《中英對照讀新聞》Masturbating may protect against prostate cancer 手淫可能有助預防前列腺癌

◎陳成良

It will make you go blind. It will make your palms grow hairy.Such myths about masturbation are largely a thing of the past.But the latest research has even better news for young men：frequent self-pleasuring could protect against the most common kind of cancer.

會讓人瞎眼、手掌長毛，諸如這種有關手淫的迷思，大致已成過去式。不過最新研究還為年輕男子帶來更好的消息：經常自慰可能有助於預防最常見的癌症。

A team in Australia led by Graham Giles of The Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne asked 1079 men with prostate cancer to fill in a questionnaire detailing their sexual habits, and compared their responses with those of 1259 healthy men of the same age. The team concludes that the more men ejaculate between the ages of 20 and 50,the less likely they are to develop prostate cancer.

以澳洲墨爾本「維多利亞癌症協會」葛拉漢．基爾斯為首的研究小組，要求1079名罹患前列腺癌的男子填寫一份詳述他們性習慣的問卷，然後把他們的回答，與1259名健康的同年齡層男子的回答，加以比較。該小組得出結論指出，20至50歲之間的男人越常射精，他們罹患前列腺癌的機率越低。

The protective effect is greatest while men are in their twenties ： those who had ejaculated more than five times per week in their twenties, for instance, were one-third less likely to develop prostate cancer later in life.

這種預防效果在20幾歲的男子身上最為顯著，舉例來說，每週射精超過5次的20幾歲男子，今後罹患前列腺癌的機率少了1/3。

The results contradict those of previous studies, which have suggested that having had many sexual partners, or a high frequency of sexual activity, increases the risk of prostate cancer by up to 40 per cent.

這些結果與先前的研究結果大相逕庭，先前的研究指出，曾擁有許多性伴侶或性活動頻率高的人，罹患前列腺癌的機率提高多達4成。

新聞辭典

masturbation ：名詞，自慰、手淫，同第一段的selfpleasuring。動詞為masturbate，粗俗的俚語則將男人自慰稱為jerk off（打手槍）。

go blind：失明。類似用法還有go crazy（發狂）、go wrong（出問題）等。