Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

Love is difficult to define. It is ah affection and liking, a desire to share and mental propinquity. While sex requires physical attraction and compatibility. Love is not ignored but the emphasis is largely on physical gratification. Love marriage at the height of passion is a risky matter because relationship based only on sex is almost certainly doomed in the long run.

While in a arranged marriage sex and love are likely to grow slowly but more harmoniously.

Actually speaking sex has been biologically evolved and love has been culturally evolved. Man can separate love and sex while woman finds herself unable to do so.

Why female does not generally get aroused by seeing a nude body of male?

Seeing bared body of female, mate is immediately aroused but the sight alone of his genitals does not inevitably cause her pulse to fasten. She is relatively calm in face of nude male body unless it implies to immediate love making because seeing children from the very beginning in nude form, it does not excite her.

Does verbal or written delineations of sexual situations also excite the male more than female?

Yes, the more realistically the female sexual parts are described the more directly is the male stimulation. Seeing, hearing, reading about sexually coloured objects or situations is enough to trigger the male but in female tactile mode of stimulation is needed.

Who prefers more of fantasy, male or female?

Male likes fantasy, even at the time of masturbation his mind is not blank while woman believes in reality. Woman is not able to see beyond reality while male always imagines about the unrealistic situations, figures and fantasies.

What should be the ideal age difference between male and female for successful act?

Ideal difference is between 2 to 5 years according to one survey but even a bride of twenty who has chosen a male of thirty is not heading for an erotically desert in her middle and later years. The span of male sexual vitality has lengthened appreciably in past few decades. Chronical age difference has no meaning other than the emotional maturity, which each one brings to the marriage.

Do women prefer young men or aged person for their sexual satisfaction?

Enjoying sex with young persons gives a mental satisfaction while aged person may give more of pleasure because if he knows the art of sex play he can arouse a female up to the height of orgasm easily.

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Food choices are one of the most individual parts of your life-style. Even family members who eat most meals together choose different amounts and different combinations of food. There is an almost unlimited variety of foods that fit into a heart-healthy diet.

Medical experts have identified certain nutrient components of food—fat cholesterol, sodium, and calories— that relate to heart disease. Your doctor will probably discuss with you individual recommendations, in terms such as grams of fat, milligrams of cholesterol and sodium, etc. Sometimes it is difficult to take the next step of translating these recommendations into everyday food choices. Registered dietitians are available to help you take the next step. Your doctor can refer you to one for help. This section briefly reviews some common recommendations and then helps you pull these facts together into an overall plan for eating more healthfully.

Unfortunately, many people get discouraged by nutrition advice because they mistakenly think that they cannot eat their favorite foods. A more positive and encouraging approach is to consider that no food is forbidden. Good health comes from eating a variety of foods—meats, dairy products, and especially vegetables, fruits, and grains—in moderate amounts. You may have to change some of your routine grocery purchases, some of your cooking methods, and the amounts of some foods you are accustomed to eating, but you do not have to take the enjoyment out of eating. In fact, you will probably discover some new tastes, and your new eating habits can lead to improvement in the way you look and feel.

The following section reviews the most common recommendations about fat, cholesterol, sodium, and calories. The recommendations form the basis for practical changes in food selections you can try in your own meals.

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It was only twenty years later that questions arose about the possible side effects of oestrogen. The whole history of health and medicine demonstrates the wisdom of skepticism about any ‘wonder’ substance that hits the headlines. I am suspicious about anything that is claimed to cure such a wide range of symptoms. And what is so ‘natural’ about the idea of women taking progesterone? As explained, production of both oestrogen and progesterone decline at the menopause. And while we go on making some oestrogen all our lives the production of progesterone will stop completely. So are we seriously suggesting that nature has got this all wrong? At a time in our lives when both hormones are dropping and progesterone can be absent, why then should we be adding it back in? Progesterone is needed to maintain a pregnancy, so we can understand why the body doesn’t need it at the menopause. Why replace it?

What, actually, could be more unnatural than doctoring ourselves with progesterone, when Mother Nature has arranged for its removal from the body in the normal course of events? The thinking behind the growing popularity of progesterone therapy is as follows. As inhabitants of an industrialized world we are being constantly bombarded by xenoestrogens – substances which have an oestrogenic effect on the body. These xenoestrogens are nearly all petro-chemically based and can come from packaging, plastics, foods and pesticides. They have been found in formula baby milk, presumed to have originated from the packaging used to contain the milk. They are believed to have a devastating effect on fertility, reproduction and health for both humans and wildlife. A number of disturbing developments are increasingly blamed on these chemicals. In the West it is reckoned that men’s sperm count may have dropped by 50 per cent in the last ten years. Other studies have linked these chemicals to the increase in breast and testicular cancers and to endometriosis, a painful uterine disorder. This major environmental factor lies behind the theory of oestrogen dominance.

The suggestion is that many of us are suffering from oestrogen dominance because of the increased amount of xenoestrogens we encounter daily. So, the argument goes, the answer is to balance all this unwanted oestrogen with progesterone – natural progesterone. I believe that our lifestyles and our environment have a profound effect on our hormones. That is why we must take a lot of care over our nutrition, which has such an impact on the body’s biochemical processes. I don’t however believe that the answer is to introduce ever more hormones into our bodies. And the question we should ask is, just how ‘natural’ is progesterone anyway?

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Sudden communal riots have broken out when you have already left for your office which is situated in a riot-prone area. On the way you are sheltered by a friendly couple and do not reach your office. The frantic calls to your office by your wife receive no reply, and you do not know what is happening to your family. Terror-stricken you and your family anxiously wait for each other’s news. In a road accident you are saved by the skin of your teeth. Your whole body is shaken and your heart is thumping violently. Despite your saving from physical injury, the terror is writ large on your face. You are travelling in an aeroplane and suddenly there is an announcement ‘please get ready for an emergency landing.’ You remain in aweful suspense and extreme fear till the aeroplane lands safely. In a train accident you witness several people who are dead and several people seriously injured and gasping for breath. The whole scene is awe-inspiring. There is fear and dismay in the very atmosphere. People affected by the accident directly or indirectly are over-awed and the people who have seen the gruesome scene also feel stifled in that atmosphere. In all such cases where terror and panic pervade the whole atmosphere, Rock Rose remedy should be given to all those persons who are victims of the terrorising events or are witnesses to such events. Rock Rose remedy does not remove the cause of the terror, nor does it mitigate the extent of the damage. But it helps the affected person to keep his mental equilibrium in case of emergency. Instead of his mental faculties being paralised by terror, he remains mentally alert to think of ways to rescue the apparently impossible position. Fortunately the situations which call for Rock Rose remedy are temporary and do not last long. But the after-effects of Rock Rose situations may be long lasting. A woman who was sleeping on the 16th floor of a multi-storey building was so shaken by the earthquake which swung the building like a pendulum, that she lost her sleep—she became so sensitive to noise that the whistle of the street chowkidar, a barking by stray dog, a push on he door bell would frighten her out of wits and she would get up from sleep. It was only administration of Rock Rose continuously for sometime that she could get over the shock of that terrorizing experience and have sleep without the aid of sleeping pills.

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When your child has been free of seizures, on medication, for two years:

• Those children who have had idiopathic seizures, and who have no evidence of neurologic dysfunction, and whose EEG is normal or near normal have a 90 to 95 percent chance of remaining seizure-free without medication;

• Those children who have had epilepsy caused by old and nonprogressive brain damage, such as a birth injury or head trauma, have a 40 to 60 percent chance of staying seizure-free off medication, even if their EEGs are moderately abnormal;

• Those children whose EEGs are severely abnormal, and, particularly, if their EEGs are worse than when their seizures began, have a 90 to 9 5 percent chance of having more seizures if medicine is discontinued—even if they have been free of seizures for two years on medicine.

These scenarios represent points on a spectrum. How then does someone decide whether or not medication should be discontinued  or can be discontinued safely? Here we have to go back to our risk-benefit analysis. Remember that the risks are yours and your child’s, as are the benefits. Thus, you both have to be full partners with your physician as these decisions are made.

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Pain killers

Pain, stiffness and arthritis are common symptoms of aging. The pain and stiffness tends to develop faster in persons with diabetes who have high blood glucose levels. Although you can’t stop aging, you can slow the process by controlling your blood glucose levels and by taking good care of your physical and emotional self.

But at one time or another you will feel joint pain, muscle stiffness, headaches and other assorted aches. If you’re like most Westerners, you will rush to pop an aspirin or a non-aspirin product (such as Panadol) or one of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (such as ibuprofen).

Remember that these medications, which are available without a prescription, can affect your blood glucose levels. Check with your pharmacist about your best choices. Also, be cautious with the ibuprofen-type drugs, which have the potential for injuring your kidneys.

Cough and cold remedies

Sneezes, sniffles and coughs are common health problems – and pharmacy shelves are crowded with remedies. Although most are effective in relieving symptoms, some of these medications can raise blood pressure and blood glucose levels. Also, some preparations contain lots of sugar, which will also raise blood glucose levels. Check with your pharmacist about alternate choices of medications when you need a cough or cold remedy.

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Some people may experience minor persistent symptoms that precede and herald their heart attacks. Such symptoms may include a recurring pain in the chest, neck, elbow, or even wrist or back that comes on with exertion or even at rest. The pain may have the quality of a minor toothache or pressure. The clue that something important may be happening is simple: this is usually a new experience, different from any other discomforts that the person has felt before.

Some people feel embarrassed about going to a doctor for fear that he will find nothing wrong. This is wrong in itself. It takes many years of training for a doctor to learn to make a diagnosis accurately, so certainly the average person cannot be expected to be correct in the diagnosis of his own ailments even a fraction of the time. Another group of people tends to minimize all symptoms because they refuse to believe that they could possibly be sick. They have done well for so many years that it is inconceivable to them that they could suffer from a heart attack. Vanity can become a treacherous assassin. The simple truth is that 50 percent of deaths in the United States today are caused by diseases of the heart and blood vessels, and heart attacks claim 55 percent of these deaths. It can happen to you and the chances are that it eventually will.

Many hospitals in the Western world have instituted new programs in an attempt to decrease the death rate from heart attacks. Intensive care units in modern hospitals have increased the patient survival rate. In several large cities in the

United States and England, mobile coronary care units have been established to provide patients with expert attendance during their transport from home to hospital. A recent study has shown, however, that the time required to take a patient from his home to the hospital is but a fraction of the time that is wasted between the onset of the attack and actual arrival at the hospital, where positive measures can be taken to save his life. The patient usually waits hours and sometimes a day or two before he believes that something is seriously wrong and summons help. Since the greatest risk of death occurs during the first few hours of a heart attack, with the probability of death decreasing rapidly after the first day or two, it is obvious that further significant improvement in survival rates depends upon the individual himself.

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The list of contrasts that can be drawn when the variation in national incidence of cancers is examined across the whole world is endless. We have looked in detail at Europe and in this section we will give a few examples to illustrate that intercontinental differences can be even more dramatic than international differences.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer regularly publishes a compendium of cancer incidence in five continents, the most recent edition of which was in 1987. From these published figures it is possible to pull out some striking examples between the highest incidence and the lowest incidence across the world. The most dramatic is malignant melanoma, for which the lowest known incidence is in Japan (2 cases in every 1,000,000 people every year) and the highest known incidence is in Queensland (309 cases in every x,000,000 people every year); the difference is 150-fold. This is attributable, at least in part, to the combination of light-skinned people exposed to very bright sunshine in Queensland near the equator compared with darker-complexioned people living in the less sunny clinics of Japan. Cancers arising in the back of the nasal cavity are common in Hong Kong (300 in every 1,000,000 people every year) but rare in the UK (3 in every 1,000.000 each year). The explanation for this difference is not so simple but may relate to chronic virus infection with a virus known as the Epstein-Barr virus, and may not exclude other factors such as dietary factors and genetic factors. The Chinese are not always on the wrong side of the equation. For instance, with cancer of the prostate gland in men 900 US blacks out of every 1,000,000 develop the disease each year but 13 in every 1,000,000 Chinese. We find the world’s highest incidence of stomach cancer in Japan (820 per 1,000,000 per year). This is to be compared with a much lower incidence elsewhere, particularly in the Middle East (3-4 per 1,000,000 per year).

The range for the common cancers can also be very large. The highest incidence of lung cancer is 1,100 per 1,000,000 per year in the US but only 58 per 1,000,000 per year in India; similarly colon cancer is 340 per 1,000,000 per year in the US and only 18 per 1,000,000 per year in India; breast cancer is 900 per 1.000,000 women per year in Hawaii but only 14 per 1,000.000 per year in parts of the Middle East. Where we are able to pin down the causes of these variations, the potential for prevention is obvious and large. Where the causes are unknown, the room for research it equally large and potentially equally rewarding.

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Pathophysiology

In necrotizing fasciitis, fulminant bacterial infection of the subcutaneous tissue results in liquefactive necrosis of the superficial fascia, subcutaneous fat, and deep fascia. Historic and modern terms referring to the infection and its subtypes include hospital gangrene, phagedena, hemolytic streptococcal gangrene, progressive synergistic bacterial gangrene, and many others. Superficial skin initially remains intact as the necrosis extends along fascial planes in as little as a few hours. The exudate is thin and often described as “dishwater pus. Vascular thrombosis leads to necrosis of large areas of skin.

Necrotizing fasciitis can affect any area of the body, but abdominal wall, extremities, and perineum are the most common. The infection begins with the introduction of pathogens into the subcutaneous fascia. Possible routes include trauma, injections, cutaneous infections (including cellulitis, ulcers, abscesses, and varicella), insect bites, deep infections, or hematogenous spread from distant sites. Inciting trauma may be minor and even unnoticed; some cases are idiopathic.

Abdominal wall necrotizing fasciitis is usually a postoperative complication, particularly after fecal contamination of the abdominal cavity. Abdominal wall infections have also occurred after gut perforation, or secondary to other abdominal pathologies. Fournier’s gangrene typically refers to necrotizing fasciitis of the male genitalia and perineum, usually secondary to local infections (genitourinary, intra-abdominal, or perianal), trauma, or instrumentation. Vulvar involvement in women has been described and has similar causes. Head and neck cases are rare but particularly dangerous, given the possibility of spread along cervical fascial planes and involvement of major blood vessels and the mediastinum.

Microbiology

Culture of microorganisms from infection sites reveals two major types of necrotizing fasciitis. Type I is polymicrobial, involving a mix of anaerobic and facultative bacteria, often including Enterobacteriaceae and non-group A streptococci. Type II infections are caused by group A B-hemolytic streptococci (primarily Streptococcus pyogenes) alone or with staphylococci. Increased virulence of some group A streptococcal strains may be related to exotoxins, surface proteins, and variable levels of immunity among hosts.

Abdominal and perineal infections tend to be type I in nature and are typically caused by enteric pathogens. Common bacteria include gram-negative enteric bacilli, enterococci, and anaerobic species, such as Bacteroides and Clostridium species. Most studies have shown that necrotizing fasciitis of the extremities and idiopathic cases tend to be type II in etiology. However, many observational studies may not have used rigorous anaerobic bacteria isolation methods, and one large case series described mostly polymicrobial infections predominated by anaerobes in any site.

Marine Vibrio species, most notably Vibrio vulnificus, may cause necrotizing fasciitis following contact with seawater, fish, or shellfish. Other causes include group В streptococci, Pasturella multocida, and Candida species.

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Other specific forms of CSA include alveolar hypoventilation, which occurs during sleep when the breathing rate or the amount of air inhaled decreases. In some cases hypoventilation is a result of obesity; excess body weight prevents the lungs from expanding to their full capacity. In other patients the problem may be related to specific disorders of the muscles, nerves, or bones, or it may be due to some basic malfunctioning of the respiratory centers located in the brain stem. Yet another variety of CSA is Cheyne-Stokes breathing, the name given to the dyspnea (breathing difficulty) that afflicts patients with left ventricular failure. When heart failure occurs, possibly as a result of some disruption in the nerves, circulation is slowed, the oxygen level of the blood drops, and the level of acids and other toxins increases, giving rise to alternating periods of apnea (breathing cessation) and hyperpnea (gasping, panting breathing).

Victims of CSA are often unaware that the problem exists, because they breathe normally during the day. One clue may be that the patient snores at night; generally, however, snoring is more likely to be a symptom of obstructive apnea. CSA is usually worst during REM sleep because the system that responds to elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the blood is suspended during

REM sleep. Consequently, interruptions in breathing last longer, and the level of oxygen falls to a lower point than during NREM stages. Alcohol, which suppresses the central respiratory drive, only makes the problem worse. Patients with heart disease may experience arrhythmias or increased blood pressure, although these risks are even greater in cases of OSA.

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