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MASTURBATING MAY PROTECT AGAINST PROSTATE CANCER
By Douglas Fox
New Scientist
July 16, 2003
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http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993942

It will make you go blind. It will make your palms grow hairy. Such myths
about masturbation are largely a thing of the past. But the latest research
has even better news for young men: frequent self-pleasuring could protect
against the most common kind of cancer.

A team in Australia led by Graham Giles of The Cancer Council Victoria in
Melbourne asked 1079 men with prostate cancer to fill in a questionnaire
detailing their sexual habits, and compared their responses with those of
1259 healthy men of the same age. The team concludes that the more men
ejaculate between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop
prostate cancer.

The protective effect is greatest while men are in their twenties: those who
had ejaculated more than five times per week in their twenties, for
instance, were one-third less likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer
later in life ( BJU International , vol 92, p 211).

The results contradict those of previous studies, which have suggested that
having had many sexual partners, or a high frequency of sexual activity,
increases the risk of prostate cancer by up to 40 per cent. The key
difference is that these earlier studies defined sexual activity as sexual
intercourse, whereas the latest study focused on the number of ejaculations,
whether or not intercourse was involved.

The team speculates that infections caused by intercourse may increase the
risk of prostate cancer. "Had we been able to remove ejaculations associated
with sexual intercourse, there should have been an even stronger protective
effect of other ejaculations," they suggest. "Men have many ways of using
their prostate which do not involve women or other men," Giles adds.

Macho exaggeration

Giles accepts the possibility that the men who completed the questionnaires
could have lied about their habits. But he doubts this skewed the results,
since questions about masturbation are unlikely to evoke the same macho
exaggeration as questions about, say, number of sexual partners.

But why should ejaculating more often cut the risk of prostate cancer? The
team speculates that ejaculation prevents carcinogens building up in the
gland. The prostate, together with the seminal vesicles, secretes the bulk
of the fluid in semen, which is rich in substances such as potassium, zinc,
fructose and citric acid.

Generating the fluid involves concentrating these components from the
bloodstream up to 600-fold - and this could be where the trouble starts.
Studies in dogs show that carcinogens such as 3-methylcholanthrene, found in
cigarette smoke, are also concentrated in prostate fluid.

"It's a prostatic stagnation hypothesis," says Giles. "The more you flush
the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells that
line them."

Sexual repertoire

His findings suggest an intriguing parallel between prostate cancer and
breast cancer, as recent studies indicate that lactating reduces a woman's
risk of breast cancer, perhaps because this also flushes out carcinogens.
Alternatively, ejaculation might induce prostate cells to mature fully,
making them less susceptible to carcinogens.

"All these mechanisms are totally speculative," cautions breast cancer
expert Loren Lipworth of the International Epidemiology Institute in
Rockville, Maryland.

But if the finding is confirmed, future health advice from doctors may no
longer be restricted to diet and exercise. "Masturbation is part of people's
sexual repertoire," says Anthony Smith, deputy director of the Australian
Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University in
Melbourne.

"If these findings hold up, then it's perfectly reasonable that men should
be encouraged to masturbate," he says.