my Fatherly Life: 2011

Monday, December 19, 2011

One in five Americans has hearing loss

Perhaps this is genes-based... would yours be surviving the hard times?
Fathers, take note: your best half is more prone to this phenomenon.
-----

Posted: 15 November 2011

WASHINGTON: About one in five Americans age 12 and over suffers from hearing loss in at least one ear that is severe enough to interfere with daily communication, US researchers said Monday.

The estimate is the first to cover the entire United States instead of select populations according to location or age, said the study authors from Johns Hopkins University.

"I couldn't find a simple number of how common hearing loss is in the US," said lead author Frank Lin, an assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology. "So we decided to develop our own."

The findings, published in the November 14 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association, are higher than previous estimates of 21 to 29 million people with hearing loss.

The researchers took data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys (NHANES), which has tracked Americans' health since 1971, and analyzed data from just over 7,000 hearing tests between 2001 and 2008.

Forty-eight million people, or 20.3 percent of people 12 and over in the United States, have hearing loss in at least one ear; while 30 million, or 12.7 percent of the population, has it in both ears, they found.

The researchers defined hearing loss as being unable to hear speech sounds of 25 decibels or less, which is the World Health Organization (WHO) definition for hearing loss.

Hearing loss becomes more frequent as people age, but the researchers found that it tended to happen less often in women than in men, and was also less frequent in blacks than whites.

Researchers are not sure why, but they suggested that the potential protective effects of the female hormone estrogen and the skin pigment melanin should be investigated as potential reasons.

According to the WHO, about 278 million people worldwide suffer from moderate to profound hearing impairment, or about four percent of the world population.

Hearing loss can be caused by a variety of factors, including infectious disease, loud noises, injury and simple aging. About half of all cases are preventable through prevention and early diagnosis, the WHO said.

-AFP/pn

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
One in five Americans has hearing loss

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Dud in bed but a dude at home for the Pill women

Posted: 12 October 2011

PARIS: Women who take the Pill tend to choose as partners men who are less attractive and worse in bed but a sounder bet for a long-term relationship, according to an unusual study published on Tuesday.

Probing the effect of contraceptive hormones on mating choice, researchers questioned 2,519 women in the United States, Czech Republic, Britain and Canada who had had at least one child.

The volunteers were asked to rate their relationship for general satisfaction and sexual pleasure and the attractiveness of their partner or, retrospectively, of their ex.

Oral contraception had been used by 1,005 women when they met their partner, while 1,514 had used no form of hormonal birth control at the first encounter.

"Our results show some positive and negative consequences of using the Pill when a woman meets her partner," said Craig Roberts of Stirling University, Scotland, who led the investigation.

"Such women may, on average, be less satisfied with the sexual aspects of their relationship but more so with non-sexual aspects. Overall, women who met their partner on the Pill had longer relationships -- by two years on average -- and were less likely to separate."

Roberts suspects the Pill skews the sub-conscious "chemistry" by which a woman makes a mating choice.

Previously, he found that using oral contraceptives altered women's preferences for men's body odour.

When they didn't take the Pill, women were subjected to the strong hormonal swings of the menstrual cycle.

During ovulation, they unwittingly preferred the smell of men who were genetically dissimilar.

The evolutionary explanation for this is that babies that are born from genetically dissimilar couples tend to be healthier and have a better chance of survival.

But when women took the Pill, they preferred the smell of genetically similar men, Roberts found in this earlier research.

This was because the normal hormonal swings of the menstrual cycle evened out under the effect of the contraception.

The hormone levels typically reflected the non-fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, when women "are more attracted to men who appear more caring and reliable -- good dads," said Roberts.

Although such men are a better choice for long-term partnerships, the risk of a relationship breakdown is still there.

"Women who used oral contraception when they met their partner tended to find him less attractive, engaged in compliant sex and rejected sexual advances more frequently as the relationship progressed, and were more likely to initiate separation if it occurred," the study notes bleakly.

The new research gives an important statistical push to the theory of sexual chemistry but also raises a dilemma.

Should a woman go for Mr. Hunk or Mr. Nice?

To women who are mistrustful of what their body is telling them, going off the Pill and using a condom could help provide the answer, suggests Roberts.

"Choosing a non-hormonal barrier method of contraception for a few months before getting married might be one way for a woman to check or reassure herself that she's still attracted to her partner," he says.

The volunteers for the study were recruited through personal contact, social networking sites and advertising on pregnancy and parenthood forum websites. Of the 2,519 women, 1,761 women were still in a relationship with the biological father of their first child.

-AFP/vl

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Dud in bed but a dude at home for the Pill women

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Healthy men "don't need prostate screening"

Posted: 08 October 2011

WASHINGTON: Routine screening for prostate cancer does not help save the lives of healthy men and often triggers the need for more tests and treatments, a US government health panel said Friday.

The US Preventive Services Task Force's draft recommendations, which will be open to public comment on Tuesday, are likely to face a push back from advocates of the PSA blood test as well as from drug makers and doctors who benefit from the now-lucrative screening industry.

Based on the results of five clinical trials, the recommendation to avoid a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test -- which measures the level of the protein in the blood -- applies to healthy men of all ages without suspicious symptoms.

But it could have an especially dramatic impact on the care for men aged 50 and older, who are routinely administered the PSA test.

"The low specificity of the PSA test coupled with its inability to distinguish indolent from aggressive tumours means that a substantial number of men are being over diagnosed with prostate cancer," the task force said.

"If any benefit does exist, it is very small after 10 years," it added, citing two major trials in Europe and the United States on the value of PSA testing.

The task force also found no evidence that other forms of screening, such as an ultrasound or digital rectal exam or ultrasound, are effective. It did not examine whether testing was beneficial to men who have already been treated for the disease or who show suspicious symptoms.

One million men who had had the PSA test and would otherwise not have been treated got surgery, radiation therapy or a combination of both between 1986 and 2005, the task force said.

It pointed to evidence suggesting that up to five in 1,000 men will die within a month of prostate cancer surgery and between 10 and 70 in 1,000 men will suffer from serious complications.

"Radiotherapy and surgery result in adverse effects," the task force added, noting that 200 to 300 in 1,000 men treated with such therapies have urinary incontinence or impotence.

An estimated 217,730 men in the United States were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 32,050 died last year of the second most common form of cancer in men after skin cancer.

But the task force noted that most men with the cancer only have "microscopic, well-differentiated lesions that are unlikely to be of clinical importance."

- AFP/wk

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:

Healthy men "don't need prostate screening"

Monday, November 14, 2011

Colon cancer advances faster in men

Posted: 28 September 2011

WASHINGTON: Men with colon cancer tend to have more advanced tumors than women of the same age, said a study out Tuesday that suggested screening guidelines may need to be adjusted for sex and age.

Currently, men and women age 50 and older are urged to get a colonoscopy to screen for growths or polyps that could form into tumors. Colorectal cancer is the fourth leading cancer killer worldwide, taking 610,000 lives per year.

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined 44,350 participants in a national screening colonoscopy program from 2007 to 2010 in Austria.

The screenings look for adenomas, which are polyps or benign tumors as well as for particularly advanced adenomas and colorectal cancer.

The analysis found "a significantly higher rate of these lesions among men compared with women in all age groups, suggesting that male sex constitutes an independent risk factor for colorectal carcinoma," according to the study.

For instance, five percent of men age 50-54 had advanced adenomas compared to just 2.9 percent of women.

The rate of colorectal cancer in 55-59-year-old men (1.3 percent) was about the same as in women a decade older (65-69-year-old women were diagnosed at a rate of 1.2 percent).

The prevalence of colorectal cancer overall was twice as high among men, at 1.5 percent, compared to 0.7 percent in women.

The researchers noted that "deciding whether to adjust the age at which screening begins also requires considering whether the recommended age for women should be older or the recommended age for men younger."

However, the study stopped short of saying what that new age should be, saying further studies "are needed to demonstrate the relative clinical effectiveness of screening at different ages."

-AFP/pn

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Colon cancer advances faster in men

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Study: Many Obese Patients Unconvinced Weight Poses Health Risks

Image via Wikipedia(GAINESVILLE, Fla.) -- A majority of overweight and obese patients seen in hospital emergency departments do not consider their weight to be a threat to their health, and say that doctors have never informed them of the risks of excessive weight gain, a new study finds.

HealthDay reports that researchers surveyed 450 randomly selected patients seen in the emergency department at Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and asked them to respond to two questions. The first question that was asked was, “Do you believe your present weight is damaging to your health?” followed by, “Have other health professionals ever told you that you are overweight?”

The study found that only 19 percent of respondents who reported that their weight was unhealthy said they'd ever discussed it with a health care professional. Thirty percent of respondents who were told that their weight was unhealthy by their health care provider agreed with that opinion.

The study also found that 47 percent of obese and overweight men believed their weight was a problem, while the majority—53 percent—felt it wasn’t an issue.

Study author Dr. Matthew Ryan, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at University of Florida, found that women were more aware of the health issues surrounding obesity, as 62 percent reported that their weight was negatively affecting their health.

"We see the manifestations of obesity in the emergency department. Obesity is directly linked to other diseases—hypertension, diabetes, cancers, osteoarthritis, gallbladder disease, heart disease, strokes, and metabolic syndrome," Ryan said. "We see the acute exacerbations of chronic diseases."

Even amid all the health problems surrounded by excessive weight, only 36 percent of overweight or obese men and 50 percent of overweight/obese women reported discussing the issue with their doctors.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Taken from WTMA.com; source article is below:
Study: Many Obese Patients Unconvinced Weight Poses Health Risks

9/11 firefighters "cancer prone"

Would you take up this job, even if "the way that makes you earn a living is going to kill you"?
-----

Posted: 02 September 2011

LONDON: Firefighters exposed to the World Trade Centre attacks are more likely to get cancer, while 9/11 rescue workers still suffer high illness rates generally, according to studies published Friday.

In a 10th anniversary edition of medical journal The Lancet, scientists said however that death rates among emergency staff and civilians who survived the disaster were lower than those of the wider New York City population.

"The events of that day changed the historical trajectory of America and the world. They have had -- and continue to have -- profound consequences for health," the Lancet journal said in an editorial.

One study showed that New York City firefighters who rushed to the doomed Twin Towers a decade ago are 19 per cent more likely to have cancer than their non-exposed colleagues and a comparable section of the city's population.

There were 263 cancer cases in the exposed firefighters compared with 238 expected from general population data, while from the non-exposed group there were only 135 compared with 161 expected from the general population.

The study, led by David Prezant, chief medical officer of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), and colleagues, looked at 9,853 male firefighters with health records dating back to well before 9/11.

Another study in the Lancet showed a high burden of both physical and mental illness in the estimated 50,000 rescue and recovery workers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York by Al-Qaeda.

Data gathered from more than 27,000 of those workers, who enrolled in a federally funded monitoring programme, showed that 28 per cent had developed asthma, 42 per cent sinusitis, and 39 per cent gastrooesophageal reflux disease.

Twenty-eight per cent had depression, 32 per cent had post traumatic stress disorder and 21 per cent had panic disorder, said the study by Juan Wisnivesky, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York state.

"Our findings show a substantial burden of persistent physical and mental disorders in rescue and recovery workers who rushed to the site of the WTC and laboured there for weeks and months 10 years ago," the study said.

But World Trade Centre-exposed rescue workers and civilians have had lower death rates than New York City general population, a third study by researchers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

They said the fact that most of those exposed were employed and that they had volunteered for the study -- both employed people and study volunteers are largely healthier than the overall population -- could account for the result.

-AFP/wk

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
9/11 firefighters "cancer prone"

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Liver cancer linked to male sex hormones: HK study

Now, if this is true, is this hereditary?
-----

Posted: 21 July 2011

HONG KONG: Hong Kong researchers have found that men are more likely to develop liver cancer due to a type of gene which is linked to male sex hormones.

Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said a study conducted since 2008 found more than 70 percent of patients with liver cancer produced high levels of a gene called cell cycle-related kinase (CCRK).

The study said the gene, one out of more than 17,000 in the human body, is directly controlled and activated by the receptor protein of the male sex hormone, or androgen.

"This study has a potential clinical impact as it depicts the correlation between androgen receptor and liver cancer development," university vice chancellor Joseph Sung and research team leader Mok Hing-yiu said.

"It also provides an explanation on why men have a higher risk of liver cancer than women," they added in a joint statement posted on the university's website.

Researchers examined risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and occupation to explain the gender disparity but none could fully explain the difference.

The study has used mouse models and found either lowering the level or blocking the androgen-receptor-CCRK pathway could significantly reduce the tumour growth rate.

Liver cancer is the third deadliest type of cancer in the world after lung and colon cancer and there is currently no effective treatment.

Men are three times more likely to develop liver cancer than women in Hong Kong, said the study, whereas in certain areas in China and Japan men are seven times more likely to develop it.

Around 40 percent of liver cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage, with that proportion reaching 80 percent in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

In the United States more than 19,000 people are diagnosed annually with liver cancer, and some 17,000 die each year of the disease.

- AFP/al

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Liver cancer linked to male sex hormones: HK study

Monday, June 6, 2011

Back after 3 weeks out

Image by Unitopia via FlickrI was out for about 3 weeks, and it was quite an urgent trip that I had to make, me and my family.

At 83 years old, my mother was on a sick and frail physique, and at her last days, 5 in the hospital, where she showed recovery, then 5 at home, where she finally transpired, she was already begging for drugs so she can go away peacefully.

And in most cases of an impending death, on her last day, she summoned all her strength to savor a meal before passing over to her next life.

We will miss her, and we have to take care of our equally aged father who is left behind, now aged 87.

Hope to get back in circulation soon.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Scotland has alcoholism as top health problem

Image via WikipediaAlcohol remains a destroyer till now when everything is deemed technologically advanced...
-----

Study finds alcohol was a factor in more than 5500 GP consultations in Scotland in one day.

03 May 2011

Alcohol was a factor in more than 5500 GP consultations in Scotland on one day alone last month, according to a new survey.

BMA Scotland, which carried out the study, said this equates to 1.4 million consultations per year, costing the NHS more than £28m.

It warned that a "significant proportion" of adults are risking alcohol-related health problems, with alcohol killing five people a day.

Dr Alan McDevitt, deputy chairman of the BMA's Scottish General Practitioners Committee, said: "Those who suffer from alcohol related health problems are not just alcoholics or heavy binge drinkers.

"By regularly drinking over and above recommended limits, a significant proportion of the adult population is at risk of experiencing health problems that are linked to the alcohol they consume whether it is high blood pressure, breast cancer or even domestic abuse.

"In just one day, nurses and doctors working in general practices across Scotland saw more than 5500 patients where alcohol had contributed to their ill health.

"But the patients seen in general practice are just the tip of the iceberg. The impact of alcohol misuse across the rest of the NHS, in hospitals and in our communities is far greater."

The organisation called on candidates in all the political parties to acknowledge the damaging influence of alcohol misuse on individuals and in communities every day in Scotland.

It urged them to spend one of the last few days of the election campaign outlining how they will tackle alcohol misuse in the next Scottish Parliament.

Other health organisations backed the BMA's call for action to tackle the country's alcohol problem.

Alcohol Focus Scotland called on politicians to consider a minimum unit price for alcohol while the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland suggested more alcohol liaison nurses to help reduce re-attendance at A&E and hospital admissions.

-----

Taken from news.stv.tv; source article is below:
More than 5500 GP visits a day in Scotland are alcohol related, survey finds

Does Circumcision Have Health Benefits?

This is another article taken in its entirety. Read with discretion.
-----

Michelle Bryner, Life's Little Mysteries Contributor
29 April 2011

The debate over surgically removing an infant's penis foreskin has continued over the years, with proponents touting circumcision's health benefits, and opponents arguing against what they say is the barbaric nature of the procedure. An anticircumcision group in San Francisco is the latest to join the fray, pushing for a ban on the practice.

Circumcision proponents, however, argue against the proposal, citing the procedure's history as a religious ritual, as well as its sexual health benefits -- some research suggests that circumcision helps prevent the spread of HIV.

Plenty of research has been conducted on both sides of the debate, so which point of view does the science favor?

An ancient tradition

Circumcision started as a ritual act by the Egyptians as far back as 2500 B.C. and later by Jewish people. They did it to mark a boy's passage into manhood, some believe. Other proposed reasons include: as a marking to distinguish those of higher social status; as a male "menstruation," or sign of the onset of puberty; and as a way to discourage masturbation.

Since then, however, people of many faiths began following suit: Circumcision is now the most common surgery performed on males in the United States. In a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the period 1999 to 2004, 79 percent of men reported that they were circumcised.

Circumcision is widely believed to prevent diseases, such as HIV, and there is some evidence that it reduces the risk of male-to-female HIV transfer. The proposed mechanism is that circumcision removes what are called Langerhans cells in the foreskin, which are more susceptible to HIV infection. Langerhans cells are equipped with special receptors that may allow HIV access into the body.

Three studies published in 2009 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews revealed that circumcised men were 54 percent less likely to get HIV than uncircumcised men. The trials included more than 11,000 men in South Africa, Uganda and Kenya between 2002 and 2006.

The practice may also protect women from contracting the virus that causes AIDS. A review of past medical files of more than 300 Uganda couples, in which the man was HIV positive and the woman wasn't, showed circumcision reduced the likelihood that the female partner would become infected by 30 percent. That study was presented in 2006 at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

While HIV prevention is becoming a well-supported argument for circumcision in developing countries, it is not as strong of an argument for the United States.

"A number of important differences from sub-Saharan African settings where the three male circumcision trials were conducted must be considered in determining the possible role for male circumcision in HIV prevention in the United States," according to a report published by the CDC. The report goes on to say that, "studies to date have demonstrated efficacy only for penile-vaginal sex, the predominant mode of HIV transmission in Africa, whereas the predominant mode of sexual HIV transmission in the United States is by penile-anal sex among [men who have sex with men]."

As for medical complications, a review of 52 relevant studies from 21 countries found circumcision of infants by trained professionals rarely showed adverse health outcomes. For instance, the researchers found that among those under age 1, there was just a 1.5 percent average risk of minor adverse events such as excessive bleeding, swelling and infection. Severe complications were very rare, the study found, which was published in 2010 in the journal BMC Urology. However, risk of both minor and severe complications went up when inexperienced providers did the circumcisions.

Despite the benefits of circumcision and a lack of strong evidence showing negative side effects, the debate continues as opponents look for ways to outlaw the practice.

Put it to a vote?

A proposal to ban circumcisions in San Francisco has moved forward as proponents of the ban delivered more than 12,000 signatures to the Department of Elections this week. If the petition has enough valid signatures from registered voters, the ban will appear on the ballot in the November election. The ban would make circumcision of any male under the age of 18 a misdemeanor and carry with it a fine of up to $1,000 and jail time of up to one year.

According to Reuters reports, Lloyd Schofield, the leader of the proposal, says circumcision is "excruciatingly painful and permanently damaging surgery that's forced on men when they're at their weakest and most vulnerable."

The CDC disagrees that the procedure is painful. "Data has shown that with anesthesia, the majority of infants have no objective pain reaction," Scott Bryan, a spokesperson for the CDC, told Life's Little Mysteries.

The banning of circumcision may be an extreme measure, especially given the fact that the procedure is not mandatory. There are also still many unanswered questions on both sides of the argument. We'll have to wait until November to see how the debate actually plays out.

Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @LLMysteries.

This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.

-----

Taken from livescience.com; source article is below:
Does Circumcision Have Health Benefits?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

In India and China: The 'lost boy' generation

I think it is because the male is considered as a viable gender, while a female is said to be a liability - and the imbalance brought by that perception we now see.

I have all girls, and I am thankful for all four of them.
-----

Posted: 15 March 2011

WASHINGTON: Abortions of female foetuses have led to a massive surplus of young unmarried men in India and China, raising fears of an outcast group that could threaten the social fabric, a study said on Monday.

The trend took root in the 1980s when ultrasound technologies made it easier for families to detect foetal sex early and to abort if it was not what the parents desired, said the analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Sons have traditionally been preferred over daughters in many parts of China, India and South Korea due to social, cultural and financial motivations. Sex-selective abortion is outlawed but can be difficult to enforce.

The phenomenon was first spotted in South Korea in the early 1990s, when the sex ratio at birth (SRB) - typically 105 male births to every 100 female births - rose to 125 in some cities.

Similar rises in male births were seen in China, "complicated by the one-child policy, which has undoubtedly contributed to the steady increase in the reported SRB from 106 in 1979, to 111 in 1990, 117 in 2001 and 121 in 2005," said the study.

India has seen "sex ratios as high as 125 in Punjab, Delhi and Gujarat in the north but normal sex ratios of 105 in the southern and eastern states of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh," it added.

In parts of China where a second child is allowed, after a daughter is the first born, the SRB for the second is 143, suggesting that many choose to abort a second girl foetus in favour of trying again for a boy.

Estimates of China's actual population difference in 2005 pointed to 1.1 million excess males, with men under 20 exceeding the number of females by around 32 million, said the study led by Therese Hesketh, University College London Centre for International Health and Development.

"These men will be unable to marry, in societies where marriage is regarded as virtually universal, and where social status and acceptance depend, in large part, on being married and creating a new family," said the authors.

Referred to in China as "guang gun," meaning "bare branches," these men are presumed to be unable to bear fruit by coupling and raising a family.

"In China and parts of India the sheer numbers of unmated men are a further cause for concern," said the study.

"Because they may lack a stake in the existing social order, it is feared that they will become bound together in an outcast culture, turning to antisocial behaviour and organised crime, thereby threatening societal stability and security."

Other concerns include the possibility that the surge of unmarried men will boost the sex industry, which has already expanded in India and China over the past 10 years.

However, "the part played by a high sex ratio in this expansion is impossible to isolate; there is no evidence that numbers of sex workers are greater in areas with high sex ratios," said the study.

Ninety-four percent of unmarried people aged 28-49 in China are male, and 97 percent of them have not completed high school, it said.

"Despite the grim outlook for the generation of males entering their reproductive years over the next two decades, there are encouraging signs," said the study.

A crackdown on sex-selective abortion in South Korea has resulted in a more normalised male-to-female birth rate in recent years, and China and India are both down from their peak SRBs due in part to public awareness campaigns and relaxed one-child policies.

But it will likely be several more decades before the sex ratios return to normal, the authors said.

The article was co-authored by Zhu Wei Xing of Zhejiang Normal University in China.

- AFP/de

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Abortions give rise to Asia's 'lost boy' generation

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Popular drugs for men impact their sexual health

Image via Wikipediapublished on March 7, 2011

A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine reveals that, for the first time, 5a-reductase inhibitors commonly used to treat urinary problems in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and found in popular medications to treat hair loss, can produce, persistent erectile dysfunction (ED), depression and loss of libido, even after the medication has been discontinued.

Researchers led by Abdulmaged M. Traish, MBA, PhD, of BostonUniversity School of Medicine, examined data reported in various clinical studies from the available literature concerning the side effects of the 5 alpha reductase inhibitors, finasteride and dutasteride.

Prolonged adverse side effects on sexual function, such as ED, depression and diminished libido, were reported by a subset of men. Drug-related reduction in libido occurred in 4.2% and 1.8% of patients in the dutasteride and placebo groups, respectively. Reduced ejaculation and semen volume were also reported and in some patients, these drugs were associated with depression.

“For these reasons, patients and doctors are urged to discuss these issues openly and candidly and assess the risk benefit ratio prior to commencing therapy with 5a-reductase inhibitors” Dr. Traish notes.

Dr. Irwin Goldstein, editor-in-chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, has seen and evaluated numerous such patients. He further explained the importance of this study. “Young men are being prescribed 5 alpha reductase inhibitors as hair loss treatmentsthat may negatively impact their sexual life, possibly for a prolonged time after stopping the medication. Older men with symptoms of lower urinary tract symptoms or fearful of prostate cancer, now have to deal with new onset sexual and mental health problems. The growing use of 5 alpha reductase inhibitors is causing concerns.” Clearly more research is needed to better understand the basis for these drug-associated side effects but it is evident that 5 alpha reductase inhibitors prevent the synthesis of very critical central nervous system neurosteroids and lower a very important sex steroid hormone, dihydrotestosterone.

Taken from scienceblog.com; source article is below:
Popular drugs for common male health problems can affect their sexual health

my Fatherly Life

Amazon Holiday Deals

About My Fatherly Life Site

Kindle Reader

Kindle Reader

Monday, December 19, 2011

One in five Americans has hearing loss

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Dud in bed but a dude at home for the Pill women

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Healthy men "don't need prostate screening"

Monday, November 14, 2011

Colon cancer advances faster in men

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Study: Many Obese Patients Unconvinced Weight Poses Health Risks

9/11 firefighters "cancer prone"

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Liver cancer linked to male sex hormones: HK study

Monday, June 6, 2011

Back after 3 weeks out

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Scotland has alcoholism as top health problem

Does Circumcision Have Health Benefits?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

In India and China: The 'lost boy' generation

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Popular drugs for men impact their sexual health

Followers

Total Pageviews

About Me

Search My Fatherly Life Site

Search Here and the Web

My Fatherly Life Archive

My Other Sites

Amazon Holiday Deals

About My Fatherly Life Site

Kindle Reader

Kindle Reader

Monday, December 19, 2011

Related articles

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Related articles

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Related articles

Monday, November 14, 2011

Related articles

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Related articles

Related articles

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Related articles

Monday, June 6, 2011

Related articles

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Related articles

Related articles

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Related articles

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Related articles

Followers

Total Pageviews

About Me

Search My Fatherly Life Site

Search Here and the Web

My Fatherly Life Archive

My Other Sites