Solitary Vice [masturbation]

By Dirk Anderson

Your Questions Answered

Question: What about the Loss of Zinc?

Some SDAs have conjectured that masturbation leads to the loss of zinc in men, and that a deficiency of zinc can lead to the various health problems mentioned by Ellen White. Is this an accurate representation? What are the facts?

Researcher James Heffley, Ph.D., has determined through scientific studies that a man loses only about half a milligram (mg) of zinc in an ejaculation. This represents only about 4% of a man's average daily zinc intake. At this rate of loss, only extremely high frequencies of masturbation would deplete the body of zinc.

These findings are substantiated by the fact that masturbation is nearly a universal practice among men (95%), and yet zinc deficiency is described by doctors as being "extremely rare" in occurrence in the western world. Zinc deficiency does occur in the developing world, but the reason for its existence is a poor, under-nourished diet, not masturbation. Of course, vegan SDAs are more at risk of developing a zinc deficiency, since zinc is found abundantly in the foods they do not eat: meat, milk, cheese, and eggs. However, it is found in peanuts, peanut butter, and legumes.

Even in the extremely unlikely event a man developed a zinc deficiency from excessive masturbation, does it cause the health problems mentioned by Ellen White? Unless the man was eating a diet devoid of zinc, it would be unlikely he would develop anything other than a mild zinc deficiency. It was once thought to be a factor in Attention-Deficit-Disorder, but recent research has shown that to be unlikely. There is no solid research that shows a mild zinc deficiency negatively impacts the brain. It is certainly the case that a normal case of zinc deficiency does not cause the problems mentioned by Mrs. White. Here are the typical symptoms associated with zinc deficiency:

  • Slow growth
  • Poor appetite
  • Decrease in wound healing
  • Loss of hair
  • Taste - impaired
  • Smell - impaired
  • Hypogonadism in males
  • More frequent infections
  • Inability or difficulty in adapting vision to the dark1

Now compare this list with the Ellen White's list of 18 ailments identified at the top of this page. There is not a single one that matches, unless you are generous enough to equate "eye-sight weakened" with "difficulty in adapting vision to the dark"!

In addition to this, Mrs. White indicates that the health problems caused by masturbation are equally, if not more severe in females:

"Females possess less vital force than the other sex, and are deprived very much of the bracing, invigorating air, by their in-doors life. The results of self-abuse in them is seen in various diseases, such as catarrh, dropsy, headache, loss of memory and sight, great weakness in the back and loins, affections of the spine, the head often decays inwardly. Cancerous humor, which would lay dormant in the system their life-time, is inflamed, and commences its eating, destructive work. The mind is often utterly ruined, and insanity takes place."2

That quote would seem to put the final nail in the coffin of the zinc deficiency concern. If these health problems were indeed caused by zinc deficiency, then why does Mrs. White say women suffer from the same problems, and to an even greater degree?

SDAs have been looking in vain for 100+ years to find some scientific validation for her statements but science continues to find new evidence proving her statements wrong. For example, Mrs. White said masturbation causes cancer, and yet researchers have found that masturbation actually reduces the risk of prostate cancer:

"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.

"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.

"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 aggressive prostate cancer later in life (BJU International, vol 92, p 211)."3

See also

Citations

1. adam.com (copyright © 2002, all rights reserved).

2. Ellen White, An Appeal to Mothers, p. 27.

3. Douglas Fox, "Masturbating May Protect against Prostate Cancer", New Scientist, July 16, 2003.

Category: Shocking Statements
Please SHARE this using the social media icons below