 If you masturbate every day, you are going to shorten your lifespan. Or at least, that was what ancient doctors thought in China. Now for a lot of people, this question of no faff has become almost like an internet or cultural phenomenon. Where people are curious and all these hidden forms and these little alcoves of the internet. Is this something that is good for me? Or is something bad for me? Now for thousands of years in East Asia, Taoist mystics, hermits, and even physicians have viewed basically what comes out of a man during orgasm as a kind of life force. I mean after all, it literally produces a child when it meets a woman. And they believe that if you conserve this life force, a very dense form of essence called Jing, then you can prolong your lifespan and increase your longevity and have more energy. So in this video, we're going to address masturbation, good or bad. Hi guys, it's Dr. Alex Hine, board licensed acupuncturist and doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book, Master of the Day. So let's jump. One of the world's renowned physicians is a doctor named Sun Sun Miao in traditional Chinese medicine history. Now this doctor was extremely advanced in his knowledge of medicine and his care for helping sick people. Now in one of his books, at one of the final chapters, he has all of these very interesting prescriptions for living a long life. I mean the book is focused on longevity in this particular chapter and it ranges from the way to live in harmony with the Tao, how often to have sex, and even how often to ejaculate. And this is what he said, which is very interesting. He said, a man may attend health and longevity if he practices an ejaculation frequency of twice monthly or 24 times a year. If at the same time he pays careful attention to proper diet and exercise, he will live a long and a healthy life. Now in another paper in the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, there's more on what he said. He said, the last chapter in scroll 27 of the essential prescriptions contains advice on sexual intercourse for the purpose of cultivating Qi and therefore longevity. By avoiding seminal emissions and practicing moderation, generally twice a month is permissible, but elsewhere this is graduated by age and should be avoided completely by men past the age of 60. Now this echoes an ancient Taoist idea that humans have the kind of life force. And we do, even though it may not be measurable with labs and imaging and blood work, we do because we all recognize what vitality looks like and we know what it feels like. But in terms of actual semen, it is a very, very dense form of life force, very dense form of Yang Qi called Jing or Essence. And so they believe that if one could conserve this and not squander it carelessly, you know, a lot of these people are advisors for royalty who had dozens if not hundreds of concubines. So they were sexually overactive. And so these were prescriptions and these were life cultivation points designed to help not only the common person, but also the royalty attain longevity and good health. Now there are plenty of incredibly interesting aspects to longevity that Traditional Chinese Medicine talks about that you'll never hear from your medical doctor. And four of those I've put into the free guide right below this video, you guys. Four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with Traditional Chinese Medicine. It's a free download. I also have info down there below if you want to be a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine. Now let's look at what the science actually says about this. Is there something to it? Now in one research paper, researchers found that men had a higher serum testosterone meaning in the blood after several weeks of not ejaculating basically. And there are specific hormonal changes that happen only when there's an orgasm ejaculation versus just being erect or just being aroused, for example. So check this out. In one paper, researchers found that although higher testosterone levels are seen with abstinence, orgasm does not acutely affect testosterone levels. So right after it can cause a spike in levels of other hormones, this spike is dependent on ejaculation and does not occur under non orgasmic arousal. Also what's interesting is that they found that agents that increase dopamine levels or act like dopamine can increase the frequency of erections and subjective sexual arousal and that the actual ejaculatory process is mediated by serotonin and that drugs that interfere with that like SSRIs a specific class of antidepressants can actually interfere with that natural process which is why so many people on varying kinds of antidepressants have erectile or sexual or libido issues. So long story short, there is an increase in testosterone for men with abstinence, not ejaculating, and some of the neurotransmitters that are more related to the erections and the ejaculatory process are serotonin and dopamine. Now let's get to the good part, which is case studies. Within traditional Chinese medicine, we say that what governs the sexual and reproductive functions and urinary functions is the kidney. So the kidney is not just the anatomical kidney, it is also sometimes the adrenal and sometimes the reproductive functions. So men that have issues with libido and erections, we say have kidney chi or kidney yang deficiency. I like to think of it as kidney functional deficiency, but ancient doctors warn that for men that excessively use this faculty, they can produce a disease called kidney chi deficiency. Lucky for you, I've had five or so patients that are all young men that have come in with the same syndrome. And I want to share what they came in with, how we treated them, and the results after. Now I've seen about half a dozen young men in my clinic here in Los Angeles, and they've all come in with a very distinct pattern. They came in with a prior medical history of what they deemed excessive masturbation, typically several times per day to ejaculation, right? So they're actually relieving themselves two, three, four, five times a day. It is extreme by any measure. They came in reporting issues with erections, with fatigue, especially after ejaculation, extreme levels of fatigue, issues with general libido, with urination, and also they are having nocturnal emissions as grown men. So they are now having what ancient Taoist doctors called leaking essence. So this cluster of symptoms is related to what we call kidney chi deficiency. So by overusing this faculty, they actually produced a disease state that TCM would diagnose as a kidney functional disorder. Now in particular, these men came in and they had what we call a floating pulse and a weak pulse. And what that is is basically sort of like a kind of resource exhaustion, along with a very sensitive nervous system that is now very heightened. So the pulse is floating at the surface. And for these men in particular, we use traditional herbal formulas that we treat kidney deficiency with. Now ordinarily, that should never show up until a man is 60 years old, if ever. But for a 20 or 17 or 25 year old to show up with this means that excessive ejaculation really can produce a disease state that we would call kidney deficiency. Now this is the kind of thing that will be misdiagnosed forever from conventional medicine and they will probably just be medicated with antidepressants. But in general, while this is very effectively approached with these formulas, one thing that is very important to understand is that while, yes, you wonder how could some people even have the time to do this, there's absolutely an aspect of the spirit or the heart that is not well in the case of loneliness or depression or it helps them feel good or there's some aspect of disconnection and not feeling well, which is what predisposes them to this. And can you guess what the other organ is that is paired with a kidney and traditional Chinese medicine? It's the heart. So when we say heart and kidney not communicating, that is a piece of this diagnosis as well. So some final thoughts here. For these men, all of them within two to three weeks were feeling much better. And within about two to three months, these conditions were functionally reversed. Now, like anything in life, the dose makes the poison. Having to relieve yourself three or four times a day is not only logistically difficult if you have a job, that is a real issue for lots of reasons, not just the physical mechanical reasons, but what is going on internally in terms of the human psyche or the spirit in that case. Like anything, there are benefits to ejaculating in men who don't, prostate benefits is interesting research on that. But in general, thinking that as what is that middle sweet spot, it's going to depend on your health, it's going to depend on your age, and it's going to depend if you're in that new relationship where you're really excited or the long-term relationship where you're really shut off. Now, if you guys love hearing this intersection of traditional Chinese medicine and medicine, I've launched a brand new venture called the Healing Library. It is a series of online courses. I'm releasing new ones once a season on how to heal yourself with traditional Chinese medicine. Now, my first course is coming out in a few weeks, introduction to traditional Chinese medicine, the original science of healing and longevity. And if you're on my newsletter list, it's the first link below this video, you'll get notified when that course comes out in a couple weeks. So I'm incredibly excited. This is the medicine that has saved my own life. And so I think this is the best way to reach people who would not otherwise be able to come see me in my actual clinic. So if you want to learn when that course comes out, add your name to the list below and I'll see you soon. And there's a video right here on the similar topic for you.