Sex and cardiac arrest

Men did not have a gender advantage according to a recent study. It found the odds of suffering cardiac arrest during or soon after sex are very low, but higher for men than women.

Previous studies have looked at sex and heart attacks, but those are caused by a clot suddenly restricting blood flow, and people usually have time to get to a hospital and be treated, said  cardiologists . Researchers wanted to know how sex affected the odds of cardiac arrest, a different problem that's more often fatal.

They studied records on more than 4,500 cardiac arrests over 13 years in the Portland area, Oregon. Only 34 were during or within an hour of having sex, and 32 of those were in men. Most already were on medicines for heart conditions, so their risk was elevated to start with.

"It's a very awkward situation, and a very horrifying situation to be one of the two people who survives," but more would survive if CPR rates were higher, doctors comment.

New cervical cancer screening guideline says start Pap tests later, screen less often

A girl is vaccinated against HPV in a file photo. Women who have been

vaccinated with the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine also need to be screened because 

the shots do not protect against all forms of the virus.Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington , Ottawa Citizen

 

OTTAWA – Doctors should stop ordering yearly Pap tests for most women, and routine screening for cervical cancer in younger women should be abandoned altogether, a federal task force is recommending.

For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care has released an updated guideline for cervical cancer screening that recommends starting screening when women are older, and screening them less often in order to avoid the harms of excessive testing.
Published  in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, a guideline recommends that women aged 25 to 69 without symptoms of cervical cancer who are, or who have ever been, sexually active, be screened once every three years with a Pap test, which detects abnormal cells in the cervix.
The 1994 guideline recommended screening every three years, but only after two consecutive negative Pap test results.
The old guideline also recommended Pap smears for women once they turn 18 or become sexually active.But the task force says it could find no benefit to outweigh the potential harms of screening women under 25.
Nearly half (42%) of women aged 18 to 19 have reported being screened at least once within the previous three years, the authors write in the CMAJ. But the incidence of cervical cancer in women less than 20 is low (0.2 cases per 100,000) and no deaths from cervical cancer were reported among Canadian women under 20 between 2002 and 2006.
Neither could the task force find any data to support the argument that screening younger women helps prevent deaths from cervical cancer when they’re older. The risk of cervical cancer increases after age 25, and peaks in a woman’s 50s.
Younger women are more likely to have abnormal Pap results. A substantial proportion will have “false positive” results, leading to unnecessary and invasive treatments for abnormalities that would never progress to cancer — procedures that can cause pain, bleeding and irreversible damage to the cervix that can jeopardize a woman’s chances of carrying a future  pregnancy.
Over the past 50 years, deaths due to cervical cancer have fallen dramatically, the panel writes. Today, a woman’s risk of dying from the disease is 0.2%.
“It is likely that much of the change seen in the incidence of cervical cancer in Canada is due to screening, but early and frequent (often annual) cervical screening is unnecessary: other countries have achieved similar outcomes with less frequent testing and starting screening at older ages,” the panel reports.
“The American have said very specifically, no woman should have annual Pap testing,” said Dr. James Dickinson, a member of the task force and chair of the guideline-working group.
“Cervical cancer was, and still is a horrible disease to get. It spreads right through the whole of a woman’s pelvis and causes horrible problems with bowel and bladder. It can be a truly horrible disease,” said Dickinson, a professor of family medicine and community health sciences at the University of Calgary.
Without Pap testing, the disease would affect 1.5% of women. “This is the most successful screening test that we have available,” Dickinson said. “It really can reduce the disease by more than 80%-90%, and that’s fantastic.”
Expert advisory bodies have for several years been recommending doctors do away with annual Pap testing and instead screen every three years. “It’s just that (doctors) and women have got into this habit of annual Pap smears, and we’d like to get them out of that habit,” he said.
“The evidence says that three years is enough to get the benefits.”
Some women do need more frequent screening, including those who have HIV or are immune suppressed.
Overall, for younger women, “We said look, this disease is almost non-existent in women under the age of 20, so we really should not do it for women under 20,” Dickinson said. “Even for women between 20 and 25, it’s extremely rare.”
“The test doesn’t work very well for the sorts of cancers that seem to develop between the age of 20 and 24,” he added.
“On balance, we say that under (the age of) 25, it’s not worth doing.”
For women aged 25 to 29, the panel recommends screening every three years. But they’ve assigned it a “weak” recommendation, because of their concerns about the rate of false-positives and the harms of over-treatment. “Although most women would want to follow the recommended course of action, many would not.” Women in this age group should discuss the potential risks and benefits with their doctor, they said.
Over the age of 30, the risks of cervical cancer are substantially higher, Dickinson said. “Between 30 and 69, we strongly advise screening” every three years, he said.
Screening can stop in women at age 70 and older after three successive negative Pap test results in the last 10 years, according to the new guideline.
The Canadian Cancer Society currently recommends women have regular Pap tests starting by age 21 if they’re sexually active.
The whole article here: http://www.canada.com/health/women/cervical+cancer+screening+guideline+says+start+tests+later+screen+less+often/7785198/story.html

BPA and male sexual dysfunction

BPA and other estrogen-like chemicals are increasingly being linked to male sexual dysfunction and development impairments of the brain and thyroid. Such as dropping semen counts, undescended testes, erectile dysfunction, and others.
BPA is one of the 5 most commonly used chemicals in the world. It’s in plastics, DVDs, sunglasses, and used as a powder coating on printed receipts.

What is the real reason for low libido in men?

courtesy of photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Increased body fat and decreased sexual desire in middle aged men may be a result of low levels of estrogen a new study shows.
Previously, a drop in testosterone production might have been suspected as the culprit, but researchers said a decline in estrogen may be part of the problem.
Traditionally, a diagnosis of male hypogonadism - a drop in reproductive hormones sharp enough to have physical effects - was based solely on a measurement of testosterone levels.
These diagnoses have increased dramatically in recent years - leading to five times as many testosterone prescriptions in 2000 as in 1993. Yet doctors understand little about the exact levels of testosterone needed to support normal function.
Testosterone production also has a direct impact on estrogen levels in men, since a portion of the male hormone is always converted into estrogen. That makes it hard to know which hormone is needed, and in what quantity, to counteract the symptoms that appear in older men.
To find out, researchers suppressed all natural hormone production among more than 300 male test subjects, aged 20 to 50. Half of the subjects were given a daily dose of a testosterone gel or a placebo for 16 weeks. The other half were given the gel plus a drug that inhibits the conversion of testosterone to estrogen.
The results of the study suggest that testosterone regulates lean body mass and muscle strength, while estrogen impacts the accumulation of body fat. And sexual function was impacted by both hormones: a lack of estrogen decreased desire, while a low level of testosterone impeded erectile function.
The study can be found in the New England Journal.

Boost of Protein for middle-eged men and other words of wisdom

Curtesy of Photostock/FreeDigitalPhoto.net

Hitting 40 marks a turning point for many men and their health.

Their metabolism slows, leading to the dreaded belly and the first signs of aging and long-term disease — raised blood cholesterol and high blood pressure — begin to appear.

Increased body mass index (BMI) and heightened sense of mortality is often enough to kick start a new regimen, which usually means choosing low-fat foods and taking up jogging as an obvious health choice.There are strong indications that such diets for man in their fifties and up could be making their long-term health worse.Why? Low fat diets are usualy high in sugar and carbs - upto 67%.

Men heading toward the big 6-0 want to keep or build muscle mass, they need to increase the amount of protein they eat - especially after each resistance workout. One study found that doubling intake from 21 grams to 42 grams of protein is optimal for building more muscle fibers and keeping a toned physique. But no one should get all that protein from fatty meat.

For every meal, energy should, instead, come from protein (in the form of meat, fish, eggs and cheese) and a wide variety of fruit, vegetables and salads.

When we consume proteins, the body breaks them down into amino acids, which are absorbed through the wall of the bowel and form skin, bones, muscles, tendons, and all the organs such as the brain and the heart.

Consider grains and vegetables: beans, lentils, brown rice and our favorites - almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, cashews and pine nuts. spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, chia, tofu and tempeh are also rich source of proteins.

Here are some more key recommendations from Dr Clark author of the book "Health Revolution For Men".

Forget the jogging if you are overweight with poor muscle tone, jogging is a fast track to ruining your hip and knee joints and put unbearable strain on your heart and lungs.

Instead, start exercising slowly and build up your fitness gradually by walking for 20 minutes five times a week, and adding some gentle muscle-building exercises (such as lifting light weights) and stretching.

Exercise your smooth muscle
To ‘exercise’ the smooth muscles, you need roughage (such as green vegetables). This stretches the muscle fibres and helps to press food through the bowel. If you don’t have roughage in your diet, the bowel isn’t stimulated and it becomes dormant — a major cause of bowel cancer.

Water is also vital — drink regularly, not just when you feel thirsty. This keeps the bowel’s contractor muscle moving, prevents constipation and prevents many of the typical diseases that occur in middle age such as cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis and peptic ulcers.

De-stressing is vital: eat healthily and at regular intervals (hunger and poor diet put extra stress on the body), get plenty of sleep and exercise, and try relaxation techniques and deep breathing exercises.

Drink alcohol with moderation. Drink eight to ten cups of water a day. fruit juice is ‘far too high in sugar for general consumption’, coffee causes dehydration and should be restricted to two cups a day, tea to three cups (herbal tea is unlimited), but alcohol is allowed, in moderation.

‘Beers have high carbohydrate content and therefore a greater likelihood of promoting the development of diabetes than those drinks with a low carbohydrate content, such as red wine,’ says Dr Clark, recommending alcohol consumption is limited to two small glasses of red wine per day.

Save your sex life

Testosterone levels naturally fall with age (at a rate of 1-2 per cent per year after the age of 40), but a dwindling libido can also be a symptom of excessive stress and poor diet. Poor nutrition causes physical and mental fatigue, leaving little left over for social interest, let alone sexual activity. Obesity itself also limits libido. In one French study, obese men were 69 per cent less likely to have had more than one sexual partner in a year than men of normal weight.

Another problem at this age can be impotence, which can be an early sign of coronary heart disease and diabetes. It can also be due to atherosclerosis, a systemic condition where plaque builds up inside the arteries, leading to restricted blood flow in the penis.

So how to resolve a flagging libido? Once again the process is simple, says Dr Clark: Reduce refined carbohydrates, reduce stress levels and take more exercise. 
All will help ensure the body is working at optimum levels.


Adapted from
1.Health Revolution For Men by Dr Charles Clark and Maureen Clark © 2012 Dr Charles Clark and Maureen Clark
2.Sources on Internet