TAKAMATSU, Japan – According to two Japanese scientists and one Australian researcher, banning hardcore pornography may not be the best way to save the human race. Frequent orgasm, including during masturbation, actually may increase male potency.

According to Yukio Yasui, an associate professor of evolutionary biology at Kagawa University, men tend to measure their virility by the amount of ejaculate they produce. That’s one indication, he said, but potency actually is determined not only by the quantity of sperm, but also by the mobility of each of the little devils. While denying orgasm may increase the quantity, it actually decreases the quality, as measured by mobility.

Apparently, zinc levels are a primary factor in sperm mobility, and the longer sperm are stored in a warm, moist environment, the more zinc they lose. Consuming lots of protein helps keep zinc levels high.

So does masturbation, Dr. Mariko Yasui advises in her book The Lady Doctor Will Teach You – Nighttime Troubles Consultation Clinic. Men who deny themselves masturbation may notice an increase in the volume of semen, but because zinc levels drop rapidly, the quality of reproductive material suffers. She indicated her research with athletes backs up her theory.

Yasui’s advice dovetails with the results of research Professor Leigh Simmons conducted at the University of Western Australia in 2005. Simmons and his colleagues discovered the kind of porn that fuels men’s masturbatory fantasies may affect sperm volume and mobility.

The study examined the semen of 52 straight men between the ages of 18 and 35. Each man masturbated twice: once to an image of three women engaged in hardcore activity, and once to an image of one woman sexually entangled with two men. Despite many men’s professed fascination with lesbian porn, Simmons discovered the image of a mixed threesome inspired the production of better sperm in both volume and mobility. Simmons marked up the phenomenon to a subconscious urge to compete.