the prostate gland concentrates the components from the blood over 600 times and this is where the trouble starts.
In dogs, for example, some cancer-causing chemicals from cigarette smoke are also concentrated in the prostatic fluid. Now it is thought that the longer the man stays without ejaculating the more these chemicals build up. This is the prostate stagnation theory.
Therefore, the more the prostate gland and its ducts are flushed out, the less of these chemicals may be around to cause cancer of the prostate or maybe the act of frequent ejaculation can induce the cells of the prostate to mature more fully and to become less susceptible to cancer of the prostate.
If these findings hold up, and it is early days as yet, perhaps your doctor may one day be advising you to watch your diet, exercise, take your supplements and to masturbate to prevent cancer of the prostate developing.
Dr Neil Persadsingh, an Acne Specialist, runs the Acne Care Centre at 12 Old Hope Road, Kingston 5. He is the author of the books Acne in Black Women and The Hair in Black Women.
