Finally, great news for men (and women?) from the National Cancer Institute (Reported by Reuters on April 7, 2004.)
Frequent Ejaculations May Counter Prostate Cancer
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sexual activity does not cause prostate cancer, and men who ejaculate frequently may even be protecting themselves against the disease, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
The study, which involved more than 29,000 healthy men and covered sex of all kinds including masturbation and nocturnal emissions, confirms a smaller Australian study from last July that reached similar conclusions, the authors said.
I'd like to know who put two and two together on this and shake his hand. Well, how 'bout a pat on the back?
The new study, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, was based on an ongoing survey covering a variety of health issues of thousands of men who were 40 to 75 when the study began in 1986. In 1992 they were asked to report the average number of ejaculations they had per month during ages 20 to 29, 40 to 49 and during the previous year. In later surveys they were asked to report if they had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The earlier Australian study published in July 2003 by the Cancer Council Victoria found that the more often men ejaculated between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they were to suffer from prostate cancer.
That survey, which covered 1,079 prostate cancer patients and 1,259 healthy men, found that those who had sex at least once a day in their 20s were a third less likely to develop the malady.
"The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells that line them," Graham Giles, lead author of the earlier study said at the time.
Leitzmann said his new study is consistent with the Australian findings, and may even be stronger because it tracked men over time rather than asking them to recall ejaculation frequency only after they had already been diagnosed with cancer.
That kind of recall can be distorted, he said, because the cancer brings diminished sexual activity with it.
From a report on the original Australian study last summer, we have this gem.
Prof Giles said previous reports had found an increased risk of prostate cancer among prisoners and Roman Catholic priests.
Prof Giles said the study may have implications for prostate cancer patients who grew up at a time when the practice was frowned upon.
"I really think that masturbation is a quite normal human activity, and if the habit can also be shown to be healthy and beneficial, why not?"
My, but we've come a long way from hairy palms, blindness and eternal damnation.
So remember, eat right, get lots of exercise, and well...
I'll be back in about ten minutes.