Wanna live longer? Cut off your balls, son.

Oh god no! I’d rather die young than whack off my nuts. What am I talking about here?

Turns out (that’s my new catchphrase), “castrated men living in Korea centuries ago outlived other men by a significant margin.” The findings were published in Current Biology, suggesting that “male sex hormones are responsible for shortening the lives of men.”

The evidence extends from the Imperial court of the Korean Chosun dynasty (AD 1392-1910).

“This discovery adds an important clue for understanding why there is a difference in the expected life span between men and women,” said Kyung-Jin Min of Inha University.

Castrated boys in Korea lost their reproductive organs - usually in accidents that involved dog bites or underling castration purposefully to gain “early access to the palace.” Eunuchs were allowed to marry and had families by adopting castrated boys or normal girls.

Genealogical records were meticulously kept. By poring over these records, researchers could catalogue life expectancy of these people in contrast to the rest of the population.

The incidence of centenarians among Korean eunuchs is at least 130 times greater than it is in the developed countries, and that can’t be explained simply by the benefits of life in the palace, either. Most eunuchs spent as much time outside the palace as they did inside it. And, in fact, kings and male members of the royal family had the shortest lives of all, surviving only to their mid-forties.”

Source: EurekAlert

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