Castration is a recipe for a long life for a man
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
A team of researchers from the University of Korea in Incheon found a way to significantly increase the life expectancy of men.
However, representatives of the strong half of humanity themselves are unlikely to be very happy about discovering scientists when they learn that this method is castration.
It turns out that it's all about testosterone. This hormone makes the male figure muscular, but at the same time has a negative effect on life expectancy.
According to experts, to prolong the life of men can be almost two decades by depriving the feeding of testosterone, and, more simply, castration.
"Our research data are very important for understanding why there is a difference in the life expectancy of men and women," commented Professor Quing-Jin Ming. "With further research in this area, we will try to find out the extent of testosterone's effect on the life expectancy of people."
Experts analyzed the phenomenon of longevity of court eunuchs, whose life expectancy was twenty years longer than that of their contemporaries.
This is evidenced by genealogical records of eunuchs who lived at the court of the Korean kings of the Joseon dynasty, who was in power on the peninsula in the 13th-20th centuries.
The total number of records that reliably confirm the date of birth and death of the eunuchs did not amount to much - only 81. The researchers compared their lives to the lives of men of the same social status of that time.
On average, the eunuchs experienced their fellow countrymen for 14-19 years more, and there were also long-lived people who lived to the age of 100 years old.
The fact that the eunuchs lived in the palace, and therefore this could be a key moment for their longevity, experts exclude, because the royal family and their family members lived the least - they usually died at the age of 40 years.
Of course, to state that castration will provide a man with long years of life, scientists can not, nevertheless, during the reign of the Korean emperors, things were exactly like this.
Surely in the modern world it will be difficult to find a man who agrees to "buy" himself a dozen extra years of life at such a price. However, scientists hope that thanks to this knowledge, science will be able to find alternative ways to solve the problem of longevity without resorting to such radical methods as castration.
[