Health News.
Comprehensive men's sexual health information, tips and news about men's sexual health.
Archive for May, 2009
The skin is more than just a wrapping for the rest of the body. It is, in fact, the body’s largest organ and performs many complex roles. It serves as a protective barrier against physical and chemical insults from the outside world. It also helps to keep vital fluids and body chemicals from escaping from the body. Other functions of the skin include control of body temperature, the secretion of substances, sensation (e.g. pain, touch), and the formation of pigment (skin colour).
The skin has several layers, each of which has a different function. The outer layer, or epidermis, provides a protective barrier. It renews itself approximately every 28 days. The next layer, the dermis, acts as a support structure for blood vessels and sweat glands, which play a vital role in the body’s temperature control system. The nerves, hair follicles and lymphatics (which act as a kind of filter and thus play an important role in the immune system) are also found in this layer.
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‘ ‘Could you drink pee or eat your own crap?”
It would not be good for you at all to do it. Urine and feces are le names doctors use for pee and crap, and they are what is left hen the body is done with whatever you eat and drink. It is what le body is throwing away. I guess we are kind of silly about these things, because even adults will use words for these things when they are mad. They say things like “shit” and “piss” and “assole,” when really these are just bad words for natural parts of us. When we talk like that, we really talk like we are very confused id silly. It’s important to be clean, to wash our hands after we go to the bathroom, but there is really no big deal about these parts of s if people just get more comfortable about it. See, all of you are stening and so are the grown-ups. Nobody gets all upset if we talk like we respect everything about our body.
”How much milk is in a woman’s breasts, and can they
hoot it across the room if they want to?”
Women’s breasts only have milk for babies just after they have had a baby and while the baby needs it. Other times, what can come out just a little sometimes is not milk like you would buy at le store. It’s not like cows who make milk all the time. They do lat because farmers make it so they can do it. And no, the milk r the fluid cannot shoot far at all. It just sort of leaks out in small mounts sometimes. We make a big deal about women’s breasts, but they are really just bigger than men’s breasts. When we get all shy or secret about something, we start to make things that are just natural sort of mysterious.
”What happens if you put a stick up yourself?”
You should never put anything in any part of your body that is not very, very clean. Sometimes little girls experiment by putting something in the vagina. They really shouldn’t do that, because they could get a sore or cause an infection, like when you don’t keep a cut clean. The skin inside the vagina is very, very sensitive, so it should be protected.
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I love it, I love sex. Sometimes I want sex, and sometimes I want love, and sometimes I want both, and sometimes I’d sooner ride my bike.
WIFE
Women trade sex for love and men trade love for sex. This myth has enjoyed a long and invasive reign in male/female interactions.
Although cultural factors may teach such lessons to children, causing some young girls to think they must be in love if they have had sex with some boy, there is no truth to this view. Love is not the sole prerogative of either gender. Love is a system word, a process for a unit of two.
Husbands and wives did not differ in their reports of needs for love and loving, and it is not possible to divide sex and love. Touching, feeling, holding, being, trusting, talking, stimulating, and an infinite range of human experiences is involved in all sexual interaction, but when “sexperts” perpetuate the myth of romanticized women and eroticized men, they corrupt the natural interaction between the genders.
A dangerous “sub-myth” has evolved in this association of love with women and sex with men. You may have heard the line that “rape has nothing to do with sex. It is a violent, aggressive act, a crime, and is in no way related to sex.” This statement is absurd and dangerous. While rape is a violent, aggressive crime against women and sometimes men and against all human dignity, it nonetheless involves sex and is related to corrupted love maps and the sexual maldevelopment of the rapist. To say otherwise is to fail to address the crisis of rape directly. The sexual motives and impact of rape are profound. The motives for rape relate in part to a societal view of women as covertly wanting or allowing sex only in exchange for or surrender to the work, deception, force, coercion, or effort of the male. It is as if women, from the male viewpoint, are seen as in charge, and rape is a terrible male way of circumventing the system, “taking” sex and “taking” women without the exchange of love. The motives for rape are many and always unique to the rapist and his distorted love map, but the cultural view of women as having something that men must earn or take contributes to the tragedy of rape. Until we confront and destroy this myth of women seeking only love while they parcel out sexual favors or succumb to male sexual aggression, until we teach our little boys that love and sex are one, the tragedy of rape will continue. None of us is served by separating rape from sex. We only delude ourselves about the sexual immaturity of a society that continues to abuse its men, women, and children. Sexual child abuse and rape are not crimes separate from sex, they are sex crimes, and we all suffer.
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There are basic biological and neurological differences between men and women. Dr. Roger Gorski, professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, has done work on the functional and structural differences between the male and female mammalian brain. Early gonadal steroids, hormones, are responsible for differences in our most important reproductive organ, our brain. But some difference does not have to mean great distance, and re-eroticizing the American marriage depends upon narrowing the gender gap, not just sociopolitically, but psycoerotically as well.
Dr. June Reinisch, Director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, discusses the basic biological differences between boys and girls, but emphasizes that learning can profoundly influence the manner in which these differences are played out in daily living. Her work supports my premise that all sexuality is a system, and that, as all physicists know, everything affects everything!
Dr. Carol Nagy Jacklin studied 275 children from birth to six years of age. She visited the children and their parents repeatedly during her study and included measures of sex-steroid hormones in her work. While she found little to differentiate boys from girls early in their development, they all seemed to learn which was which quite clearly, which they were, and “how they ought to be.” I maintain that we can learn to be how we want to be as well, and that we can learn roles with each other instead of in spite of each other. Super marital sex requires role creativity and adaptability, and the following chapters will teach you about changes in the sexual interaction in your marriage that will help you develop role creativity.
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OSTEOARTHROSIS – TREATMENT
Author: admin
These two conditions are unrelated although they may occur in the same person.
Aspiration of the joint to remove some of the fluid which lubricates it shows no diagnostic features of arthrosis. The joint may be thickened but there is usually no associated soft tissue swelling around it.
Treatment is effective in relieving the symptoms but cure of this condition is not possible. Simple analgesic drugs which relieve pain are all that are necessary.
Local heat whether from a hot water bottle, an infra red lamp or micro or short wave diathermy is effective.
Many people complain their arthritic joints flare up with weather changes.
Physiotherapy may be necessary to mobilise stiff joints and to prevent muscle wasting. Some simple physical means can bring considerable relief. It may be necessary to wear a supporting brace over the joint or to use a walking stick or even to raise a shoe so as to remove abnormal strain.
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COLLAGEN DISEASES – INTRODUCTION
Author: admin
Collagen diseases are a group of disorders where widespread inflammation of the connective tissue of various organs leads to generalised disease of many organs.
Some of these conditions are common, some rare. Most respond to non-specific treatment with cortisone, which relieves the inflammation rather than curing the disease.
Systemic (Lupus) Erythematosus is a long and difficult-to-say diagnosis and so it is usually abbreviated to SLE. Few people have heard of it, yet it is now recognised to be as common as rheumatoid arthritis.
The cause is unknown although the theory most commonly accepted is that it is an auto-immune disease. In these disorders, the body, as it were, develops an allergy to its own tissues and antibodies to those tissues are formed in the immune system.
These antibodies “lock on to” the tissues in an attempt to destroy them and this results in inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis and several other diseases are thought to be auto-immune in nature.
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BED-WETTING – PROBLEM OF DISTRESSING
Author: admin
Enuresis or bed-wetting is a problem that is distressing both to the parents and the child.
Yet this common disorder usually responds well to treatment.
Control of the bladder during the day and then at night depends on the maturing of the child’s nervous system. Most children achieve control by the age of three or four.
At five, about 10 per cent of children still wet the bed and this figure drops to about 5 per cent between the ages of six to 10. At IS, only 0.1 per cent, or one in a thousand, still has the problem. Bed-wetting can continue into adult life.
It is not considered a problem until the child is over six. As you can see from the figures, most children overcome the problem, given time. But because of the emotional difficulties suffered by these children and often by their parents as well, enuresis usually needs treatment.
It is twice as common in boys as in girls and is not related to intelligence. Nor is it a problem of our anxious modern society. It is an ancient disorder and is well recorded in old medical texts.
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One practitioner might always think that the best treatment is the one that results in the longest average length of life, regardless of side effects. Another might prefer to stick with familiar treatments rather than to try new ones. Others try every new treatment that comes along without first critically evaluating the available evidence. Some practitioners are themselves so frightened of cancer and dying that they recommend that patients keep having intensive anti-cancer treatment even when there is no real hope of controlling the disease. Some practitioners are doing research into cancer treatment and want all their patients to have the research treatment regardless of other considerations. Dare I say it—some practitioners even allow consideration of their own financial gain to influence their recommendations. All that I have said in the above section applies equally to doctors and to non-medically qualified practitioners.
I know it is frightening to read all this. I know you would rather believe that your practitioner is a selfless, devoted, up-to-date saint who thinks entirely in terms of your own individual interests. Even if your practitioner were perfect, he or she could not know what issues are important to you, what your priorities and values and beliefs are. So be fair and kind to yourself. Get the information, trust your own knowledge of yourself and be prepared to make your own decisions.
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HORMONAL REPLACEMENT THERAPY: HOW TO TAKE
Author: admin
Women vary enormously in their response to different medications, so what is ‘the most effective type of treatment with the least side effects’ for one woman may be an ineffective type with bad side-effects for another. Fortunately, there are over 20 different ways in which oestrogens and progestogens can be combined into hormone replacement therapy, so with your doctor’s help you should be able to find one that is right for you.
However, there are two factors that may prevent you ever getting that far: one is that the initial side-effects put you off the whole idea of HRT and you decide just to give up without trying different types; the other is that your doctor may be unable or unwilling to suggest alternatives for you. With the best will in the world, no doctor is able to remember every variety of every form of treatment that is available for all his patients, so he has his ‘favourites’ that he uses most of the time because he knows they work well. If one of them doesn’t work, he then has to start referring to the various publications that list different forms of treatment, and just hope that the one he chooses is the right one for that particular patient. Usually, when the average general practitioner suggests that HRT may be the answer to your menopausal problems, he will almost certainly prescribe his ‘favourite’ preparation because his experience has shown it to work with most of his patients. It may well work for you, or it may not. It may relieve your symptoms without producing side-effects, or it may not. However, if this one doesn’t help, another one probably will.
The number and types of HRT preparations available have increased enormously in the last 10 years, and are still increasing each year. Those most commonly used in the UK are in the form of tablets, patches and implants, all available in different strengths. Less commonly used here, but varying in popularity in other countries, are creams, gels, pessaries, suppositories and injections.
Some preparations come as combined ‘calendar packs’ of oestrogen and progestogen, others come with each hormone packed singly. If you are taking a combined pack, and can’t get the balance of oestrogen and progestogen right to give relief of symptoms without side-effects, your doctor can prescribe the hormones separately to get the right dosage of each. Both hormones are available in different strengths from different pharmaceutical companies, which allows great flexibility and should make it possible for you and your doctor to get it right.
With the exception of implants, any treatment can be stopped at any time, or the dosage can quickly be adjusted, but you will probably get a return of menopausal symptoms if you stop suddenly.
The first decision you and your doctor will make is whether HRT is suitable for you at all. The next thing to consider is whether you take HRT in an oral form, that is as tablets, or whether a non-oral route (patch, implant or cream) would be better.
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MYOMECTOMY FOR FIBROIDS (PART 2)
Author: admin
The formation of adhesions — a risk of any abdominal surgery — must be avoided if possible because of the associated pain and interference with normal organ function. Tissues that were never meant to be joined can become attached to each other and problems like chronic pelvic pain and infertility may result. To minimise the chances of adhesions forming, tissues must be handled gently, appropriate irrigation solutions or an adhesion barrier used within the abdomen, and blood loss minimised. The extra cost to the patient of taking these precautions is less than $150, a small price to pay for the prevention of potentially serious problems. The use of laser techniques and diathermy also appears to reduce the risk of adhesion formation. Reconstruction of the uterus after removal of fibroids requires skill and care. Recent research suggests that when sutures are avoided during myomectomy, adhesions are less likely to develop. On the other hand, the absence of sutures may lead to weakness of the uterus.
An occasional serious complication of hysteroscopic myomectomy is perforation of the uterus. It may occur if the surgeon cuts deeply into the wall of the uterus to remove parts of an embedded fibroid. To minimise the risk of this happening, some doctors simultaneously perform a laparoscopy, a procedure in which a small incision in the abdomen is used as a porthole to enable visual inspection of the pelvic organs, including the outside wall of the uterus. Others think this is of doubtful value. Most women return home within one to three days of a hysteroscopic or laparoscopic myomectomy and it is usual for surgeons to check on each patient’s progress about six weeks later.
For open myomectomy, the pattern of post-operative illness and time to full recovery is similar to that for abdominal hysterectomy. That is, the average length of hospital stay is four to seven days, pain persists for several weeks and full recovery may take several months.
Women having a hysteroscopic or laparoscopic myomectomy experience less pain and a shorter convalescence (by about two to four weeks) than those having either open myomectomy or abdominal hysterectomy. The cost of these procedures in Australia is considerably less, in the short-term at least, than the cost of an open myomectomy (around $1500 for hysteroscopic myomectomy and $2200 for a laparoscopic myomectomy compared to $3825 for an open myomectomy). Because of the relatively recent introduction of hysteroscopic and laparoscopic techniques to perform myomectomy, it will be some time before we know the extent to which fibroid recurrence and complications alter these costings.
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