Believe it or not, masturbation appears to have more benefits than previously thought or at least this is what Australian researchers suggest. According to the latest study in this field, men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation.

For the study, the researchers questioned over 1,000 men who had developed prostate cancer and 1,250 who had not about their sexual habits. They found that men who had ejaculated the most between the ages of 20 and 50 were the least likely to develop prostate cancer.

More than that, the researchers also have an explanation for their findings. Apparently, ejaculating may prevent carcinogens accumulating in the prostate gland. The prostate provides a fluid into semen during ejaculation that activates sperm and prevents them sticking together.

According to Dr. Graham Giles, of the Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, who led the research team, fewer ejaculations may mean the carcinogens build up.

“It’s a prostatic stagnation hypothesis. The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells that line them,” he told New Scientist.

A similar process seems to take place when a woman breastfeeds her baby. Apparently, lactating “flushes” out carcinogens, this way, reducing her chance to develop breast cancer, New Scientist reports.

Dr. Giles goes even further and says sexual intercourse may not have the same effect because of the higher risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which could in turn raise the risk of cancer. “Had we been able to remove ejaculations associated with sexual intercourse, there should have been an even stronger protective effect of ejaculations,” he said.

Anthony Smith, deputy director of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University in Melbourne, welcomed the findings of the study. “Masturbation is part of people’s sexual repertoire. If these findings hold up, then it’s perfectly reasonable that men should be encouraged to masturbate,” he told BBC News.

Prostate cancer develops most frequently in men over fifty. It is the most common type of cancer in men in the U.S., where it is responsible for more male deaths than any other cancer, except lung cancer. Around 35,000 men in the UK are diagnosed per year; where around 10,000 die of it.