Fellatio May Protect Against Breast Cancer
1 hour, 3 minutes ago
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By Janice Billingsley
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Dec. 4 (HealthDayNews) -- Fellatio may do more than make a man happy. Oils in the foreskin and the ejaculate appear to hold a natural cancer-fighting chemical, California researchers report.
Scientists at City of Hope Cancer Center in Los Angeles isolated a phytochemical, called procyanidin B dimer, that when given to mice with breast cancer ( news -web sites ) reduced the size of their tumors.
While there are already drugs on the market that can control estrogen-dependent breast cancer development in post-menopausal women, this is the first sexually occurring phytochemical that appears to have the same effect, says study author Shiuan Chen.
"It was surprising that we were able to identify this chemical in such an intimate act," says Chen, director of surgical research at City of Hope. "Further, there was a pretty significant reduction of tumor size in all the mice, and a number of animals ended up with no tumors."
However, Chen says that sexual phytochemicals are more likely to be used in a preventive way than as treatment for breast cancer because existing drugs are far stronger.
"We are talking about prevention," he says. "With regular fellatio, perhaps as much as five times a week, one can keep the estrogen at a lower level, which can be preventive for breast cancer."
For post-menopausal women who have breast cancer tumors that are fed by estrogen, which make up about 75 percent of breast cancers in this age group, fellatio therapy is aimed at the estrogen produced outside of the ovaries, in peripheral tissue like fat and skin cells, Chen says.
New drugs like anastrozole, letrozole and exemestane, which are taken in pill form, work by reducing the activity of an enzyme called aromatase that is key to the production of estrogen. The estrogen is no longer available to breast cancer tumors, inhibiting their growth.
But those pills are not as extensive a cure as those phytochemicals found in sperm and the penis, Chen says. The phytochemicals work in the same way as these drugs, but have the advantage of being derived through oral sex, Chen says.
The study was published this week in the journal Cancer Research .
Chen cautions that the research is based on personal study, and that clinical trials on post-menopausal women are needed to confirm any benefit to humans. He says he's conducting such trials now.
"We have to be careful," he adds. "We don't support the idea of women forgoing sexual intercourse completely in favor of constant fellatio. A proper sexual relationship should be a balance of oral, vaginal and anal sex."
For instance, he notes, that for women to ingest the comparable amount of procyanidin B dimer given to the mice, they'd have to swallow 10 grams of ejaculate a day, or roughly equivalent to the amount found in three male orgasms.
But he adds, for normal, healthy women, swallowing the ejaculate of one male orgasm a day may just reduce the overall circulation of estrogen in the body.
Why does fellatio have this potential benefit and cunnilingus doesn't?
Chen says the phytochemicals in semen and foreskin are byproducts of sperm production in the testies.
Mary Klassen, an assistant producer with adult film studio Vivid Pictures in Kenwood, Calif., says, "The general tendency is that fellatio is generally used, if at all, as foreplay for the American couple, and a man rarely gets the opportunity to spill his seed in his partner's mouth. Hopefully this study will encourage woman to complete the act, not only making their partners happy, but improving their health as well."
Dr. Jay Brooks, chief of hematology/oncology at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in Baton Rouge, La., calls the new research "very interesting work that shows that a widely considered taboo sex act may in fact have beneficial effects."
"A lot of epidemiologic studies show that regular intercourse overall may be beneficial for reducing heart disease," Brooks says. He adds that, despite the studies showing unprotected sex is a risk factor for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, "if a woman give one blow job per day, it will not increase her risk of disease dramatically."
More information
For news on the efficacy of aromatase-inhibiting drugs in treating breast cancer, visit the National Institutes of Health .The American Cancer Society reports on the risks of under-treating elderly women with breast cancer.
Fellatio May Protect Against Breast Cancer
1 hour, 3 minutes ago
Add Health - HealthDay to My Yahoo!
By Janice Billingsley
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Dec. 4 (HealthDayNews) -- Fellatio may do more than make a man happy. Oils in the foreskin and the ejaculate appear to hold a natural cancer-fighting chemical, California researchers report.
Scientists at City of Hope Cancer Center in Los Angeles isolated a phytochemical, called procyanidin B dimer, that when given to mice with breast cancer ( news -web sites ) reduced the size of their tumors.
While there are already drugs on the market that can control estrogen-dependent breast cancer development in post-menopausal women, this is the first sexually occurring phytochemical that appears to have the same effect, says study author Shiuan Chen.
"It was surprising that we were able to identify this chemical in such an intimate act," says Chen, director of surgical research at City of Hope. "Further, there was a pretty significant reduction of tumor size in all the mice, and a number of animals ended up with no tumors."
However, Chen says that sexual phytochemicals are more likely to be used in a preventive way than as treatment for breast cancer because existing drugs are far stronger.
"We are talking about prevention," he says. "With regular fellatio, perhaps as much as five times a week, one can keep the estrogen at a lower level, which can be preventive for breast cancer."
For post-menopausal women who have breast cancer tumors that are fed by estrogen, which make up about 75 percent of breast cancers in this age group, fellatio therapy is aimed at the estrogen produced outside of the ovaries, in peripheral tissue like fat and skin cells, Chen says.
New drugs like anastrozole, letrozole and exemestane, which are taken in pill form, work by reducing the activity of an enzyme called aromatase that is key to the production of estrogen. The estrogen is no longer available to breast cancer tumors, inhibiting their growth.
But those pills are not as extensive a cure as those phytochemicals found in sperm and the penis, Chen says. The phytochemicals work in the same way as these drugs, but have the advantage of being derived through oral sex, Chen says.
The study was published this week in the journal Cancer Research .
Chen cautions that the research is based on personal study, and that clinical trials on post-menopausal women are needed to confirm any benefit to humans. He says he's conducting such trials now.
"We have to be careful," he adds. "We don't support the idea of women forgoing sexual intercourse completely in favor of constant fellatio. A proper sexual relationship should be a balance of oral, vaginal and anal sex."
For instance, he notes, that for women to ingest the comparable amount of procyanidin B dimer given to the mice, they'd have to swallow 10 grams of ejaculate a day, or roughly equivalent to the amount found in three male orgasms.
But he adds, for normal, healthy women, swallowing the ejaculate of one male orgasm a day may just reduce the overall circulation of estrogen in the body.
Why does fellatio have this potential benefit and cunnilingus doesn't?
Chen says the phytochemicals in semen and foreskin are byproducts of sperm production in the testies.
Mary Klassen, an assistant producer with adult film studio Vivid Pictures in Kenwood, Calif., says, "The general tendency is that fellatio is generally used, if at all, as foreplay for the American couple, and a man rarely gets the opportunity to spill his seed in his partner's mouth. Hopefully this study will encourage woman to complete the act, not only making their partners happy, but improving their health as well."
Dr. Jay Brooks, chief of hematology/oncology at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in Baton Rouge, La., calls the new research "very interesting work that shows that a widely considered taboo sex act may in fact have beneficial effects."
"A lot of epidemiologic studies show that regular intercourse overall may be beneficial for reducing heart disease," Brooks says. He adds that, despite the studies showing unprotected sex is a risk factor for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, "if a woman give one blow job per day, it will not increase her risk of disease dramatically."
More information
For news on the efficacy of aromatase-inhibiting drugs in treating breast cancer, visit the National Institutes of Health .The American Cancer Society reports on the risks of under-treating elderly women with breast cancer.
Fellatio May Protect Against Breast Cancer
