Masturbation - is it really that bad?

Recently a South African rapper Mr Selwyn, real name Selwyn Ngwenya, came out against masturbation, taking a hard stance against the practise.

He said porn is a “dangerous demon”, which I suppose all depends on what you’re into, and that masturbation takes the “Glory of God out of you”.

• Twitter throws major shade to Mr Selwyn over masturbation comments

“Do not have a contract of agreement between porn and your mind. Pornography cuts you off blessings. Delays your life and makes you believe you are going forward whilst you are in the portal of lust going nowhere in your life‚" he said.

And Japan has just produced the world's first commercial VR sex suit. Religion versus engineering - religion says don't do it, engineering tries to make plans on how to make it awesome.

I kid, but funnily enough there is a fair amount of research into masturbation, perhaps because most research is done by students and that’s a fun topic for whoever gives out grants.

“So, I see your grant has a Vaseline and old sock budget…”

And here is what that research has found:

First of all, it releases dopamine and endorphines into your system, which makes it a pretty good painkiller. In fact in women it is one way to deal with menstrual cramp.

This unfortunately kills the whole “But I’ve got a headache” excuse, because sex may be a good way to kill a migraine.

Once you’re done, you will get a nice healthy dose of prolactin, the hormone that makes people fall asleep after sex.

For men, you’re not rubbing one out just because you’re randy, no; you’re doing your bit in fighting prostate cancer.

It also encourages men’s bodies to produce leukocytes, meaning it helps your body’s immune system.

So physically, it seems pretty good so far.

When it comes to relationships, according to Dr Justin Lehmiller, a leading social psychologist and guy who wrote text books on the subject, “research on heterosexual married women has found that female masturbators report having happier marriages and more satisfying sex than their non-masturbating counterparts”.

Now obviously masturbation can be very bad for you if it becomes a compulsion, but the same can be said for anything.

Also if you're doing things like choking yourself while choking the chicken - you may end up becoming a ridiculous corpse. Auto-erotic asphyxiation is not something you want on your tomb stone.

For most of us though, provided you’re not doing it in job interviews or on street corners? It is pretty healthy.

After all, if it was all that bad the people who invented that suit wouldn’t also be the people behind half the world’s electronics.