Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 01/10/2012 17:12:54

Title: Why do eunuchs live longer than other men?
Post by: thedoc on 01/10/2012 17:12:54
Eunuchs - men who were castrated as children – live up to 19 years longer than intact males, according to research by scientists in South Korea. But what caused this increased longevity?

Read the whole story on our  website by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/news-archive/news/2668/)

  
Title: Re: Why do eunuchs live longer than other men?
Post by: chris on 02/10/2012 20:35:07
The same is true of castrated animals, which outlive their uncastrated counterparts by a significant margin. I think most people believe this reflects reduced aggression and fighting, but that's hard to reconcile with a domestic dog where the closest it comes to a fight is getting to the bowl to gobble down dinner first...
Title: Re: Why do eunuchs live longer than other men?
Post by: neilep on 02/10/2012 21:25:54
So this is not a miraculous longevity issue here...it's just a result of a behavioural change as a consequence to having ya meat and two veg lobbed off !
Title: Re: Why do eunuchs live longer than other men?
Post by: RD on 02/10/2012 22:01:59
Castration would lower their odds of sexually transmitted disease as it would lower their libido and probably render them impotent. ( In the period studied (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/news-archive/news/2668/) sexually transmitted disease would have been a common cause of death ).

Having their testicles removed would also lower their odds of prostate cancer, which is common in elderly men ...

Quote
Prostate Cancer Hormone Therapy – Surgical Castration

The testicles produce 90 to 95 percent of the male body’s testosterone and testosterone fuels the growth of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer hormone therapy works by removing the testicles and “starving” the prostate cancer by depriving them of testosterone. The removal of testosterone from the body will slow the growth of the prostate,
http://www.prostate-cancer.com/hormone-therapy/side-effects/hormonal-side-effects-orchiectomy.html

Quote
 Prostate cancer tends to develop in men over the age of fifty. Globally it is the sixth leading cause of cancer-related death in men (in the United States it is the second). 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostate_cancer
Title: Re: Why do eunuchs live longer than other men?
Post by: RD on 26/10/2012 03:40:37
No penis no cry

only the nads go (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Gonads).