Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 9
Is it really all good?

“In the 19th century it was a disease; in the 20th, it’s a cure.”
–Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at SUNY (on the topic of masturbation)

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When reports of this study hit mainstream media there seemed to be a great rejoicing among the masturbatory multitudes. The editors of men’s magazines breathed a collective sigh of, well, relief. “It ain’t bad like mamma said, it’s good for you!” They then scurried off to churn out various cute and funky articles proclaiming the wondrous benefits of wanking.

With all due respect to the one-handed bloggers, on a close examination of the actual research study, I have to say it is not clear that the news is entirely and consistently good. At least to the hyperbolic extent that our masturbators in the media have proclaimed.

First, the data seems to be mixed. Generally, for each increase of 3 ejaculations per week over a lifetime, there was an associated 15% decrease in prostate cancer. However, men who had the fewest ejaculations (3 or less per month) also had a decreased risk.

Leitzmann wrote, “There was a suggestive decreased risk of total prostate cancer observed among men in the lowest category of ejaculation frequency at ages 40 to 49 years and across a lifetime. Whether that finding was due to lower androgenicity among these men remains unknown.” In addition, he states  “…we cannot exclude a possibly greater risk of advanced prostate cancer with higher recent ejaculation frequency…”

Since at the time of the study, the age range was 46 –81 among the participants, it may very well be that a higher number of ejaculations among more mature men does not have the protective effect of a high rate of ejaculation when one is younger.

He also stated that “High ejaculation frequencies during the previous year (1991, with participant age range 46 – 81) and across a lifetime were associated with a suggestive increase in risk of advanced prostate cancer.” Also, a significant weakness of the study is that it did not query the habits of the greatest proponents and practitioners of the art of self-pleasuring: teenage boys.

To further muddy the waters, if you are querying middle aged and older men about their masturbatory habits in their 20′s, accurate and total recall may be a problem. Leitzmann suggested that perhaps  “self-reported ejaculation frequency may have contained some inaccuracy because of its sensitive nature and the need for individuals to recall ejaculation frequency in the distant past. It is possible that the oldest men in our cohort (men aged 81 years in 1992) may not have accurately recalled their average monthly ejaculation frequency from ages 20 to 29 years.” Ya think?     © 2008 Keith E. Hall All rights reserved.

Next: Emission Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 10: Is sex good for your heart?

Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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Emission Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health, Part 8

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From the Journal of the American Medical Association Abstract, the Leitzmann study:

“Prospective study using follow-up data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (February 1, 1992, through January 31, 2000) of 29,342 US men aged 46 to 81 years, who provided information on history of ejaculation frequency on a self-administered questionnaire in 1992 and responded to follow-up questionnaires every 2 years to 2000. Ejaculation frequency was assessed by asking participants to report the average number of ejaculations they had per month during the ages of 20 to 29 years, 40 to 49 years, and during the past year (1991).

However, high ejaculation frequency was related to decreased risk of total prostate cancer. The multivariate relative risks for men reporting 21 or more ejaculations per month compared with men reporting 4 to 7 ejaculations per month at ages 20 to 29 years were 0.89 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-1.10); ages 40 to 49 years, 0.68 (95% CI, 0.53-0.86); previous year, 0.49 (95% CI, 0.27-0.88); and averaged across a lifetime, 0.67 (95% CI, 0.51-0.89).” *

Leitzmann says that until this study, conducted as a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University, sexual activity had been hypothesized to be associated with prostate cancer due to elevated levels of testosterone. Testosterone increases the growth rate of prostate cancer cells as well as male libido. It was thought that sexually active men had a higher incidence of prostate cancer as they had higher levels of testosterone.

What this means is that, although sexual activity can result in a net increase in testosterone levels, ejaculation may protect the prostate through a variety of biological mechanisms e.g., cleansing, relaxing, and revitalizing the gland and the man:

– Frequent ejaculation may rid the prostate of concentrated chemical carcinogens.

– Reducing anxiety. The stress release inherent in sexual discharge may slow or prevent pathogenesis. Yes, learning to relax deeply will help prevent dis-ease.

– Revitalize proper circulation within the gland. It is postulated that regular ejaculation will prevent the development of microcrystals (intraluminal prostatic crystalloids) that can result in congestion and blockages within the prostate.

Commenting on this hypothesis,  Martin Resnick, MD, chairman of the department of urology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, says it’s reasonable to believe that a “use it or lose it” principle may apply to overall prostate health. **

Next: Emission Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 9: Is it really all good?

Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

An Ejaculation a Day Keeps the Oncologist Away

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This now famous research project led by Michael Leitzmann, a cancer researcher at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, was an epidemiological study of 30,000 American men. The study involved men who participated in a health professionals follow-up study during the years 1992 to 2000. The subjects were predominantly white and 46 years of age or older, and were surveyed about their ejaculation frequency at the time that they were 20-to-29 years of age, 40-to-49 years, and during the year of the study. Ejaculations included sexual intercourse, nocturnal emissions, and masturbation. The volunteers provided comprehensive health and lifestyle data every two years until the study concluded in 2000.

Leitzmann’s findings were that in comparison to the study’s baseline ejaculatory frequency of between 4 and 7 times a month for most of their adult life:

–Men who ejaculate between 13 and 20 times a month had a 14% lower risk of prostate cancer
–Men who ejaculated upwards of 21 times a month had a 33% lower lifetime risk of prostate cancer than the baseline group.

The results seemed to survive rigorous statistical evaluation even after other lifestyle factors were taken into account. Is this a case of more is better? © 2009 Keith Hall & inner-tranquility.com. All rights reserved.

Next:  Ejaculation control Part 8, From the JAMA Abstract, the Leitzmann study results.

Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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Ejaculation, Cancer, and Modern Medical Research

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Until very recently, modern Western medical science was remarkably silent, even prudish, about sexual research. It took a thousand years of puritanical repression and ignorance in the West before Dr. Alfred Kinsey appeared at Indiana University in 1935 to give his first academic lecture on human sexual behavior. In 1948, he began to publish the now famous Kinsey reports; one of the best selling scientific reports of all time, even rising to the top of the bestseller lists of the day.

Still, funding for sex research does not appear to be a tremendously high priority in the West, even today. Unless, of course it can result in a new, pricey pharmaceutical being patented. Most Western medical researchers seem to want to dismiss traditional Oriental research and wisdom, preferring to retain a sort of academic xenophobia that skews their paradigm. A good example is the relative prevalence of research into Qigong in China. There are many research projects, published studies, and hospitals that specialize in medical qigong in China, and almost none in the U.S.

Excluding data because it was gathered painstakingly over thousands of years by Taoist scientists in another country can only stunt and distort any hypothesis built on such a skewed data set. This leads to slow and muddled progress.  At best.

Like today’s current proponents of celibacy as a form of teenage birth control, many in the West have adhered to old wives tales about the dangers sexual expression in general and of masturbation in particular. Blindness, hirsute palms, disease, moral turpitude, even damnation, were sure to afflict the practitioner. It wasn’t until April 2004 that the Leitzmann study, funded by the National Cancer Institute, on the risk-benefit of ejaculation was published by JAMA, the Journal of The American Medical Association. © 2009 Keith Hall and inner-tranquility.com. All rights reserved.

Ejaculation Control, Part 7: An Ejaculation a Day Keeps the Oncologist Away

Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health

Transform yourself with Tantric Qigong

Wilma asks:
Q: During the winter season, the Taoists recommend less ejaculation for both men and women.
Why exactly do they recommend that?

A: I some times get questions from men about this issue, but rarely from women, so let me take a moment to set down some of the history and rationale about this.

There is quite a bit of controversy within Tantric and Taoist and Western medical circles about the relationship of ejaculation to physical and spiritual well being. The Tantriks seem more concerned with the effects in regard to spiritual progress, while the Taoists seem more focused on health and longevity. The Taoists in particular have codified this precisely, to an almost dogmatic level, although simple forms such as Tantric Qigong were also developed..

Both Tantriks and Taoists feel that the psychic and somatic essence of man is concentrated in the semen, thus ejaculation could lead to a decrease in mental and physical strength. Western medicine has not really looked very closely at this precept, other than in relation to prostate health. The Tantriks are highly interested in harnessing the sexual essence to activate Kundalini so it can rise to the higher spiritual centers to promote spiritual awakening and enlightenment.

According to the Taoist physician Sun Si-Miao (Sun Ssu-mo), circa A.D. 600, “A man may attain health and longevity if he practices an ejaculation frequency of twice monthly or 24 times in a year. If at the same time he pays careful attention to proper diet and exercise he will have a long and healthy life.” Thus, if a man can manage the energy of ejaculation, he would be able to enjoy sex while becoming very youthful. This may be, in part, because men’s sexual energy is linked strongly to the Kidney Essence. A woman’s energy is linked more to the blood. Therefore, an untrained man’s ejaculation decreases the vitality of the Kidney essence more strongly, though there is some loss for a woman as well. There is a school of thought that implies that since untrained men project their energy so strongly through ejaculation, there is a net benefit to his female partner if she can absorb his energy. Even a trained tantrika or Taoist can “donate” this energy to a woman if he chooses; though much is to be said for mutual cultivation and conservation.

“Do not expel your semen needlessly. Do not expel your semen forcefully, as if dashing something down from the heights. You’ll upset the five main bodily organs, injure the life-energy channels and give rise to every kind of ailment as a consequence.”
– Ishimpo

Sun Si-Miao’s Guidelines
Age… Recommendation

30… Give up masturbation and study the Tao of Yin and Yang

40… Ejaculation control becomes mandatory and should be mastered

50… 1 emission every 20 days

60… 0 emissions, but frequent intercourse.
Exceptionally hearty men may emit 1x every 30 days

70… If very healthy, once in every 100 sexual couplings.

Dr. Sun thought that for most men, celibacy and abstaining from emission of semen was just as harmful as profligate ejaculation, a philosophy now being validated by modern Western medical science. His thought was that abstention disrupts one’s harmony of essence, energy, and spirit. He also says that abstinence will lead to erotic dreams and uncontrolled, unconscious nocturnal emissions. These he declared to be a hundred times more harmful than an ejaculation during normal intercourse.

Sun Si-Miao also recommended certain Taoist breathing and massage techniques to build power and longevity. © 2008 Keith E. Hall. Inner-Tranquility.com All rights reserved.

Ejaculation Control part 2: The Yellow Emperor

Ejaculation Control and Mental, Spiritual, and Physical Health Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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