People think they've traced the origin of No Nut November

Ah, November. A month full of fireworks, bargain buys and turkey.

But if bonfire night and Black Friday aren’t your bag and you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, you could instead mark the month by not busting a nut until December.

No Nut November (NNN) is the new Movember, and while the latter was all about growing a moustache to raise money for charity, the former is more about practising self control.

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It’s been widely reported that NNN started on internet forums like Reddit, but as it turns out, Seinfeld might be behind all the blue-balling.

Today (1 November) a Seinfeld fan page reminded the world of 'The Contest', a season four episode of the cult show that aired on 18 November 1992 and saw characters Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer decide to see which of them could go without masturbation the longest.

The revelation comes after a medical expert warned against taking part in NNN, citing various health problems that could arise should you forgo blowing your load for a month.

Twitter/seinfeld2000

Dr Rena Malik took to her YouTube channel to explain should you choose not to cuff the carrot for the next 30 days, you’ll miss out on all the lovely benefits masturbation has to offer.

She said: "There's a number of benefits to masturbation including better sleep, decreased heart rate, decreased stress and a lot of increase in feel good hormones.

"People can get a lot of pain and discomfort in their pelvic floor, or their testicles. A lot of you guys have heard of 'blue balls'."

Last year, Dr Karan Rajan also took to social media to explain why masturbation is important, saying on TikTok: “Wet dreams or nocturnal emissions aren't always about sexual arousal. Nocturnal emissions are a way for the body to clear out sperm.

"Your sperm has an expiration date, so if you haven't fired your gooey cannon in a while, your body gets rid of the old stuff while you sleep."

Rajan added: "If your body didn't reabsorb sperm your dingleberries would swell up."

Meanwhile, Malik also spoke about the origins of challenges like NNN, suggesting the phenomenon of abstaining goes back way further than Seinfeld.

Malik shared: “Ancient Taoist literature discussed semen retention as a way of self-control.

“‘They believed that ejaculating was actually losing control of oneself, and keeping it in was actually a way to improve health and control of your body.”