Ouch_ SCIENCE says_ MASTURBATION protects your PROSTATE. Now what_(1080P_HD)
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00:00Masturbation protects from prostate cancer. Doctors orders, make it your new hobby. Clickbait,
00:08not at all. I will prove it to you with science. I went through some of the largest studies myself.
00:14The message is consistent. Masturbation is key. If you are very religious, you may want to know,
00:21does sex count as well? I will be addressing this, but also the important question of how
00:27many times you have to do it and some interesting findings. Masturbation at young age has been
00:34associated with increased prostate cancer risk in some studies. Don't worry, I have an explanation
00:41and a simple tip based on that explanation. So join me on a tour where we touch a topic that's touchy
00:50in itself, masturbation. I'm Dr. Stefan Bundrock, board-certified urologist and specialist in
00:56sexual health. Let's dive in. Why is masturbation a taboo? Here's the short version. The roman catholic
01:03church made it a sin during the middle ages and criminalized it in 1768. The year 1712 marks a
01:12best-selling pamphlet, Ulnenia, or the heinous sin of self-pollution by John Martin, a self-declared
01:19physician and author from England. More quack than healer. That really got things going and the 18th
01:26and 19th centuries witnessed a crusade against masturbation. So how do you enforce a prohibition?
01:35You make up a lot of stuff to create a deterrent effect. You know what I'm talking about, going to
01:40hell, hairy palms, madness, etc. We are living in the 21st century. Masturbation myths are more alive
01:49than ever. Fascinating and somehow tragic. So what happens if you don't masturbate? From a medical
01:58perspective? Nothing. But the real question is a different one. What happens if you masturbate a lot?
02:07From a medical perspective? Does it make a difference? Yes, obviously. We have large-scale data
02:14showing an important health benefit with masturbation. It protects from prostate cancer.
02:20Let me be clear. Saying it protects doesn't mean 100%. It means it lowers the risk significantly.
02:29Do you want an impressive database? How about this? 222,426 years of follow-up
02:36with 1,449 new cases of prostate cancer and 29,342 US men in the health professionals follow-up study.
02:46This is data of high quality because it doesn't look back on what has happened. It records what
02:53will happen in the future. We call this prospective. And since the participants are accompanied over many
02:59years, the quality of the data is very high. This is one of the less frequently done longitudinal
03:06studies. The participants were to report their frequency of ejaculation during their phases of
03:12life. That part looked back in time. But it also included the present. I know what you are thinking.
03:19Can past and present predict the future? Absolutely. If you want to know how many times you have to
03:26ejaculate to lower your personal prostate cancer risk, I have a number for you for warm-up. The number is
03:35two. That's one click on the subscribe button and one click on the like button. Because if you like my
03:41content, show it. In real life, you would clap. On YouTube, you like and subscribe. Liking and subscribing
03:49is digital applause. Thank you. Okay, the number 21. If you ejaculate 21 times or more per month,
03:58you will lower your prostate cancer risk by 33 percent. What is the benchmark? I bet you thought
04:05it was zero. But it wasn't. The control group were men who ejaculated 4 to 7 times per month. I think
04:12now you begin to comprehend why I initially told you to make it your new hobby. The effect was more
04:19pronounced in the older age groups. What could be the explanation? Let me throw in a few facts about
04:26prostate cancer here. It is a disease of the aging male. Most men will be diagnosed beyond the age of
04:3250. However, we are far from understanding its natural course. Some men will start to develop
04:39prostate cancer cells already in their 20s. With aging, this proportion will start to grow. What we
04:46yet have to figure out is why and when. Plus, some cancers are not that dangerous. So how come some get
04:55magically activated while others don't? This is why finding an increased protective effect in older
05:01men is huge. The health professionals follow-up study is not one of a kind. The results I just
05:06reported were published in 2004. The CapLife study is a very recent one. It is a so-called case control
05:14study that was published in 2023. A case control study has a group that's observed and that's compared
05:21with a reference group. Every person in the study group has a control in the reference group. In the
05:28CapLife study, there were 456 cases of prostate cancer and 427 controls. The study was methodologically
05:37solid. In general, the main finding was the same as in the previous study. Masturbation decreases
05:43prostate cancer risk. It was lowered by an amazing 58%, with just 4 or more ejaculations per month.
05:53Yeah, I understand, that's a tricky one. The reference group was 0 to 3 ejaculations per month.
05:59While the general finding is the same, the details are contradictory. I mean, 4 to 7 ejaculations per
06:06month was the control group in the health professionals follow-up study. The problem becomes obvious when
06:12looking at study design. It's like comparing apples with oranges. A case control study can't be compared
06:20to a longitudinal prospective trial. A case control study is generally considered less robust in
06:26scientific evidence. To begin with, it is retrospective. It looks in the past, not the future. It doesn't
06:34establish causality like the longitudinal study. Instead, it looks at associations. And a couple of
06:42other things. That's why these two designs can't be directly compared, even though they point in the
06:48same direction. But how? How can masturbation be protective? Would it also work with ordinary sex?
06:57Short answer, yes. The body doesn't really care about the means an ejaculation is brought about. Because
07:04the ejaculate itself may be the aggressor. One of the most discussed explanations for why ejaculation
07:11might protect the prostate is the so-called prostate stagnation hypothesis. The idea is simple. If semen
07:19and prosthetic fluid are not regularly released, metabolic byproducts, dead cells, inflammatory agents,
07:27and possibly even carcinogens could accumulate inside the gland. This stagnation may create a microenvironment
07:36that promotes chronic inflammation and cellular stress. Not good, because both are known risk factors
07:44for cancer development. Regular ejaculation, in contrast, is thought to act like a clearance mechanism,
07:51flushing out potentially harmful substances and keeping the gland physiologically active. While this
07:58hypothesis is still under investigation, it offers a plausible biological rationale that links sexual
08:06activity to long-term prostate health. And maybe this is why the data speak so clearly. Not just once,
08:14but again and again. This video won't end before I reveal a finding from another case control study.
08:22It was published in the British Journal of Urology International in 2008. It looked at 431 men with
08:29prostate cancer and 409 controls. Just to give you an idea about the scientific quality of this study,
08:36it was less than in the CapLife study. Because here are the shocking numbers. Frequent masturbation and sex
08:44from 20 to 29 was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. That risk was elevated by 79%.
08:53In men 30 to 39 years, it was still elevated by 69%. That woke you up, didn't it? However,
09:02I don't think you should be worried. It was a retrospective study. There are some methodological
09:07problems with that. But apart from this, I think more or less all studies miss an important point.
09:14Sexually transmitted infections. We know that viruses can cause cancer. We know that the human papillomavirus
09:21causes cervical cancer in women and penile cancer in men. The question is, can it also cause prostate
09:28cancer in men? Ideally, one would have a group of men who live celibate. No wonder there has been
09:35an increased interest in Catholic priests. From the US, there are some studies showing that their
09:41incidence of prostate cancer is lower than in the general population. However, one recent study didn't
09:48find a difference. I think the problem is this. Now that we have a celibate population, we would need
09:56them to masturbate. And in Catholic priests, that would be a sin, that's for sure. I don't think it will
10:03be possible to get a reliable picture. So back to the sexually active young men. I mean, in theory,
10:11prostate cancer risk could be increased. More sexual activity equals more STI risk. That could
10:18be a ticking time bomb. And it leads to the question, could HPV also cause prostate cancer?
10:26That's a hot topic right now and it justifies a separate video. You can watch it here. I will upload
10:32it soon if it is not visible yet. As you can see from this video, medicine is not only facts,
10:38it is also culture. Because doctors are not robots. They are as human as anybody else. And then
10:46there is religion and the usual online buzz. I am a doctor and science is my guide. The internet
10:53is a swamp. Follow me. I know the way.