Most of the time, when people want to live longer, they just exercise more, eat better and maybe lay off the smoking, cancer and occasional rolls through chemical waste. Or, if you’re feeling particularly masochistic, you can cut off your own balls for the sake of living another 15 joyless, neutered years.
The study of over 80 eunuchs from the Chosun Dynasty, which ruled in Korea from 1392 to 1897, looked at the world’s only known record of eunuchs’ lives and compared them to genealogical records of other men of similar social rank. The researchers cross-checked their results with other royal records. They found that the average lifespan of a Korean eunuch was about 70 years, 14 to 19 years higher than non-castrated men of similar social standing. Three of the 81 eunuchs lived to be over 100 years old. The researchers calculated that the rate of centenarians among this group of eunuchs was at least 130 times higher than the current rate in developed countries. [via ABC]
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No, this totally seems like a fair tradeoff, assuming your fear of dying is greater than your desire to not have vital organs surgically removed. Personally, I’d rather live a naturally long life with my gonads not horribly mutilated, rather than tack on 15 extra years of wishing I hadn’t cut off my balls.
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