Research is showing that the more drugs a man takes, the worse his symptoms of sexual dysfunction are likely to be.  A new study found that men who took multiple medications, whether prescription or over the counter, were more likely to have erectile dysfunction and more likely to have worse problems with it.

Researchers surveyed more than 37,000 men aged 45 to 69.  More than half of the men used at least three drugs.

According to Time Magazine:

“Of all the men in the study, 10,717 — or 29% — reported moderate or severe symptoms of erectile dysfunction. Across age groups, the chance of having ED was higher in men taking more medications … Men who took more pills were also more likely to have increasingly severe symptoms”.

A recent study sought to determine whether the use of statin drugs was associated with prostate cancer risk.  The researchers looked at close to 400 prostate cancer patients who had a first-time diagnosis during the period between 2005 and 2008.

They found that use of any statin drug, in any amount, was associated with a significant increase in prostate cancer risk.  In addition, there was an increasing risk that came along with an increasing cumulative dose.

According to the study, as reprinted on the website Green Med Info:

“The results of this case-control study suggest that statins may increase the risk of prostate cancer.”

Over the past four decade, use of the contraceptive pill has vastly increased.  The amount of estrogen that has entered the water supply as a result could be partially responsible for the increased incidence of prostate cancer around the world.

Excess estrogen is known to cause various cancers.  The amount of estrogen excreted by an individual woman taking the Pill is minimal, but millions of women over extended periods of time could cause low-level environmental contamination.

MSN reports:

“[Researchers] compiled data on countries and continents around the world to see if there was any connection between contraceptive pills and prostate cancer.  The researchers looked at some 100 countries and found that where the use of oral contraceptives was high, so was the rate of prostate cancer.”

The very first clinical trial to test the effects of resveratrol on humans has found that a small daily dose lowered blood pressure and improved other health measures in a group of obese men. Men taking 150 milligrams of resveratrol daily for a month, without changing their diet or exercise habits became fitter.

Their metabolic function improved, inflammation levels dropped, fat deposits in their livers decreased and their triglyceride levels fell.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

“There was just one incongruity in the picture researchers gleaned from the clinical tests of the men taking resveratrol: although clearly healthier, they were not losing weight.”

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is an endocrine disrupting chemical. A recent study sought to examine the effects of in utero BPA exposure on human offspring.

Parental occupational exposure to BPA during pregnancy was shown to be associated with shortened anogenital distance in male offspring. The association was stronger for maternal exposure.

According to the study, as reprinted on the website Green Med Info:

“Our findings provide the first epidemiologic evidence that in utero BPA exposure may adversely affect male genital development.”

A federal advisory committee has recommended that boys and young men be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV).  The recommendation by the CDC panel will likely transform the use of the HPV vaccine, since most private insurers pay for vaccines once the committee recommends them.

HPV vaccine is expensive, costing pediatricians $300 for the three dose regimen; many pediatricians charge their patients much more for it.

According to the New York Times:

“The vaccine has been controversial …  and that controversy is likely to intensify with the committee’s latest recommendation … Vaccinating the nation’s 11- and 12-year-old boys will cost almost $140 million annually, but the one-time catch-up among males 13 to 21 will cost hundreds of millions more.”

Is it possible to use soy as an aid to celibacy?  Traditional wisdom says yes, and a fair amount of science backs it up. Many studies have shown that soy’s estrogenic isoflavones interfere with the production and usage of testosterone in your body.  There’s also some evidence that soy can cause gynecomastia (male breast enlargement), and quite a lot of evidence for its reproductive toxicity.

The most recent piece of evidence is a case study of a 19-year-old man who become vegan, began consuming soy in large quantities, and soon after experienced loss of libido and erectile dysfunction.  Lab assessment revealed low levels of testosterone with increased levels of DHEA.

According to Dr. Kaayla Daniels in an article on the Weston A. Price Foundation website:

“During the year prior to this workup, the young man’s diet had packed a whopping punch of soy isoflavones, averaging 360 mg per day, from soy milk, soy crisps, tofu, soy sauce, soy nuts and edamame. This level of soy consumption is far above average, yet increasingly common these days as people quit meat and dairy products for soy substitutes …  After discontinuing his vegan diet and eliminating soy foods altogether, he noticed a gradual improvement in sexual function over the course of a year and his lab tests revealed gradual normalization of testosterone and DHEA levels.”

A new study shows that high doses of vitamin E may increase the risk of prostate cancer.  The research had originally been designed to investigate potentially protective benefits of both selenium and vitamin E for prostate cancer, but instead found that Vitamin E caused a significant increase in prostate cancer risk. 

Selenium was found to cause no added risk, but also no benefit.

According to CNN:

“Based on the results of this trial, [the researchers] suggested that men should have a serious conversation with their doctors about whether taking vitamin E supplements is a good idea.”

There are more than a few cancer patients who realize too late that a symptom they’d been aware of for a long time, but ignored, was a warning sign.  Yahoo Health has collected a list of signs to watch for which may help you realize the problem earlier, when it is easier to cure.  Here are a few of them:

FOR BOTH MEN AND WOMEN

Wheezing or Shortness of Breath:  This is often one of the first signs lung cancer patients remember noticing.

Swallowing Problems or Hoarseness:  This is most commonly associated with esophageal or throat cancer.

Weakness and Fatigue:  A sign of many cancers — any time you feel exhausted without explanation and it doesn’t respond to getting more sleep, talk to your doctor.

Unexplained Weight Loss:  Weight loss is an early sign of colon and other digestive cancers.

Chronic Heartburn:  If you have frequent episodes of heartburn or a constant low-level feeling of pain in the chest after eating, it could be a sign of esophageal cancer.

SYMPTOMS WOMEN ARE LIKELY TO IGNORE

Red, Sore, or Swollen Breast:  Everyone knows to check for lumps, but too often symptoms closer to the surface are overlooked.

Nipple Changes:  A nipple that began to appear flattened, inverted, or turned sideways can be a sign of breast cancer.

Unusually Heavy or Painful Periods or Bleeding Between Periods:  This can be a tip-off regarding endometrial or uterine cancer.

SYMPTOMS MEN ARE LIKELY TO IGNORE

Erection Problems:  This is a common sign of prostate cancer.

Scaly or Painful Nipple or Nipple Discharge:  Men do get breast cancer; bring any lump or swelling to your doctor’s attention.

Difficulty Urinating or Changes in Flow:  This is one of the most frequent early sign of prostate cancer.

To see the complete list, and read more information, you can click on the link below.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently told women in their 40s that they don’t need mammograms.  Now, they will soon recommend that men not get screened for prostate cancer.

The task force is currently planning on recommending a “D” rating for PSA testing, meaning that “there is moderate or high certainty that the service has no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits.” A review of studies has shown that the PSA blood test yields “small or no reduction” in prostate cancer deaths.

According to CNN:

“The report adds that PSA testing is ‘associated with harms related to subsequent evaluation and treatments.’ … The problem is that many of the cancers that get detected are so small and slow-growing, they’ll never be harmful, and doctors have a difficult time discerning the quick, harmful cancers from the slow, harmless ones.”

New research shows that the symptoms of erectile dysfunction (ED) can be improved with some lifestyle changes, such as lowering cholesterol, controlling blood pressure, losing weight and exercising.  That’s because these behaviors help maintain a healthy heart — but some doctors are saying people are more likely to follow the advice if they’re motivated to treat problems with erection instead of heart disease.

The two conditions are both related to improper blood flow. The arteries that provide blood to your heart and those that expand to sustain an erection are part of the same system.

According to Time Magazine:

“As doctors have long known, ED is a harbinger of heart disease … Of course, patients tend to be more likely to pay attention to their immediate symptoms of ED than to the potential risk of heart disease down the road.”

A report summarizing data from the 2009 National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided national estimates for a broad range of health measures for the U.S. population.  Estimates were calculated for selected chronic conditions, selected mental health characteristics, functional limitations, health status, health care access, and health behaviors.

One set of data looked at physical leisure-time activity.  Among other data, the survey showed that 33% of adults were considered inactive, 33% of adults had some leisure-time physical activity, and 35% of adults engaged in leisure-time physical activity on a regular basis. More than half of adults aged 18 years and over never engaged in any periods of vigorous leisure-time physical activity lasting 10 minutes or more per week.   But the survey also found that women were more inactive than men, and men engaged in leisure-time physical activity on a regular basis more often than women.

According to the report:

“Regarding vigorous leisure-time physical activity, 50% of men never engaged in periods of vigorous leisure-time physical activity lasting 10 minutes or more per week compared with 60% of women. Thirty-one percent of men engaged in such activities three or more times per week compared with 25% of women.”

Everyone knows that drugs come with a variety of side effects. But sometimes those side effects can be quite surprising. For example, did you know that some medications can cause kooky hallucinations comparable to what you’d get if you were on LSD? Other drugs can affect the color of your urine, or make your dreams super strange and vivid.

In our never-ending quest for happiness, it sometimes doesn’t occur to us that what we’re searching for may be as close as our own bodies. And now, a new study shows that it’s possible the answer to our search may begin with the bacteria in our bellies. According to Science News:

“Mice fed broth fortified with a type of friendly intestinal bacteria called Lactobacillus rhamnosus behaved less anxiously than mice fed broth without bacteria. Those behavior changes were accompanied by differences in levels of a brain-chemical sensor and stress hormones.

The bacteria telegraph these brain-chemical and behavior-changing messages via the vagus nerve, which connects the brain stem to various internal organs, researchers report online August 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

An FDA safety alert has called attention to another drug linked to serious adverse health problems. This one, an antidepressant that is also commonly used to treat hypertension, can cause abnormal changes in the electrical activity of the heart, which can lead to abnormal heart rhythm, and possibly be fatal, the FDA said. People with underlying heart conditions and low potassium and magnesium levels in their blood are particularly at risk for this, and the drug, Celexa, should no longer be used at doses greater than 40 mg per day, the FDA said.

While Celexa’s label indicates that “certain patients may require a dose of 60 mg per day,” studies have shown that there’s no benefit in the treatment of depression with doses higher than 40 mg, the FDA added.

In the Leave-It-to-Beaver days, when a couple ordered a bottle of soda pop and stuck two straws in it so they could share it, that bottle was a mere 6.5 ounces. And, soda pop was something that was considered a treat, something you only got once in a while, like when you were on a date. But today that’s all changed. With 32-ounce containers that they don’t share with anybody, over half of the U.S. population is downing sugary drinks daily, according to a report by CNN.com.

Another thing’s changed, too: no longer limited to just soda pop to choose from, people are guzzling sugar-laden sports drinks, sweetened and flavored water, fruit juices, sweetened tea and flavored milk. This drinking craze doesn’t come without consequences – it’s linked to poor diet quality, weight gain, obesity, and in adults, type 2 diabetes.

Most people believe that hospitals are the best place to be when you’re sick and you want to get better. And just about everyone believes that, of all the hospitals in the world, U.S. hospitals are the best there are. But a new report that summarizes data on hospital-acquired infections, errors and deaths may turn everything you ever believed about U.S. hospitals upside-down. For example, in Europe, 1 in 22 hospital-acquired infections lead to death; but in the U.S., 1 in 7 does. And, in America, 1 in 5 of all hospitalized patients suffer harm from medical errors.

If the thought of getting old is getting you down, then you might get an uplift from a story by Happy News, the online go-to place for good news. In this instance, the good news is that geriatric specialists say longevity is the new normal, and that more and more people are achieving stunning physical accomplishments well into their 80s, 90s and beyond. Senior citizens are running marathons, participating on swim teams and baseball leagues, and are working hard at proving that old age isn’t what it used to be.

One woman, who at 93 is still teaching 12 yoga classes a week, took up ballroom dancing after she had a hip replacement. Her doctor had told her to accept that she was getting older, and that she couldn’t do what she used to do – but instead she started dancing in addition to her yoga. And then she sent her doctor a photo of herself performing an extremely difficult yoga position and this note: “I just wanted to show you that there’s nothing you can’t do.”

With the Northern hemisphere flu season just around the corner, health officials are wondering whether a new flu will pop up in an old form. Avian (bird) flu had been eliminated in most of 63 countries when it last hit a peak, in 2006, health officials told the BBC. But the number of cases has been rising again since 2008, appearing in poultry or wild birds that previously had been virus-free. Plus, it’s showing signs of having side-stepped vaccines with a new mutant strain.

A recent opinion piece in the Scientist calls attention to the need for better global monitoring of drugs in countries with few financial resources. Using the U.S. FDA as a model of how to regulate “real world” drug safety and efficacy, The Scientist chose the FDA’s handling of Vioxx – which was recalled because thousands of people who took it died – as an example of successful monitoring, The Scientist said:

“Post-marketing drug withdrawals such as Vioxx® demonstrate post-marketing drug safety monitoring success in saving lives and preventing morbidity.”

Did you ever wonder why it is that some people get the flu even when they’ve had a flu shot, while others seem to stay well even if they’ve never had a flu shot in their lives? To answer that question, researchers at the University of Michigan infected healthy people with the flu, and then observed what happened. According to MSNBC, they discovered that, first, only half of the study subjects came down with the flu and, second, that whether they got sick or not, everyone’s body was affected by the flu.

The difference, researchers said, was in the different ways the study subjects’ immune systems responded to the virus. The scientists then studied the subjects’ gene expression to see how their immune systems reacted to it, and found that everyone’s immune systems had “significant and complex” responses, even if they didn’t get sick. The key now, the researchers said, is to find out how the immune systems of those subjects who didn’t get sick fought off the virus. The study was published in PLoS Genetics in August.

A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition and reported by Science Daily shows that foods rich in protein, including dairy products, help dieters preserve muscle and lose belly fat. Another study on Mount Everest climbers and reported at the August meeting of the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, showed that an amino acid called leucine may also help people burn fat during periods of food restriction while keeping their muscle tissue. Whey protein concentrate is one of the highest sources of dietary leucine. It also is found in shrimp, almonds and peanuts.

In an exciting discovery announced in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry in July, researchers said they have found that a common spice could be the answer to stopping a fatal brain cancer known as glioblastoma (GBMs). Previous studies had suggested that curcumin (a major component of turmeric, a plant of the ginger family) is a potential agent against glioblastomas. In this study, scientists showed that it decreased brain tumors in 9 of 11 study animals (81 percent), with no evidence of other tissue toxicity. The study’s authors said:

In summary, data presented here suggest curcumin as a potential agent for therapy of GBMs.

Sulfur is known as a healing mineral, and a sulfur deficiency often leads to pain and inflammation associated with various muscle and skeletal disorders. But is it possible that a sulfur deficiency could also cause you to gain weight? In an intriguing presentation, Health Club Journal explains how sulfur is necessary for metabolism of insulin, and the role that sulfated forms of vitamin D and sulfated cholesterol may play in the metabolism of glucose in the body.

The National Health Review for 2009 is out, and it comes with some intriguing statistics on the overall picture of who’s healthy – and who’s not – among adults in the U.S. When it comes to how education figures into health, it turns out that the more educated you are, the healthier you seem to be. The survey found that people with a college education were more physically active, and were less likely to have heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic health problems such as back pain, kidney and liver disease or migraine headaches

Sulfur is the third most abundant mineral in your body, after calcium and phosphorous. It’s an important mineral element that we get almost wholly through proteins, yet it’s been over 20 years since the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) issued its last update on recommended daily allowances (RDA) for it. In a study examining critical elements about how sulfur works in the body, researchers say the importance of this mineral may be underestimated, and that it’s possible that we may not be getting enough of it in our bodies.

Despite the controversy that swirls around it today, raw cow’s milk has been a part of the human diet for thousands of years. Admittedly, it’s a source of food allergy for some – but a recent study shows that there is a growing body of epidemiological evidence that consumption of unprocessed cow’s milk actually decreases the risk of asthma, hay fever and atopic sensitization, rather than increasing it. The study also looks at the components of unprocessed milk that could be responsible for this protection.

Scientists looking for a cost-effective way to reduce global mortality rates announced in July that they believe they’ve found it in the form of a supplement that could increase life expectancy by two years. Evidence of the benefits of vitamin D in reducing the risks of an array of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and even Alzheimer’s has been building up for a long time. But now, these researchers say, they have convincing evidence that Increasing serum 25(OH)D levels from 54 to 110 nmol/l would reduce the vitamin D-sensitive disease mortality rate by an estimated 20 percent:

“Increasing serum 25(OH)D levels is the most cost-effective way to reduce global mortality rates, as the cost of vitamin D is very low and there are few adverse effects from oral intake and/or frequent moderate UVB irradiance with sufficient body surface area exposed.”

Are you someone who can’t bear the thought of trading your diet soda for a non-fizzy drink? Or have you mulled around the idea of giving up artificial sweetener in your coffee or tea, but just can’t seem to do it? If so, you may be interested in a study that showed that it’s possible your inability to give up artificial sweeteners is more than just lack of willpower. In this study, scientists gave rats the choice between water sweetened with artificial sweetener and cocaine, and discovered that 94 percent preferred the sweet taste of the sweetener over the cocaine! The scientists said:

Our findings clearly demonstrate that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, even in drug-sensitized and -addicted individuals. We speculate that the addictive potential of intense sweetness results from an inborn hypersensitivity to sweet tastants.

A startling finding in a new study may be the clue in preventing military suicides. Recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, researchers said they found low levels of docosahexaenoic acid – the Omega-3 fats found in fish oil – in troops who had committed suicide. Those with higher levels of DHA were less likely to take their own lives, Time online reported. The implications of this study could be far-reaching, if all it takes to reduce suicidal thoughts is a good balance of Omega-3′s in the diet.