From the book, "The Multi-Orgasmic Man"
In a front-page story on December 3, 1992, the New York Times reported startling scientific research that seems to
confirm the ancient Taoist insight about the toll that sperm production takes on a man's body. "These results are the last
thing I had expected when I started doing the experiment," said Wayne Van Voorhies of the University of Arizona. "They
were so startling that I did the work over four times to make sure I got it right. They basically say a lot of our
preconceived notions [about male sexuality] just do not hold."
Dr. Van Voorhies was studying simple but revealing worms called nematodes. What, you may ask, do worms have to do
with your sexuality'. Well, these nematodes are not just your everyday, garden-variety worms. "The genes and
biochemical processes nematodes use," explains Dr. Philip Anderson of the University of Wisconsin, "are the same as
those that humans and other mammals use." In scientific studies, nematodes are frequently used in place of human
subjects.
Dr. Van Voorhies tested three kinds of male worms. The first group of worms was allowed to mate at will, which required
frequent sperm production. On average, these Don Juan worms lived only 8.1 days. (Nematodes, in general, don’t live
very long.) The second group of worms was not allowed to mate at all. These, shall we say, monastic worms lived an
average of 11.1 days. But even more startling, the third group, the multi-orgasmic worms that did not constantly have to
produce sperm but were allowed to mate at will, lived close to 14 days – over 50 percent longer than the worms that
needed to continually produce sperm!
The Times concluded:
"The new work suggests that ceaseless sperm production takes its toll on a male, perhaps
requiring the use of complex enzymes or biochemical processes that have harmful metabolic byproducts." The Times goes
so far as to suggest that
"the difference in life span between men and women just may be linked to sperm production.
Women on average live about six years longer than men." There are other theories to explain the disparity in life
expectancy between men and women, including differences in lifestyle and in hormones. Whether or not the production
of sperm actually shortens your life, it certainly saps your strength.
NY Times article
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9E0CE4D7143DF930A35751C1A964958260