Tiffany
July 22nd 03, 01:39 AM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030716/od_uk_nm/oukoe_he
alth_masturbation_1
LONDON (Reuters) - Frequent masturbation, particularly in the 20s, helps
prevent prostate cancer (news - web sites) later in life, according to new
research.
Australian scientists have shown that the more men masturbate between the
ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop the disease that
kills more than half a million men each year.
They suspect that frequent ejaculation has a protective effect against the
cancer because it prevents dangerous carcinogens from building up in the
gland.
"The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and
damage the cells that line them," Graham Giles, of the Cancer Council
Victoria in Melbourne, told New Scientist magazine on Wednesday.
In a survey of 1,079 prostate cancer patients and 1,259 healthy men, Giles
and his team discovered that men who ejaculated more than five times a week
in their 20s were a third less likely to develop an aggressive form of the
disease.
The findings contradict previous studies which suggested that having a
variety of partners or frequent sexual activity could increase the risk of
prostate cancer by 40 percent.
But Giles said the earlier research concentrated on intercourse, whereas his
study focused on masturbation. Infections caused by sexual activity could
account for the different findings.
"Men have many ways of using their prostate which don't involve women or
other men," he added.
alth_masturbation_1
LONDON (Reuters) - Frequent masturbation, particularly in the 20s, helps
prevent prostate cancer (news - web sites) later in life, according to new
research.
Australian scientists have shown that the more men masturbate between the
ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop the disease that
kills more than half a million men each year.
They suspect that frequent ejaculation has a protective effect against the
cancer because it prevents dangerous carcinogens from building up in the
gland.
"The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and
damage the cells that line them," Graham Giles, of the Cancer Council
Victoria in Melbourne, told New Scientist magazine on Wednesday.
In a survey of 1,079 prostate cancer patients and 1,259 healthy men, Giles
and his team discovered that men who ejaculated more than five times a week
in their 20s were a third less likely to develop an aggressive form of the
disease.
The findings contradict previous studies which suggested that having a
variety of partners or frequent sexual activity could increase the risk of
prostate cancer by 40 percent.
But Giles said the earlier research concentrated on intercourse, whereas his
study focused on masturbation. Infections caused by sexual activity could
account for the different findings.
"Men have many ways of using their prostate which don't involve women or
other men," he added.