Eastern nations have always been associated with long life, wisdom, health and in no way with erectile dysfunction or erectile dysfunction medications. The more astonishing sounds a recent study showing that over 25 per cent of Chinese men have to take erectile dysfunction medications to have normal intimate life. The study was done by researchers from Chinese Medical Association, the surveys were carried out in 11 cities. In general, China ranked only 11 among 13 Asian countries on citizens sex life satisfaction.
The director of the urology surgery department with Peking University People’s Hospital Wang Xiaofeng specifies that they call erectile dysfunction the inability to maintain and keep erection for satisfactory intercourse. To be more specific, erectile dysfunction diagnosis is applied to men who have reported inability to develop and keep erections or were sometimes able to develop erection in the course of the past 3 months.
Wang thinks the problem has become so profound because about 83 per cent of erectile dysfunction sufferers never reports their problem or take erectile dysfunction medications. The reason for that is that little information on erectile dysfunction is available to public and that suffering from erectile dysfunction is considered humiliating.
Wang says that only 7.2 percent of patients have physical causes turning them to erectile dysfunction medications, the rest of the patients have psychological causes for ED. In addition, many of them had at least one of the following conditions putting them into the risk group for cardiovascular problems, such as smoking, diabetes, hypertension or bad cholesterol levels. Wang also pointed out that almost all the men didn’t do sports regularly. However, according to the study certain measures, such as sports and prevention of cardiovascular issues can help eliminate the need to take erectile dysfunction medications.
Wang and his team urged men suffering from erectile dysfunction to see the medical professional seek as soon as possible.
Whatever the causes suggested by Wang are, changed eating habits seem to have added much to sexual problems among Chinese men. Wolfing fast-food while genetically accustomed to other types of food finally created the need to use erectile dysfunction meds.
Generic meds and brand meds are known to be in long-term hostile relations. In this light it sounds strange, not to say more, that on May 1 FDA that recommended parents who treat their kids with Tylenols, Motrins and Benadryls to prefer generic meds over the brand ones, even to those parents who firmly stick to the principle of buying their kids o brand clothes, toys and shoes.
But it turned out that the reason for such an appeal had nothing to do with the changed attitude of FDA towards generic meds. This step was forced by the recent announcement made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare about the recall of a large amount of popular children’s meds, such as Motrin, Tyleno , Benadryl and Zyrtec. The reason for recall were serious manufacturing errors: significantly increased concentrations of the active ingredient and tiny particulate matter in the product. Of course, the recall to switch to generic meds as a temporary measure with the implication that the consumers should switch back to the brands meds as soon as all the defective meds are removed from the pharmacies. The incident came as a real present for local and online pharmacies that advocate the combination of quality and reasonable prices available in generic meds.
If you did deeper you’ll find that not just medium or low income families, but even pharmaceutical professionals in prefer to give their children generic meds. For example, Joseph Catanese of Pendleton, a doctor of pharmacy that currently works at Pine Pharmacy in Amherst openly says that he treat his own little kids only with generic meds. Why pay more for the brand when the quality is the same? The only difference may the in the inactive ingredients (the ones that do not produce the medical effect) and the country of manufacturing on the active ingredient. Dr Catanese is very critical about people’s loyalty to brand meds. He regrets the fact that the opinion that generic meds are an inferior option is still prevailing among consumers. Dr Catanese openly recommends never buying brand meds where generic meds are available. The latter can be found for over 99% of brand names.
Any person interested in Motrin, Tyleno, Benadryl and Zyrtec recall may read more on the FDA’s official Web site.
A number of studies show that men with irregular, infrequent sexual life are prone to erectile dysfunction. Natural questions arise: can masturbating help prevent ED? Will long continence cause Erectile Dysfunction?
The Experts’ Opinion.
The sensation around the above statement began back in 2008 when European researchers published the results of a presumably unique study concluding that lack of sex leads to ED. However, today most urologists are skeptical about the research. Although infrequent sex is obviously associated with sexual dysfunction it didn’t prove to be a direct cause of ED. Also, it’s too early now to state that frequent sexual activity or masturbation can help ward off the disability, they state.
To be more specific, the research states that for the men to have sex less than once a week the probability of ED is doubled. This means that sex works is the same way as physical exercise in maintaining the body’s abilities and strength. The men involved in the study were aged 50 to 80.
However, the study didn’t say anything about masturbation and its ability to substitute full-fledged sex in supporting normal sexual function. One of the authors of the study, Juha Koskimaki, MD, PhD, a urologist at Tampere University Hospital in Tampere, Finland says that it could help but nothing more than that. At least, both ways of sexual satisfaction maintain in proper condition the vessels and nerve fibers responsible for developing erections and prevents damaging the chambers inside the penis filed with blood during erections.
Irwin Goldstein, MD, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego accepts that sex and masturbating are good for health, but going out and having sex all round and with everyone just to keep the sexual function in good state seems nonsense to him.
Professor of urology at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine and a spokesman for the American Urological Association, Ira D. Sharlip, MD, considers that infrequent sex seems to be a consequence of sexual problems and not the cause, which sounds wise. Sharlip thinks that the study participants who reported frequent intercourses might have a better genetic built preventing the development of ED while those who had infrequent sex were genetically inclined to have that sort of problems and didn’t have much sex because of weaker sexual function.
So what? Today expert opinions and scientific battles of that sort seem anecdotal, together with the reports and conclusions issued in the end, like the one that “erections, accompanied by sex or not, are favorable for supporting normal sexual function”. And certainly, too much sex won’t hamper a man’s ability to avert sexual dysfunction in the future and call the need for ed medications.
In addition to the above, almost all men for some very rare exceptions develop erections in their sleep every night, even without any sexual activity. So if the statement derived from the results if the research is right, that could be a natural protection on the body from erectile dysfunction that launches when a man is supposed to have sex but actually doesn’t.
So it’s up to you whom to believe, Finnish scientists or urologists which their skeptical attitude to the study, but the only thing that is beyond question is that having regular sex is good for you, be it masturbation or a sex with a partner.
Erectile Dysfunction, a condition that spreads among male population at frightening speed often overshadows another problem that affects a growing number of men worldwide: male infertility. Studies show that male infertility is quite common nowadays.
In fact, very often male infertility has the same roots as female infertility – hormone imbalance. Just like women who need proper hormone balance for regular ovulation, men need to maintain the right hormone balance to produce healthy sperms. Similar types of hormones are involved in both cases, so infertility treatment and drugs for both men and women have similar working principles. For example, clomiphene and human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) may be prescribed to men with low sperm count.
What is dramatically differs in male and female infertility treatment is success rates with is about 3 times higher for women. In addition, available infertility medication were not approved by the FDA for male consumption, though some doctors prescribe them to male patients.
As to other causes of male infertility, it may be linked to Erectile Dysfunction. Few researches have been conducted to study this connection, however scientists are sure that the link between lack of sexual life and infertility exists which points to another benefit of ED medications . There are only 3 FDA approved medications available to men whose sexual life if affected by the inability to develop satisfactory erection. The working principle is the same for all these drugs: improving blood influx to the penis which enables a man to develop erections during sexual arousal.
There is only one basic difference between the three: time required to take effect and duration of effect. From this viewpoint, Cialis seems to be the best option with the duration up to for thirty-six hours and only 15-minutes required to become active in the body. Levitra becomes active in 30 minutes and works up to 5 hours and Viagra, the first ED drug approved by FDA, takes effect in 30 minutes and lasts around 4 hours.
A patient form CLECKHEATON suffering from a rare lung disease can now run and play with his kids again – after successful treatment with Viagra. Paul Coates, 30, who worked for recruitment firm Transline-Resource in Halifax and had played rugby for several seasons started to experience shortness of breath and blackouts during workouts. The breathing difficulties were growing more and more severe until such a simple for a trained man task as climbing the stairs became nearly impracticable. First, doctors supposed the breathing problem was connected with a virus. However, a series of tests at District Hospital showed a virus was not the cause.
Examination continued at a specialist hospital in Sheffield were an rare incurable lung disease that affects about 4,000 people in the UK was found: Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension. : Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension is one of the disease that can be treated to improve the patient’s life quality, but currently there is no cure for it. Paul stated to have the symptoms in November 2007 but the final diagnosis was only in September 2008.
Paul was astonished and thought that doctors mistook him for another patients when he was prescribed Viagra, an erectile dysfunction medication to treat his disease. However, Paul said he accepted the treatment because the was ready to try anything only to improve his condition.
The treatment based on the ability of sildenafil to relax blood vessel produced the desired effect: the symptoms gradually relieved and the ability to breath easily returned to Paul. Paul said he didn’t experience any side effects from ED medications.
Paul and his wife Suzy live in Grange Road, Cleckheaton. They have to kids: son Jack, four and eight-year-old daughter Alice. Paul is done as a rugby player but now he can run and play with his children without being short of breath or worrying about fainting. However, Paul finds the inability to continue playing rugby very disappointing for he had played all his life. Last year Paul and Suzy married. To attract more attention to Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension and increase awareness among the public they painted their lips blue (blue lips are a symptom of Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension caused by little oxygen in the blood).
A simple joke among two Texas AgriLife Research scientists turned into a serious research that discovered the ability of Viagra (sildenafil citrate), one of the popular erectile dysfunction medications, to enhance fetal development in female sheep. Researchers consider female sheep (ewes) good animal models that effectively help to study the physiology of human pregnancy suggesting that the results of their research the may be applied for humans. The results of the study are published in a recent edition of The Journal of Nutrition.
Viagra enhanced blood circulation in pregnant female sheep by relaxing smooth muscle cells of blood vessels which allowed better transportation of vital amino acids and other important nutrients required for fetal development from the mother to the fetus via utero-placental blood flow. Dr. Guoyao Wu, AgriLife Research animal nutritionist and Senior Faculty Fellow in the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University said that the finding may be helpful in resolving fetal-growth retardation problems in humans, such as low birth weight which affect 5 to 10 percent of infants worldwide.
In 2003 while working with pregnant sheep Wu jokingly suggested that as men were using Viagra women may also have need for this drug. To the great surprise of Wu and his colleague scientist Dr. Tom Spence a week later Pfizer Inc. announced an international request for research proposals on Viagra. The scientists suggested the proposal to estimate the ability of Viagra to aid fetal growth and define adequacy of maternal intakes of nutrients from the diet using pregnant sheep as a model. Pfizer approved the suggestion and the research began.
The study showed that Viagra increased the blood flow to the fetus in female sheep, providing more amino acids – a major element for fetal growth. Approximately 60 ewes were mated to rams at the Texas A&M University Sheep Center. Pregnant female sheep were randomly selected out of 60 animals mated to rams and assigned a diet with or without sildenafil citrate. Some sheep were adequately fed and some were restricted in nutrients. Researchers found that Viagra increased fetal weight for female sheep on both sufficient and restricted nutrition. The raised concentrations of polyamines and amino acids in fetal blood and placental fluids indicates that Viagra alters the transportation of nutrients from the female sheep to the fetus. Another finding is that Viagra did not affect changes in maternal weight, body condition score, maternal liver mass or muscle weight, Wu said.
Wu said and his teams intend to expand the research on other mammalians, including cows, pigs and humans with the purpose to find an effective way to treat fetal growth retardation in women without risk for the mother’s health.
According to the study published in the British medical journal BMJ, women who take birth control pills live longer than those who have never taken the pills. Researchers from the UK compared life span and mortality rates among women on birth control pills and those who don’t take the pills. The study began in 1968 and continued over 40 years; over 46000 women who took birth control pills for 4 years on average were followed in the course of the study.
Researchers concluded that the pills decreased the risk of death from bowel cancer by 38% and from other diseases by 12%. The trend is most pronounced in women over 50, while the death rates among women under 30 who take pills is slightly higher. The researchers didn’t suggest any explanation to the effect they observed, their conclusion is based on comparison only.
Although the pill may be increasing the risk of cervical and breast cancer, researchers found that it didn’t raise the risk of dying in women and potentially prevents endometrial and ovarian cancer.
The results of a study by German researchers published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association report that Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a serious predictor of death from heart failure, heart attack or stroke and other causes in men suffering from cardiovascular disease (CVD). So if you have to take erectile dysfunction meds pay attention to this research.
1,519 men from 13 countries were involved in the study participated in the a substudy of the ONTARGET and TRANSCEND trials of cardiovascular patients. These men had to answer a questionnaire designed to determine if they had ED, and based on the results the men with ED were later split into groups with mild, mild-to-moderate, moderate or severe ED. The questionnaires were answered 2 times after the initial test: 2 years later and 5 years later.
ONTARGET patients were either randomly treated with telmisartan (395 men) , ACE inhibitor drug ramipril (400 men), or a both drugs simultaneously (381 men). In TRANSCEND, researchers randomly divided men intolerant to ACE inhibitor into test groups given placebo (202 men) or telmisartan (171 men).
The researchers discovered that ED occurrence was higher in older men, along with higher frequency of diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and lower urinary tract surgery than in men without ED. 55 percent of the patients were diagnosed with ED at while entering the research.
11.3 percent of the men who reported ED at the entry died in the course or by the end of the study, against only 5.6 percent of men involved in the trials with mild or no ED. In total, the outcome of heart attack, cardiovascular death, heart failure hospitalization or stroke occurred in 16.2 percent of men diagnosed with ED compared to 10.3 percent of men with no or mild ED. Researchers also noticed that the risks of death or hospitalization from all of the above causes steadily increased with the progression of ED, researchers said.
More specific figures on death risks among men with ED compared with men with no or mild ED are:
- 2 times more likely to have a heart attack;
- 1.9 times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease;
- 1.2 times more likely to be hospitalized for heart failure;
- 1.1 times more likely to be hospitalized for a stroke.
In addition they discovered that though high-risk patients treated with angiotensin receptor blockers, ACE inhibitors or both medications run lower risks of cardiovascular events, the drugs didn’t have any impact of the development or course of Erectile dysfunction.
Michael Böhm, M.D., the author of the research and chairman of internal medicine in the Department of Cardiology and Intensive Care at the University of Saarland, Germany, accentuated the importance of mentioning erectile dysfunction in the medical history of patients as a possible symptom of atherosclerosis. He suggests that all men with ED attending an urologist or a general practitioner to get prescribed ED meds, such as vardebafil, tadalafil or sildenafil citrate should be examined for cardiovascular problems to determine existing disease at the early stage and get appropriate treatment.
The TKR survey included 19 questions, such emotional well-being improvement, ability to walk various distances, ability to kneel, pain relief, getting rid of a cane, ability to climb and go down stairs, squatting, ability to use transportation, the ability to be going to work, and the ability to be involved in social activities (such as sports), and the ability to participate in sexual activity.
The THR survey included 18 questions on pain relief, ability to stand, ability to walk, emotional well-being improvement, getting rid of a cane, getting rid of a limp, ability to stand up from the sitting position, ability to climb and go down stairs, and improvement in social activities, from the ability from to go to work or doing housework to participation in sports activities. Other questions were intended to estimate the mobility of the patient’s hip, for example, whether a patient could cut his or her own toenails.
The numbers from questionnaire answers were processed with the help of a special formula that computed the final score ranging from 0 to 100, 0 standing for the lowest and 100 for the highest expectation. The average expectation score among surgeons was 75 (range 43 to 93) and the average expectation score among patients was 84 (range 47 to 100).
Dr. Ghomrawi received a five-year career development award from the National Institutes of Health or the pilot study which demonstrated the importance of investigating expectation discordance between doctors and patients and opened the way for further, more complex studies involving other doctors and patients with the major purpose to improve the psychology of the patient recovery, which seriously contributes to the overall recovery.
Researchers at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in a study held on March 9-13 in New Orleans found a significant gap between doctor and patient expectations from knee and hip joint replacement surgeries, while physicians do their best to form realistic expectations in patients. To be more precise, the expectations of 42 patients were compared with those of thier doctors and discrepancy was found in 68 percent of cases, 53 percent of the patients’ expectations were higher than the expectations of the surgeons.
Hassan Ghomrawi, Ph.D., MPH, outcomes research scientist, Biostatistics and Epidemiology, at Hospital for Special Surgery in NY, who led the study, states that that this was one of the first studies to investigate divergence of expectations from knee and hip joint replacement surgeries.
Technically, the surgeries are total knee replacement (TKR) and total hip replacement (THR), mostly performed on patients over 50 with severe joint wear and tear caused by osteoarthritis.
About 4,000 THRs and 4,000 TKRs surgeries are done each at Hospital for Special Surgery yearly.
Hospital for Special Surgery requires that every surgery patient attends a 90 minute preparatory class where they are explained in detail what they can expect during and after the surgery. Giving a preoperative has been practiced at HSS for many years and now in increasingly used at other big hospitals as a way to improve the understanding between patients and physicians.
Alejandro Gonzalez Della Valle, M.D., associate attending orthopaedic surgeon at HSS, who was participated in the study, accentuated the importance of preoperative classes and that creating adequate expectations in a patient is essential because otherwise the patient will be either dissatisfied with the surgery results if his expectations are inadequately high or will not be enthusiastically involved in postoperative recovery therapy if his expectations are inadequately low. Ideally, the expectations should be similar, he added.
The study involved 25 patients scheduled THR and 17 patients undergoing TKR surgery by a dedicated hip and knee surgeon. Each patient and the doctor had to complete either a THR or TKR questionnaire on recovery expectation. The questionnaire included various questions with the answer scale from 1 to 5, from 1 being “return to normal,” to a 4 being “very little improvement,” and 5 being “I don’t have this expectation.” …Read the edning..>>