Author: Chris James Category: Health, Men's Health, Sexual Health, Women's Health
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Sex and Hormones, the Yogi’s perspective.               

According to Yogic and Taoist health regimens, of all the elements which make up your vital essence (which consists of blood, enzymes, and hormones), hormones exert by far the most powerful physiological influences, even in the most minute quantities.  Disciplined sexual intercourse provides the most direct stimulation to vital hormone production and endocrine balance. 

Ayurvedic and Chinese doctors alike pinpoint what they call the ‘kidney glands’ as the principal regulators of sexual potency, especially in men.   These glands which straddle the tops of the kidneys like hats are called the suprarenal glands.

The suprarenals, also known as the adrenal cortex, produce a variety of hormones of vital importance to various metabolic processes and biological functions.  In both men and women, adrenal hormones include small but physiologically significant amounts of androgens (male hormones) and oestrogens (female hormones).  These sex hormones regulate the secretions of all other sex glands such as the ovaries, testes, and prostate, and also influence secretions from the pituitary, pineal, and thyroid gland. 

In Yogic and Taoist health systems, it is the balance, not the quantity, of these microscopic elements that counts – insufficient secretion of androgen in men results in the loss of sexual drive and potency.  In women excessive androgen will result in masculizing effects such as hair growth.

Thus the primary goal of Taoist and Yogic sexual regimens is the enhancement of male and female hormone secretions for optimum balance, health and longevity:

According to the Yogic and Taoist view, the ravages of aging are caused by the progressive depletion of hormone production and the dissipation of ‘vital’ energy through the course of one’s life.  While sexual excitement is one of the most effective ways to stimulate vital hormone production in men and women, women have the additional mechanisms of menstruation and pregnancy to promote production of sexual hormones, even in the absence of sexual intercourse.  Men, on the other hand can fall back on no such natural mechanism.

Furthermore, Ayurvedic physicians teach us that women have a distinct advantage over men by bleeding every month.  According to Nancy Lonsdorf, M.D., director of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Wellness Centre in Washington, D.C., menstruation purifies the body every 25 to 35 days, gathering all the toxins that have built up over the month and moving them out of the body along with the menstrual blood.

As a person gets older, it stands to reason that sexual intercourse grows ever more important as a form of preventative therapy and aging.  When secretions from the male ‘kidney-glands’ are preserved through properly disciplined intercourse without ejaculation, they enter the bloodstream, travel throughout the body, preventing hair loss, skin wrinkling, poor muscle tone, arthritis, rheumatism, and impotence.  
For Yogis and Taoists alike, the issue of sexual intercourse in old age is not a moral one or social one – it is simply a matter of life and health.

Let’s look at some solid evidence from western science.  It is well known in western medical circles that frequent sexual intercourse considerably relieves the chronic pain of rheumatism in elderly couples by stimulating secretion of cortisone in the adrenal cortex.  According to the Yogic and Taoist view, the adrenal cortex is the gland most directly influenced by sexual excitement.

On the other hand, according to western science, excessive coitus inhibits adrenal function in the male.  Since ‘coitus’ includes ejaculation in western medical and sexual terminology, we see that the Yogic view that excessive ejaculation ruins the ‘kidney-glands’ in men is essentially correct.

In both men and women, sexual secretions contain potent biochemical active substances.  When female secretions are released into the warm, moist environment of the vagina during intercourse, they come into contact with the sensitive paper thin membrane of the engorged penis.  Body heat opens wide the pores and the rhythmic rubbing of vagina and penis cause biochemically significant amounts of female essence to be absorbed by the male.  Less than a pinhead of an essential hormone suffices to exert profound physiological effects upon the entire endocrine system. 

For women, frequent intercourse with orgasm is the most efficient method for cultivating sexual energy and essence.   For men, frequent intercourse with infrequent ejaculation is the key technique for cultivating sexual energy and essence.  Furthermore, retaining semen during sexual intercourse enables a man not only to preserve and reabsorb his own essence; it also enables him to prolong the act sufficiently for his partner to reach full orgasm, thereby releasing her most potent secretions for his benefit.  In effect he kills two birds with one stone, preserving his own essence while releasing absorbing her abundant essence.

However if the man ejaculates before the woman’s orgasm, she gains the benefit of both his semen essence and his energy, while he loses both and gains neither of hers, because he loses his erection before it has a chance to absorb the essential secretions of her orgasm.

According to Yogic and Taoist health regimens it is imperative that a man masters the techniques of ejaculation control, the orgasm and ejaculation are actually two separate events – through practice!  When pressure to ejaculate mounts, the man should stop and allow the semen to return to the prostate.

A sexually active man who is unwilling to hone his sexual skills and correctly adjust his attitudes, will sooner or later, deplete his sexual potency, dissipate his vital energy, lose his immunity and foreshorten his life. 

Thus, according to the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda, semen was considered to be a vital elixir that housed important subtle energies. Ejaculation was said to lead to loss of power, energy, concentration, and even spiritual merit.  And conserving it through celibacy and other yoga practices was said to help develop rich stores of this subtle energy, called ojas, thereby building vitality,

Chris James Mind Body