Who doesn’t love making love? If you’re diagnosed with prostate cancer you’d want to know whether an active sexual life is good or bad for you. Recently, I made some in-depth research on this issue and landed upon two conflicting findings. Cancer research says it may actually be good for your prostate, while on the other hand it may actually hasten cancer cell proliferation.
Pros and cons primary research
On the upside, some researchers discovered that frequent ejaculation had been linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer. A study involving 30,000 men reveals that those with a monthly ejaculation frequency of 13 to 20 times had a lower risk than those who had a frequency of 4 to 7 times. Moreover, those who ejaculated over 21 times had a 33 percent decreased cancer risk rate.
It is theorized that a higher frequency of ejaculation is attributed to a lower cancer rate because ejaculation effectively flushes out accumulated carcinogens that harm the fragile prostate cells. Secondly, as any male has experienced, ejaculation decreases tension. Orgasm is a powerful pain-reliever strengthening the immune function of your lymphocyte cells, specifically T3 and T4 cells that check the multiplication of cancer cells. And thirdly, the fast turnover of prostate secretions as what occurs during frequent ejaculations decreases the chances of prostate ducts to be clogged. This decreases the tendency of prostate cancer development. These should be good news!
Cons Research
But, a cancer researcher at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland believes otherwise. He says that frequent sexual activity increases levels of the male hormone testosterone in the body which stimulates cancer growth. However, this is difficult to ascertain. Does sexual activity really increase the levels of testosterone? Additionally, do high levels of testosterone actually cause the progression of prostate cancer and its outward spread? I think these two questions should have definite answers.
As anyone can deduce, the foregoing epidemiological studies have too many variables and no controlled environmental studies to prove that elevated sexual activity would increase blood levels of testosterone.
Still on the downside, a scientifically controlled study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that ejaculation frequency isn’t related to increased risk of prostate cancer after all. The study involved 29,342 American men aged 46-81 years who had been observed for a decade.
Well, while the jury hasn’t decided if sex is good or bad for you, what can I truly suggest? You might as well enjoy making love.