An article at The Guardian. Excerpt:
A 2012 study published in Current Biology found that the average lifespan of 81 eunuchs born between 1556 and 1861 was 70 years, which was 14.4–19.1 years longer than the lifespan of non-castrated men of similar socioeconomic status. Researchers concluded that the study “supports the idea that male sex hormones decrease the lifespan of men.”
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86 comments:
"81 eunuchs born between 1556 and 1861"
Welp, I guess that settles it, and they didn't even have to break out the science. Now, for their next trick...
Geez Ms. Althouse, speaking of death nuggets, how do you come across these things? Wild eyed, wild-haired, crazy-smiling redhead name Cat, advocating happily on castration, citing evidence from.....500 years ago.
"...it in fact “seems to have something deeply to do with the immune system and cellular repair”
But wait! How does something suddenly become transformed into a fact when it only seems to be something unproven by the data?
There is more to Full Life than just longevity!
Also, why do women insist on giving births? What are mortality rates in these undertakings?
This is Althouse's first official pride-month posting, and it's a doozy.
"Men and other mammals live longer if they are castrated..."
Marry liberal women.
Problem solved without the mess...
Syphillis had come to Europe during that period, and was quite deadly. (Yes, it infects women also, but men tend to be more exposed as more sexually active.) Men did all the fighting in various wars during that period. I suppose all that is indirectly tied to testosterone, but wouldn't advise getting your boy children castrated today. But, I suppose this is intended to push that, because...Science!
...it is not known why men go through life 'smuggling two little death nuggets.'
Why? How about...
"It's better to burn-out than to fade away."
According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), females on average have a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer. They predict that around 281,550 females will receive a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer in 2021.
And women hardly go through life smuggling those death pillows.
How many of those castrati were boys who sang for the Church? How many of them were pampered performers for the ruling classes? How many of them were instead laborers who worked with their hands and backs to put bread on their tables?
Never trust science that has an obvious sociological agenda.
I’m sensing a ‘women are stupid’ theme this morning…
Well then folks... you wanna be castrated.. be my guest. Stupid is as stupid does.
Liberal woman with conclusion searching desperately for any information, regardless of how weak, to support it.
What else is new?
OK, so now the penis-chopping doctors "affirming" tranny madness will argue that ALL boys should be castrated in order that they live longer.
It will be "for their own good."
Just you wait.
Good news for Howard, though- even if he is fat and stupid, he is now sure to live longer than me.
Were the eunuchs like the rest of the relevant population except for this surgical change? I thought castration correlated with high-status professions in the Ottoman Empire and in opera —these people were more sheltered, better fed, etc, than the average male; which would tend to add longevity.
But far be it for me to interrupt a bullshit artist making stuff up…
That child bearing is all important attitude is on hold for a little dopamine this morning…
Effinayright is correct- it is to support the argument that not allowing young boys to transition with surgery is violation of their rights.
They don’t live longer. It just seems that way.
And, the castrati "study" is bullshit anyway- impossible to account for confounding variables from records that far back in time. Yes, there is evidence in mammals that being castrated improves longevity, but it is an evolutionary dead end. There are always costs to trying to live longer.
Being male is the turbo version.
Nuts are how we males play dice with the Universe. You have to have them to be in the game.
"81 eunuchs born between 1556 and 1861"
In Korea, no less. We pay these idiots to do this.
Trangender pride parade.
of the "non castrated men".. How many died from lead poisoning? or other forms of blood loss?
ALL of the castrated men were SLAVES.. that is: Property. You take care of your Property
When men are transitioned, women, too, and the human "burden" h/t Obama, Sanger, Levine, Hamas et al is relieved... a social, wicked religion.
Getting a Naomi Wolfe "I don't understand what I'm talking about, but it get's me press" vibe from this.
“A 2012 study published in Current Biology found that the average lifespan of 81 eunuchs born between 1556 and 1861 was 70 years, which was 14.4–19.1 years longer than the lifespan of non-castrated men of similar socioeconomic status. Researchers concluded that the study “supports the idea that male sex hormones decrease the lifespan of men.”
Reading some research makes you more stupid than you were before.
I would suggest that the research supports the idea that the castrated men live longer because they are not shot by jealous husbands.
Josephbleau @ 10:49: “… because they are not shot by jealous husbands.”
Threadwinner.
phantommut:
Never trust science that has an obvious sociological agenda.
All sociology studies are agenda driven. And, like this one, rarely actual science due to the same bullshit; preconceived conclusions supported by shady - at very best - and shallow data to drive a movement.
Ah the Guardian. Thanks, but even at age 80 I'll keep my nuggets.
Women have lived longer because they were protected from things that would kill them by men.
This is on the level of thinking that because an exceptional woman beats an average man that men aren't really stronger than women.
Jupiter said...
"81 eunuchs born between 1556 and 1861"
In Korea, no less. We pay these idiots to do this.
6/1/24, 10:34 AM
Ah,ha! I've watched enough sageuks to know this means they probably had high status positions within the court. It's easier to live longer as an advisor than as a warrior.
I wonder if they looked at how many boys didn't survive the initial surgery.
A whole lot of possible confounders there, but the theory is at least plausible. Castration, or its chemical equivalent, is one of the standard treatments for prostate cancer.
Rush used to say the reason men die before their wives is....because they can.
Reminder. Correlation does not equal causation.
What Would Bryan Johnson Do?
It gets worse the farther you read: in a few hundred years artificial wombs may make it unethical for women to undergo pregnancy . . .
Don't ever change, Grauniad.
I suspect the urge to reproduce (a) produces more stress, (b) encourages the male to take risks he would not otherwise take, and (c) greatly increases the chance of acquiring various diseases.
It also needs to be noted that castration techniques were often fatal. Yeah, I suppose eunuchs live longer if you ignore the ones that died after the procedure.
Two thoughts - (1) did they filter out suicides among the forced-trans folks? (2) if it was published in a journal over the past twenty years or so, odds are 50-50 that the data was fabricated.
I’m just glad our hostess found a reason to use the ‘aging testicles’ tag.
It would be good to hear 17th and 16th century music sung on the original instrument.
If you took my balls, I'd immediately begin researching the fastest, most painless method of suicide.
My doctor recently told me I could add five years onto my life if I stopped drinking a nightly shot of bourbon. I laughed.
I think we need to hear the 2000 year-old man weigh in on this subject.
No, thanks. I’ll take my chances.
Correlation does not equal causality. (Especially when it comes to lifestyle choices and longevity.) There are so many factors involved that it's hard to point to any one factor.
"My doctor recently told me I could add five years onto my life if I stopped drinking a nightly shot of bourbon. I laughed."
I stopped drinking my nightly shot because it was causing me to relax so deeply that I began choking with sleep apnea, waking up gasping for breath with my heart pounding, and usually I would be in a nightmare while it was happening. Now I have the occasional drink during the day, but I don't drink before bedtime, and after a month or so, I ceased to miss it. Part of the reason I liked to have a drink was that I dreaded falling asleep. How's that for irony. I just didn't put two and two together.
Incidentally, I found this neat device called an O2Ring, which will wake you up if it detects your blood oxygen dropping to levels that approach those that cause brain damage, you can set the threshold, but it comes set to 88%. You can buy one through the Amazon portal, and it beats strapping a C-PAP over your face, especially if you only get it occasionally, like me, and most nights you sleep fine and C-PAP is overkill. You just wear it on your finger, but be sure not to wear it when you are washing your hands, which I learned. It doesn't like it and I had to buy a second one. What it has taught me is that if I sleep with my upper body raised, I seldom get it, and when I fall asleep on the couch, maybe watching a west coast hockey game, I get it a lot, even if it is only mild (90%). It's only like $170. Those episodes of very low oxygen are associated with dementia, better not to experience them, if possible.
And with that comment, I am going to sign off from commenting on this blog and going back to being a regular daily reader.
One could argue that the men with the death nuggets live more fulfilling and happier lives, right?
I've heard this argument ... folks who party hard going to bars, drinking all of the time who die younger live better lives.
Complicated world we live in. Maybe lose one death nugget, have the best of both worlds, LOL.
So if we castrated rapists we'd be doing them a favor?
I think if they studied cattle, they would find the results reversed.
Secretaries correlate. Scientist study cause and effect.
"Fake but accurate." Maybe. A contemporary study might be useful.
I've known two healthy, active 70ish guys who got on the testosterone booster bandwagon. One was dead in less than a year. The other, who had no history of cardiac issues, has had three heart attacks and a stroke.
Sometimes, you might wanna admit; when your dick's dead, it's dead.
So would you rather have a dead stallion or a live gelding?
I've read the study cited, and it's worthless. There are no data on the cause of death, such as in combat, in dangerous occupations, or participation in dangerous sports.
How about the death melons women carry on their chests?
"Men and other mammals live longer if they are castrated..."
This is absolutely not the case with steers.
But, but, slaughter isn't a natural death," stammers Cat Bohannon.
Neither is getting shot down over Regensburg, but the study you depend on doesn't distinguish between a bullet in the brain and a cancer in the testes.
Long ago I realized that the goal of life should not be to live as long as possible. For a man, there are a number of things that or more important.
Mine are bigger than yours.
A capon, which is a male chick that's been castrated (usually within the 1st 4 week), puts on more weight as it grows and has finer intramuscular fat (yes, chickens have 'marbling' too) for culinary purposes. It does not live a shorter life...well at least not any shorter than any other bird killed for food.
There's an analogy in there somewhere regarding being a capon and being a man, being married to some god awfl woman, getting the dad-bod and always remarking to others, "I gotta check with the wife, she wears the pants in our house."
Don't be a capon. Be a man. Preserve your nuggets figuratively and literally.
We die as nature intended.
Screwed, tired, and happy.
If we offered widespread, free vasectomies, we'd lower the abortion rate far more than depending on women alone for avoiding unwanted children.
I wonder the impact of men not having unintentional children would have on life expectancy.
FFS. Eunuchs were most definitely not living normal lives, and the shortened lives of men was due in large part to violence, and in some part to backbreaking labor. HOW did the eunuchs in question live and die? Were they in choirs and living a relatively affluent life, with plenty to eat and no backbreaking labor or wars to fight? Without seeing a hell of a lot more data, nothing can be learned from this "research". The really pitiful thing is that this passes for research these days, because the "researcher" does not know ANYTHING about statistics.
JK Brown said, "I wonder the impact of men not having unintentional children would have on life expectancy."
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Don't know, but it would devastate the African-American population.
Excellent comments, all. Let me just say that Lazlo would've had a field day with this one. Miss you, buddy.
Blogger Paul Zrimsek said...
A whole lot of possible confounders there, but the theory is at least plausible. Castration, or its chemical equivalent, is one of the standard treatments for prostate cancer.
6/1/24, 11:27 AM
What B.S.! Treatments for prostate cancer are:
Remove the prostate.
Various forms of radiation therapy
Chemo.
I had prostate cancer. Removing my testicles was not an option.
TickTock:
Long ago I realized that the goal of life should not be to live as long as possible. For a man, there are a number of things that or more important.
I've said here and elsewhere that I was a danger junkie until I aged out of it.
I have a friend across the street, a really nice guy. He was an accountant all his life and didn't do much else. Whenever we spend an evening, I'm the only one telling stories.
That disparity is why I was what I was.
Memories are one of those more important things.
“Men and other mammals live longer if they are castrated”
That ain’t livin’!
"Death Nuggets" would be a good name for a band.
Deeze nuts!
RideSpaceMountain said...
"81 eunuchs born between 1556 and 1861"
Welp, I guess that settles it, and they didn't even have to break out the science. Now, for their next trick...
Science + Feminism = ?
Narr, I was thinking the same thing this morning when I first read the post.
Testosterone is the risk-taking/anger hormone. No surprises it has consequences. That wooly mammoth isn't going to spear itself.
Great minds, Yancey, great minds.
I can't help but half-remember a line from some Italian farce film back in the '70s, when the long-suffering paterfamilias gets tired of his wife's bitching, "Woman! You're busting my balls."
Never let them bust your balls. They never recover fully.
Older men who marry younger women live longer.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6690583/
Try that without balls and see how far you get and oblig. trust the science.
*This may be double posted or posted to the wrong thread. Google triggered a sign-in then redirected me to the wrong post, and I failed to see that.
What B.S.! Treatments for prostate cancer are:
Remove the prostate.
Various forms of radiation therapy
Chemo.
--
And androgen blockade, which...
The selection bias in this "study" is overwhelming.
The vast majority of eunuchs were anonymous disposable slaves. The only ones whose lifespans we have knowledge of are the the very few who became important for some reason - wealth or power. Or in the case of castrati, had significant and presumably long singing careers. For every famous castrato, there would have been a dozen who died young, or whose voices weren't particularly good and died in poverty.
Maybe a coincidence, but June 1 is the start of gay pride month. Which has morphed into LBGTQ+ pride month.
So, if you're looking for some transexual positivity...
Castration is good for you!
I continue to think that the left hates human reproduction -- if not humanity -- which is why they are pro-abortion, pro-suicide, pro-euthanasia, and pro-castration. The very opposite of pro-life.
Testosterone is the risk-taking/anger hormone.
It doesn't surprise me, if doctors inject testosterone into young women, there might be serious side-effects (aside from cancer).
Whenever there's a story about a trans shooter, I don't think, "she's off her meds." I wonder about the opposite. Did her medicine cause this?
How about the death melons women carry on their chests?
Estrogen is why women are more likely to get breast cancer than men.
The original birth control pill shot a lot of estrogen into women, which likely caused a spike in breast cancer.
I know, correlation is not causation.
On the other hand, we might ask the drug companies why they've lowered (or removed) all the estrogen from birth control pills.
Pregnancy also gives women a shot of estrogen, naturally. In the case of abortion, these new cells have nothing to do, once there's an abortion. And the theory is the cells become cancerous over time.
Women who give birth and breast-feed their children have a lower rate of breast cancer.
Celibate nuns are more likely to get breast cancer than moms.
Having babies and breast-feeding them is a great way to reduce cancer risk.
So the author is a proponent of abortion. How unfortunate this gash was allowed to live. Another misandranist, imagine that.
Imagine how many lives could be saved if all post-menopausal females had their mammaries and ovaries removed? These organs aren't needed for reproductive purposes after menopause and so their continued existence afterwards pose a cancer risk. The logic for this course of herd health is solid and irrefutable.
" There once was a man from Assizes.
With balls of varying sizes.
One was quite small.
Almost no ball at all.
But the other was large and won prizes."
Pronounced, Ah-say-is
Wow. I have really misjudged my ex-wife.
Turns out her (futile, thank goodness) attempts were to prolong my life.
there are no arguments here, it is feminist ideology, matriarchy of women's supiority.
the example of the Spanish teacher Aurelia Vera Rodríguez emasculation of men's sex right after birth, attempts were made to incarcerate her, promoting violence against children and the spread of propaganda harmful to society, not a hair on her head was touched, all the charges were withdrawn, and the boys from Australia are not yet children, aware of their stupid and immoral transgression immediately. they suffered connevections but it's not enough, legally they have to be punished in court to make a public show, so what the female gender may be, is not the male gender, it's not equality anymore!
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