In another example of how reason will always overcome hysteria (particularly hysteria produced by religious extremists), a study was released today by Australian scientists which suggests frequent male masturbation, particularly by males in their 20's, can help prevent prostate cancer later in life.
The study, released today by the Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, concluded that those men who masturbated more than five times a week cut their risk of later developing prostate cancer by 1/3.
Professor Graham Giles:
"The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells that line them."
It should be noted that this study might seem to contradict earlier studies which suggested men who engaged in frequent sexual intercourse were more likely to develop prostate cancer.
Professor Giles, who conducted the study, stated that previous studies focused on intercourse as opposed to masturbation. In addition, intercourse carries the risk of STDs, a risk not present with masturbation, which means the prostate cancer present in the intercourse studies may well be caused by STDs.
Potential caveats of the study include exaggeration by the test subjects of the number of times they masturbated and the reluctance to list masturbation as a potential cause of prostate cancer.
Curiously, recent studies have shown that women who lactate reduce their risk of developing breast cancer. The common theme among the studies is the flushing out of bodily ducts.
The study released today may well lay to waste the claims of previous generations that masturbation is an unhealthy practice incapable of producing any good.
No word yet on whether fundamentalists will condemn the research study as promoting Onanism.
