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Frequent sexual intercourse and masturbation protects men against a common form of cancer, suggests the largest study of the issue to date yet.
The US study, which followed nearly 30,000 men over eight years, showed that those that ejaculated most frequently were significantly less likely to get prostate cancer. The results back the findings of a smaller Australian study revealed by New Scientist in July 2003 that asserted that masturbation was good for men.
In the US study, the group with the highest lifetime average of ejaculation – 21 times per month – were a third less likely to develop the cancer than the reference group, who ejaculated four to seven times a month.
Michael Leitzmann, at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues set out to test a long-held theory that suggested the opposite – that a higher ejaculation rate raises the risk of prostate cancer. “The good news is it is not related to an increased risk,” he told New Scientist. In fact, it “may be associated with a lower risk.”
“It goes a long way to confirm the findings from our recent case-control study,” says Graham Giles, who led the Australian study. He praises the study’s large size – including about 1500 cases of prostate cancer.
Furthermore, it was the first to begin by following thousands of healthy men. This rules out some of the biases which might be introduced by asking men diagnosed with prostate cancer to recall their sexual behaviour retrospectively.
Goya’s Dos Mujeres y Un Hombre depicting two women laughing at a masturbating man.[3][4]
Every second day
At the start of the study, the men filled in a history of their ejaculation frequency and then filled in further questionnaires every two years.
Men of different ages varied in how often they ejaculated, so the team used a lifetime average for comparisons. Compared to the reference group who ejaculated four to seven times a month, “each increase of three ejaculations per week was associated with a 15 per cent decrease in the risk of prostate cancer”, says Leitzmann.
“More than 12 ejaculations per month would start conferring the benefit – on average every second day or so,” he says.
However, whilst the findings are statistically significant, Leitzmann remains cautious. “I don’t believe at this point our research would warrant suggesting men should alter their sexual behaviour in order to modify their risk.”
A further caveat is that the benefit of ejaculation was less clear in relation to the most dangerous, metastasising form of prostate cancer, compared to the organ-confined or slow-growing types.
Clear out
Leitzmann and Giles both agree that there are biologically plausible ways that ejaculating frequently might prevent prostate cancer.
“Increased ejaculation may allow the prostate gland to clear itself of carcinogens or of materials that form a substrate for the development of carcinogens,” Giles told New Scientist.
Another theory is that frequent drainage of prostate fluid stops tiny crystalloid microcalcifications – which have been associated with prostate cancer – from forming in the prostate duct, says Leitzmann.
Giles notes that neither study examines ejaculation during the teenage years – which may be a crucial factor. But he says: “Although much more research remains to be done, the take home message is that ejaculation is not harmful, and very probably protective of prostatic health – and it feels good!”
Taken From: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4861
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The New York Times
February 10, 1935
Page F29ALLIGATOR FOUND IN UPTOWN SEWER Youths Shoveling Snow Into Manhole See the Animal Churning in Icy WaterSNARE IT AND DRAG IT OUT
Reptile Slain by Rescuers When It Gets Vicious–Whence It Came Is Mystery
The youthful residents of East 123d Street, near the murky Harlem River, were having a rather grand time at dusk yesterday shoveling the last of the recent snow into a gaping manhole.Salvatore Condulucci, 16 years old, of 419 East 123d Street, was assigned to the rim. His comrades would heap blackened slush near him, and he, carefully observing the sewer’s capacity, would give the last fine flick to each mound.Suddenly, there were signs of clogging ten feet below, where the manhole drop merged with the dark conduit leading to the river. Salvatore yelled: “Hey, you guys, wait a minute,” and got down on his knees to see what was the trouble.What he saw, in the thickening dusk, almost caused him to topple into the icy cavern. For the jagged surface of the ice blockade below was moving; and something black was breaking through. Salvatore’s eyes widened; then he managed to leap to his feet and call his friends.
“Honest, it’s an alligator!” he exploded.
Others Look and Are ConvincedThere was a murmur of skepticism. Jimmy Mireno, 19, of 440 East 123d Street, shouldered his way to the rim and stared.
“He’s right,” he said.
Frank Lonzo, 18, of 1,743 Park Avenue, looked next. He also confirmed the spectre. Then there was a great crush about the opening in the middle of the street and heads were bent low around the aperture.
The animal apparently was threshing about in the ice, trying to get clear. When the first wave of awe had passed, the boys decided to help it out. A delegation was dispatched to the Lehigh Stove and Repair Shop at 441 East 123d Street.
“We want some clothes-line,” demanded the delegation, and got it.
Young Condulucci, an expert on Western movies, fashioned a slip knot. With the others watching breathlessly, he dangled the noose into the sewer, and after several tantalizing near-catches, looped it about the ‘gator’s neck. The he pulled hard. There was a grating of rough leathery skin against jumbled ice. But the job was too much for one youth. The others grabbed the rope and all pulled.
Slowly, with its curving tail twisting weakly, the animal was dragged from the snow, ten feet through the dank cavern, and to the street, where it lay, non-committal; it was not in Florida, that was clear.
And therefore, when one of the boys sought to loosen the rope, the creature opened its jaws and snapped, not with the robust vigor of a healthy, well-sunned alligator, but with the fury of a sick, very badly treated one. The boys jumped back. Curiosity and sympathy turned to enmity.
“Let ‘im have it!” the cry went up.
Rescuers Then Kill ItSo the shovels that had been used to pile snow on the alligator’s head were now to rain blows upon it. The ‘gator’s tail swished about a few last times. Its jaws clashed weakly. But it was in no mood for a real struggle after its icy incarceration. It died on the spot.
Triumphantly, but not without the inevitable reaction of sorrow, the boys took their victim to the Lehigh Stove and Repair Shop. There it was found to weigh 125 pounds; they said it measured seven and a half or eight feet. It became at once the greatest attraction the store ever had had. The whole neighborhood milled about, and finally, a call for the police reached a nearby station.
But there was little for the hurrying policemen to do. The strange visitor was quite dead; and no charge could be preferred against it or against its slayers. The neighbors were calmed with little trouble and speculation as to where the ‘gator had come from was rife.
There are no pet shops in the vicinity; that theory was ruled out almost at once. Finally, the theories simmered down to that of a passing boat. Plainly, a steamer from the mysterious Everglades, or thereabouts, had been passing 123d Street, and the alligator had fallen overboard.
Shunning the hatefully cold water, it had swum toward shore and found only the entrance to the conduit. Then after another 150 yards through a torrent of melting snow–and by that time it was half dead–it had arrived under the open manhole.
Half-dead, yes, the neighborhood conceded. But still alive enough for a last splendid opening and snapping of its jaws. The boys were ready to swear to that.
At about 9 P. M., when tired mothers had succeeded in getting most of their alligator-conscious youngsters to bed, a Department of Sanitation truck rumbled up to the store and made off with the prize. Its destination was Barren Island and an incinerator.
Taken From: http://www.sewergator.com/news/nyt19350210.htm
