Regular sex prevents prostate cancer

By Syed Akbar

Want to get rid of prostate cancer, which is fast becoming a common health hazard in men? Just increase your sexual activity and you will be saved from prostrate cancer to a great extent. Each increase of three ejaculations per month across the man’s lifetime is associated with a 15 per cent decrease in the risk of prostate cancer.
According to Dr June Machover Reinisch of The Kinsey Institute and former professor in the departments of psychology and psychiatry at Indiana University, USA, it is a myth that excessive sexual activity will increase the risk of prostate cancer. The truth is that it will decrease the risk and keeps the prostate gland in good function.
Dr June Machover was in Hyderabad to present her research studies on sex and sexual practices. According to her, many physicians have believed that men who participate in high levels of sexual activity are at increased risk for prostate cancer. One suggested basis for this hypothesis is the possibility that increased sexual activity may be an indication of higher levels of androgen (male hormones) and therefore a higher risk of developing prostate cancer, which has been related to male hormone levels.
However, a study conducted by a group of researchers from the National Cancer Institute and John Hopkins and Harvard University revealed that increased sexual activity will in fact reduce the risk of prostate cancer.
The researchers selected as many as 29,342 men, between 46 and 81 years, and conducted a study on their sexual pattern for over eight long years. Only men who did not have a diagnosis of prostate cancer at the beginning of the eight years were included. So everybody was prostate cancer-free.
At the beginning of the study the men were questioned about the average number of ejaculations per month they had, between the ages of 20 and 29, then between 40 and 49, and then during the past year.
The study focused on the frequency of ejaculation, including sexual intercourse, nocturnal emissions, and masturbation. Every two years after the beginning of the study the men were asked, again, whether they had received a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
"Of the 29,342 men who began the study without a diagnosis of prostate cancer, by the end of eight years 1,449 cases had been diagnosed. That’s approximately 5 per cent of the men. Remember, they are older in age, so we expect them to start to get prostate cancer. With every decade that same percentage get prostate cancer, so we believe that 80 per cent of 80 year olds have prostate cancer, and 90 per cent of 90 year olds have prostate cancer, and 70 per cent of 70 year olds have prostate cancer," Dr June pointed out.
She said between ages 20 and 29 the men reported an average of 15 ejaculations a month. Between 40 and 49, 11 ejaculations a month was average, and between 50 and 59 9.5 per month. Men 60 and older reported an average of 5 ejaculations per month.
"Most categories of ejaculatory frequency were not related to the risk of prostate cancer. However, a lower risk was found in the group of men with the highest frequency of ejaculation. Each increase of three ejaculations per month across the man’s lifetime was associated with a 15 per cent decrease in the risk of prostate cancer. So the more ejaculations you had, the less likely you were to have prostate cancer, and every time you had three more as an average per month, you were 15 per cent less likely to have prostate cancer," she said.