A social media story alleging that a man suffered multiple and involuntary ejaculations as a result of eating spoiled clams is medically possible, a Kaohsiung-based urologist said.
According to the story, shared on Facebook group “Through the Eyes of ER Doctors” by an anonymous user on Sunday, a man was admitted to hospital for emergency treatment because he had diarrhea and “hourly” involuntary ejaculations after eating “possibly spoiled” clams a day earlier.
A scan of a hospital incident report omitting identifying details was attached to the post.
Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital urologist Wang Chi-chieh (王起杰) said that in spite of its seeming implausibility, it is medically possible.
Wang said if a man developed acute enteritis following the consumption of rotten seafood, rectal inflammation and swelling could compress the seminal vesicle, causing involuntarily ejaculation.
Men have two seminal vesicles and each store 3cm3 of semen. Healthy men between 20 and 39 years of age are able to “completely refill” the seminal vesicles every 24 hours, Wang said.
Assuming that a patient is healthy and that the amount of seminal fluid discharged is between 0.5cm3 and 1cm3 per discharge, the person could sustain involuntarily seminal discharges for an entire day, Wang said.
However, other medical experts are skeptical of the story’s veracity.
Taipei Municipal Wanfang Hospital deputy superintendent Shieh Ying-Hua (謝瀛華) said the human body is unlikely to support such a feat, describing the story as “most likely an Internet rumor.”
Shu-Tien Urology Ophthalmology Clinic director Lin Ju-ting (林儒廷) said that although sympathetic and parasympathetic neural activity could lead to the reported symptoms, it is “quite improbable” that the body could ejaculate more than 10 times a day, adding that the patient’s ejaculation “might not have been semen.”
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai