Uncle Qiao, who is over 50 years old, discussed with his wife after lunch, saying that he wanted to move his daily necessities to the guest room, and planned to sleep in separate rooms from now on! Uncle Qiao's wife, who had been disturbed by his snoring for decades, immediately agreed to his proposal at the thought of sleeping well. But I didn't expect that just a few days later, Uncle Qiao took advantage of his wife to go grocery shopping, and moved his futon back to the master bedroom.
That night, without waiting for his wife to ask carefully, Uncle Qiao said with a palpitation that he had heard a few days ago that men should nourish their sperm more and more the older they are, and after a cursory thought, he thought deeply that it was true, so he made up his mind to "clear his heart" for the sake of good health.
As a result, this morning I mentioned this topic, and everyone said that this was a crooked reason, and the man's little brother would not be used for a long time or even scrapped, which scared Uncle Qiao and quickly moved back to the master bedroom!
Husband and wife life is a topic that adult men and women cannot avoid, it is the foundation of human reproduction, it is also the objective needs of the human body, and it can also provide emotional pleasure for everyone. Therefore, abstinence is actually contrary to human nature, and it is also a kind of repression for the body.
Although abstinence is not good for the body, is it really as Uncle Qiao heard, will a man's little brother be abolished if he is not used for a long time? Let's hear what TCM has to say.
First, a man's "little brother" has not been used for too long, will it really be abolished?
At first glance, this question sounds a little ridiculous, people are not machines, and they can rust if they are not used for a long time? But in fact, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, the little brother will really be scrapped if he is not used for a long time! If you want to explore the reason, you must start with "fine".
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that essence is one of the main sources of promoting human growth and development, including semen needed for reproduction, as well as various essences that promote the survival of the human body, such as innate essence, water valley essence, internal organ essence, etc. These essences work throughout the body and are the body's source of energy.
Most of this essence is stored in the kidneys and needs to function through the command of the kidneys. Therefore, the kidneys are also the foundation of the internal organs and the energy reservoir of the human body. When people consume excessive energy, such as long-term fatigue and overindulgence, it can easily lead to kidney deficiency such as backache and fatigue.
People cannot avoid the consumption of kidney essence in daily activities, so many people choose to reduce sexual affairs to "save sperm", as long as enough sperm is stored, you can achieve the purpose of protecting the kidneys.
But this thinking is very wrong!
When people perform intercourse normally, the kidneys will produce sperm and discharge, just like a part of the pool excretes water, so as to free up a place for clean water to pour in, and form a virtuous circle. If you abstain from sex for a long time, it may cause the sperm discharge function of the kidneys to decrease, and men cannot control when to excrete, and premature ejaculation symptoms will occur during intercourse, but will cause harm to the man's "little brother".
Physiological balance: The body needs to maintain physiological balance, including maintaining the metabolism and renewal of semen. Long-term abstinence can cause excessive semen to accumulate in the body, and the body will drain aging semen through sperm loss to maintain physiological balance.
In addition, our body needs to maintain physiological balance, including semen metabolism, and long-term abstinence will lead to excessive semen accumulation, in order to maintain physiological balance, there may be unconscious sperm loss during intercourse.
Generally speaking, physiological sperm loss is a normal phenomenon, but if sperm loss is too frequent, it may lead to insufficient kidney sperm, and over time, it will lead to kidney sperm loss, aggravating the malaise of the "little brother".
More importantly, many older men are not actively abstinent, but forced to purify their hearts!
As men age, the function of the body's internal organs is gradually insufficient, the kidney's own ability to produce and store sperm decreases, and the energy pool shrinks and depletes, which may lead to the decline of male function. Although I want to carry out husband and wife life in my heart, but the little brother does not give strength, it is really more than enough and not enough.
The problem is that although the elderly are "forced" to abstain, abnormalities in kidney function caused by abstinence also exist, which may lead to a vicious cycle in the long term, exacerbating the decline of function in older men.
Therefore, we advocate that elderly men properly carry out married life when conditions permit, rather than giving up completely due to physical changes. During the couple's life, because the kidneys meet the body's sperm discharge needs, they will exercise their spermatogenesis and sperm storage functions, which is beneficial to their health.
After talking about the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, we will take some examples from the perspective of Western medicine, and in recent years, clinical studies have found that "little brothers" are not used for too long, and men's fertility will plummet!
Second, clinical studies have shown that men's "little brothers" will affect fertility if they are not used for too long!
As an important participant in human reproduction, sperm has always been the focus of clinical research. In 2022, "Chinese Sex Science" released such a study on the effect of abstinence time on male sperm quality, which demonstrated the relationship between abstinence and male reproductive function.
In the study, 1479 male participants aged 20-45 were selected for clinical trials, and the participants were divided into 11 groups according to the abstinence time, which were 1-day group, 2-day group, 3-day group... 10-day group, 11-day and above-day group.
Among them, the group with abstinence time of 1-2 days was listed as short-term abstinence group, abstinence time of 2-7 days was listed as the WHO recommended abstinence group, and more than 7 days was listed as long-term abstinence group. When participants completed the prescribed period of abstinence, the semen data changes between the groups were compared and analyzed.
After eight semen examinations were performed in each group and cross-sectional comparisons were performed, the researchers found that forward motile sperm rate decreased with the extension of abstinence time, while semen volume, sperm total count, sperm concentration, non-forward motility sperm rate and DFI increased with the extension of abstinence time.
Among them, the higher the DFI (sperm DNA fragmentation rate), the more DNA fragments in the male sperm, which also indicates that there are fewer intact genes, which will directly affect the quality of male sperm, which also shows that long-term abstinence may reduce male fertility.
Therefore, for healthy men with fertility needs, they can abstain appropriately after sex and then have sex, when the abstinence time is within 1-2 days, the DFI index and HDS index of male sperm are the lowest, and the sperm rate is also high through forward movement, which is more conducive to pregnancy. However, if you abstain from sex for a long time, you may reduce your fertility.
So, in addition to reducing fertility, many men will find themselves with reduced sexual function after long-term abstinence, why is this?
Western medicine believes that male sperm discharge requires the cooperation of nerves and muscles to complete, and after external stimulation of the reproductive system, the nerves gradually become excited, and the muscles around the command "little brother" become excited. When nerve excitation reaches a critical point, the bulbocavernosus muscle, sciatic cavernosus muscle, and pelvic floor muscle contract, compressing the urethra and excreting semen from the urethra.
For healthy men who have not used "little brothers" for a long time, nerves and local muscles are in a "Buddha" state for a long time, and they often react strongly when suddenly receiving external stimuli, and the nerves are more likely to enter the critical point of excitement, which is earlier to discharge sperm.
There are also some men who do not have premature ejaculation troubles, but may experience erectile dysfunction! These people often abstain for too long, local muscles have no nerve mobilization for a long time, slow response or even atrophy, similar to long-term wheelchair people leg muscle atrophy, abstinence men will also appear "little brother waste."
Through the dual explanation of Chinese and Western medicine, we know that long-term abstinence in men may indeed lead to the "abolition of the little brother." Next, let's expand the conversation, Chinese medicine often says that sperm blood is the same source, since the source of sperm blood is kidneys, can regular blood donation also protect kidney function?
3. Based on the theory of sperm blood homology, is regular blood donation beneficial to protect kidney function?
Before discussing whether regular blood donation can protect kidney function, let's briefly explain what it means to be homologous in sperm blood? The production of blood depends on the cooperation of all internal organs, which is also divided into priorities.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that there are two main sources of blood, the first is the digestion and absorption function of the spleen and stomach, after food enters the spleen and stomach to decompose high-quality nutrients, these nutrients will directly enter the bloodline and be converted into blood. The second is the myeloid function of the kidney, bone marrow is produced by kidney essence, but also an important substance for blood generation, kidney essence foot is bone marrow foot, blood can be produced continuously.
Based on these two sources, let's talk about whether regular blood donation is beneficial for kidney protection.
In fact, from the perspective of blood production, regular blood donation is conducive to protecting kidney function. After regular blood donation, the body's blood is temporarily lacking, at this time the bone marrow needs to accelerate the production of blood, and the kidney essence is also a consumption, which can exercise kidney function to a certain extent. Moreover, blood production requires the coordination of various organs, so regular blood donation is also good for other organs, and the joint efforts of the organs for blood production also improve internal coordination.
Especially for men, their bodies are relatively "occluded", compared to women's menstruation to consume sperm blood, men have less chance of blood consumption, and there are fewer opportunities for blood replacement. Regular blood donation provides an opportunity to replenish new blood, which has certain benefits for men's health.
But as we also mentioned earlier, one of the main sources of blood is nutrition after food digestion, especially for a small amount of blood loss such as regular blood donation, the consumption of kidney essence is limited, generally eating animal liver and other blood-replenishing foods, 2-3 days can be supplemented. Therefore, it is not advisable to donate blood instead of sperm removal, and it cannot be achieved.
It should be noted that blood donation can only promote the function of internal organs in the short term, and does not guarantee good health.
Moreover, blood donation is not suitable for everyone, and its blood donation requirements are usually strict, not only for age, weight, but also to measure the blood pressure, pulse and temperature of the donor and other physical indicators, only after all of them, blood donation can be carried out.
In addition, in order to avoid physical discomfort caused by blood donation, healthy people generally donate blood between 200-400nl at a time, and ensure that the amount of blood donated does not exceed one-tenth of the total blood volume of the human body.
Epilogue:
From both Chinese and Western medicine, it is argued that a man's "little brother" is not used for too long, which may affect kidney function, lead to abnormal reproductive system, reduce its fertility, and be very detrimental to men's health.
Regular blood donation by healthy men is conducive to stimulating blood production in the internal organs in a short period of time, but its consumption of kidney essence is limited, and it cannot replace the role of sperm elimination. It is recommended that adult men choose appropriate sperm drainage for good health.
Citations:
[1] WEI Wei, ZHANG Ning, ZHAO Yingying, LIU Xingchi, YU Yuexin. Effects of abstinence time on sperm quality in men[J].Chinese Journal of Sexology,2022,31(07):12-15.)
[2] ZHAO Jiansheng. A preliminary discussion on the understanding of male ejaculation function in traditional Chinese medicine[J].Current Medicine,2022,28(15):186-191.)
[3] BAI Jingying. Effects of abstinence days, semen placement time and temperature on sperm DNA fragmentation[D].Zhengzhou University,2020.DOI:10.27466/d.cnki.gzzdu.2020.003438.)