Sex Hormones and Health

Chinese physicians pinpoint what they call the ‘kidney glands’ (Shen Hsien) as the key regulators of sexual potency. These glands, which straddle the tops of the kidneys like hats, are called the ‘suprarenal glands’ in Western parlance.

The suprarenals, also known as the adrenal cortex, produce a variety of hormones of vital importance to various metabolic processes and biological functions.

According to the Taoist view, the adrenal cortex is the gland most directly influenced by sexual excitement.

Adrenal hormones include small but physiologically significant amounts of androgens (male hormones) and relatively minute quantities of estrogens (female hormones).

These sex hormones, or Yin & Yang ‘essences’, 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 glands.

It is the balance, not quantity, of these microscopic elements of Yin & Yang essence that counts.

Insufficient secretion of androgens in males results in the loss of sexual drive and potency. Excessive androgen secretion in the female can cause masculinizing effects like beard growth, breast shrinkage, and masculine ways of thinking, speech and demeanor.

Thus, the primary goal of Taoist sexual regimens is the enhancement of male and female hormone secretions in an optimum balance.

Tests on the physiological effects of erotic films on healthy males showed a marked increase in testosterone levels in their blood. Further R&D revealed that men with high testosterone levels, high sperm count and dense, viscous semen were completely immune to many communicable diseases and were highly resistant to others, compared to those with low testosterone or sperm count and watery semen.

However, in general, women have always enjoyed higher immunity and resistance to disease, recover more quickly from illness, and live longer lives than men.

Since essence is the ‘root’ of the Taoist Trinity, with energy as the ‘stem’ and spirit as the ‘blossom’, the entire planet may be nourished simply by cultivating the roots, which consist of blood bile, enzymes, hormones, etc.

Of all elements of essence, hormones exert by far the most profound and powerful physiological influences, even in the most minute quantities. Of all Taoist regimes, disciplined sexual intercourse provides the most direct stimulation to vital hormone production and endocrine balance.

While sexual excitement remains one of the most effective means of stimulation vital hormone production in both 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.

However, men have no such alternative mechanism, and for them sexual intercourse remains the best way to stimulate hormone production.

When enhanced secretions from the male ‘kidney-glands’ are preserved through no-ejaculation intercourse, they enter the bloodstream and travel throughout his body and ultimately produce an orgasm in the brain.

These secretions reduce hair loss, skin wrinkling, arthritis, rheumatism, impotence, poor muscle tone, and other disasters associated with aging.

To summarize the concept of “The Joining of the Essences”: the sexual union of a man and a woman results in the creation of ching, a form of sexual energy. When in the act of lovemaking, ching is created, the man can transform some of this ching into qi, and replenish his and her lifeforce.

By pleasing the woman as often as physically possible, more and more ching is transformed into qi, thus creating more and more health benefits for both partners.

According to the Taoist view, the ravages of aging are caused by the progressive depletion of hormone production and the dissipation of vital energy.

As someone gets older, it stands to reason that sexual intercourse grows ever more important as a form of preventative therapy against disease and aging.

A recent study revealed that frequent sex considerably relieves the chronic pain of rheumatism by stimulating the secretion of cortisone in the adrenal cortex.

So, for Taoists, the issue of sex at older age is not a moral or social one, it’s a matter of life and death.