Flying Solo

I was once told, by an idiot, that masturbating prevents cancer. No qualifiers, no specification, just plain as day, he told me that masturbating cures cancer. Which would be wonderful, if it was as true as this incredibly broad statement suggested. I could smoke 3 packs of cigarettes for the rest of my unnatural life and never worry about anything more then yellow teeth and bad smelling clothes.

So, low and behold, I've investigated this wild medical claim and discovered the fact behind the incredible fiction I build in my mind.

The truth is that masturbating is believed by some doctors to help prevent prostate cancer. The problem is that its also believed by some doctors to increase the chances of prostate cancer. See the dilemma. 

The latest study I could find was by a team of Australian researchers, who believed they had finally solved the riddle of playing with the pink tromboner. 

Team leader Graham Giles told the BBC in an interview "The more you flush the [prostate] out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells." So therefore masturbation might not be what Jesus would do, but it also might help you avoid meeting him for a little while longer.

It seems strait forward, and he's a doctor so we place a lot of faith in his opinions an conclusions. All the data was collected through survey of men who once, or currently suffers from prostate cancer, and men who've never shown any signs of the illness.

The team believes this study stands out beyond all the rest because they view the previous theories surveying as essentially flawed. Dr.Giles believes that other researchers didn't eliminate the fact that a person who was very sexually active while younger, had a higher chance of contracting an STI, making that a more likely cause of the cancer.

I read another study, claiming that frequent masturbation can increase the chances of developing prostate cancer by 79% in 20-30 year old males, but even according to the author, Polyxeni Dimitropoulou's own words, the study measured men with high sex drive more than actual frequency of masturbation, and not taking into account that these men would be more sexually active, and possibly have an STI, giving further weight to the Australian study.

Either way the topic is clearly going to be continually debated and the research methods refined, so more definitive conclusions can be met.

Until then is anyone going to stop masturbating? 

Didn't think so.