Australian Researchers Link Masturbation to Prostate Health

Remember the days when young boys were warned by their mothers about the evils of masturbation, telling them it could cause blindness or baldness? It turns out mother was wrong.

Now Australian researchers are saying that masturbation can actually be good for men. The risk of prostate cancer can be reduced with frequent masturbation, according to an Australian study of 2,250 men between the ages of 20 and 50. The researchers studied 1,000 men who had contracted prostate cancer, and 1,250 men who had not. They found that the men who masturbated the most had the lowest incidences of prostate cancer and, in fact, those who masturbated five times or more a week were a third less likely to develop prostate cancer.

Other studies have pointed out that an overactive sexual life can lead to a higher risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which in turn could raise the risk of developing cancer. Masturbation, the researchers say, has no such negative aspect and actually help get rid of the carcinogens better than actual intercourse. As Graham Giles, of the Cancer Council Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia said, "The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells that line them."

Their theory is based on an assumption that has been observed in animal studies, where carcinogens have been observed to be stored in the ejaculation fluid in the prostate. Ejaculation fluid contains, among other things, potassium and citric acid that in high quantities create a cancerous environment. Following this theory, the Australian researchers believe that frequent ejaculation will in effect "wash" those carcinogens out of the gland, and thereby decrease the likelihood of men contracting prostate cancer. Without regular ejaculation the carcinogens, they say, accumulate in a man's prostate, which they feel is not healthy.