Oct 12
Could Chinese Herb Be a Natural Viagra? (HealthDay)
Italian researchers report that laboratory studies show that the compound has the potential to treat erectile dysfunction, and possibly with fewer side effects than its pharmaceutical cousin.
"No in-vivo studies in an animal model have been performed at this regard, so a lot of work must be done. We would like to test in vivo [with animals] the molecule to understand if it really works in humans," said study lead author Mario Dell'Agli, of the University of Milan's laboratory of pharmacognosy. "At this stage of the research, we cannot say if the molecule we have synthesized possesses less side effects by respect to Viagra. However, this derivative seems to have being in vitro [in lab tests] more selective than Viagra, because it targets [an enzyme involved in blood flow to the penis] more precisely."
The study was expected to be published in the Oct. 24 issue of the Journal of Natural Products, a publication of the American Chemical Society.
Viagra (sildenafil) is one of several prescription medications available and widely prescribed for erectile dysfunction, a condition that affects an estimated 18 million men in the United States. Viagra and other drugs like it can cause side effects such as headache, stomach problems and visual disturbances.
Horny goat weed, hailing primarily from southern China, has a long history as an aphrodisiac.
As part of a new screening program to find natural alternatives to Viagra, the study authors analyzed a number of herbal extracts longing used for male impotence, including Ferula hermonis or Lebanese Viagra; Cinnamomum cassia or Chinese cinnamon; as well as Epimedium brevicornum aka horny goat weed. All three extracts are reputed to improve sexual performance.
The main in action component of both select was tested against an enzyme known as phosphodiesterase-5A1 (PDE5A1), which regulates blood supply to the penis. Inhibition of this enzyme results in more blood flow to the penis extender deluxe, resulting in an erection.
Icariin, the active ingredient of horny goat weed, inhibited PDE5A1 to a greater degree than the other compounds tested.
"The novelty of this work is the new molecule we have synthesized by icariin," Dell'Agli reported. "It is derived by chemical modifications of the structure of icariin, which is the active ingredient purified from E. brevicornum (horny goat weed). The mechanism by that the molecule we have found might work in humans is the inhibition of phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE 5) in the corpus cavernosum [erectile tissue in the penis], which is the mechanism by which Viagra works. This is an in vitro study. It can be considered a pre-clinical study."
More information
The National Institutes of Health has more on erectile dysfunction.
1 commentOct 12
Economy is overriding issue in governors’ races (AP)
Then came the catastrophe on Wall Street. things being so the economy has become the overriding issue that is tightening governors races over the nation.
“It’s going to exist the No. 1 judgment someone keeps their job or loses it,” said Del Ali, who has conducted polls in sundry governors’ races.
Eleven states elect governors this fall, offering Republicans a chance to reduce the Democrats’ current 28-22 majority of governors’ seats.
And this year is only a prelude to 2010, when three of each five states will elect a governor. The winners of those races will have a crucial edge when it comes time to redraw electoral maps based on the 2010 census.
Earlier in the year, gubernatorial candidates talked about training and health care, along with the economy.
Then came soaring elastic fluid prices, a drumbeat of negative news about state budgets and Wall Street’s unprecedented meltdown. The faltering economy now trumps other topics in several closely watched governors’ races, some of which have grow unexpectedly close.
The financial meltdown “puts an exclamation point on the challenges we’re facing and each express is facing now,” said Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican seeking his fourth two-year term in office.
Some states are already reporting problems accessing credit markets for short-term borrowing. The equal in number of states with deficits is increasing. Tax revenue is flat or falling, and many states’ unemployment compensation funds are dangerously low.
In Missouri, the economy was the top issue in recent polls that showed slight gains for Hulshof’s opponent, Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon.
The race is important enough that President Bush held a fundraiser for Hulshof earlier this month. That led to a swift retort from Nixon linking his opponent to the “failed economic policies of President Bush.”
At a Thursday altercation, Hulshof tried to link Nixon to the state’s past economic troubles: “There was no hand-wringing by means of the attorney general when the previous Democratic governor actually presided over the narrate’s economy.”
In Indiana, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels leads Democrat Jill Long Thompson in fundraising and spending. But Long Thompson is running even or just slightly behind in recent polls while she hammers Daniels by the claim that the state’s economy is in trouble.
She rushes to remind people that Daniels was Bush’s budget director.
“In Indiana, people know he’s accountable for the largest deficit in the history of the world,” Long Thompson said.
Jobs were up in August in Indiana, but the state’s unemployment rate also rose. The state lost 17,600 jobs in July.
“There’s no way to deny some of the national problems are impacting Indiana, but the governor’s hegemony has certainly put Indiana in a much better position than our neighboring states,” said Daniels’ spokesman Cam Savage.
In North Carolina, a state with a history of electing Democratic governors, the Republican Governors Association is running ads bashing Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue over the economy. She’s responded with a spot promoting her work providing jobs.
Republican Pat McCrory, the mayor of Charlotte, says education was the top issue in the past. Now the economy and jobs, along with energy prices, are “definitely attached the minds of almost every area I go,” he said.
Most polls inform a close race.
In Washington, GOP challenger Dino Rossi is criticizing Gov. Christine Gregoire as the state’s projected budget deficit balloons to as much as $3.2 billion. The two are locked in a rematch of their razor-thin 2004 race, which Gregoire won by 133 votes after three recounts and a lawsuit.
The economy was a top issue at sum of two units debates this month, and both are scrambling to take advantage of the crisis.
“In the past four years of Gregoire’s administration, she has left us through piles of debt, higher taxes and rising unemployment,” Rossi said.
Responds Gregoire: “I saw this national economic crisis brewing and fought for the Rainy Day Fund and a budget surplus.”
In Vermont, the economy was a top issue from the beginning. Fear of record heating oil prices was a growing concern for the state, known for its long, cold winters.
Last year, Gov. Douglas used estimates by investment bank Lehman Brothers to propose leasing the category lottery to a private entity for a one-time payment of about $50 million.
Lawmakers were cool to the idea, and at this time Lehman Brothers has filed for insolvency, a fact Douglas’ opponent, outgoing Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington, is quick to point out.
The come: The case Symington had been making about the parade’s household troubles just got a whole fortune easier to sell.
“Vermonters are making the connection that this guy basically has had that sort of ‘trust corporations, trust Wall Street mentality,” said Symington spokesman Michael Carrese.
Douglas brushes off criticism of his economic plan, arguing that the economy moves in cycles and he’s the best person to take advantage of a recovery when it begins.
“My long experience and ability to provide the leadership necessary to get through a tough time makes it all the more important that I stay on the job,” Douglas said.
The most recent poll last month had Douglas with 48 percent of the vote and Symington with 33 percent. Independent Anthony Pollina had 7 percent, and 12 percent were undecided.
Other states electing governors in races not expected to be as close are: Delaware, New Hampshire, Montana, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.
3 commentsOct 11
HPV infection rates similar in men and women (Reuters)
HPV has long been known as a cause of genital warts, but in recent years most reports have focused on its association with cervical cancer. In 2006, an HPV vaccine (Gardasil) designed to prevent cervical cancer was approved for use and a report released yesterday indicates that roughly one quarter of adolescent girls in the U.S. were vaccinated in 2007.
Because male-to-female transmittal of HPV influences the risk of cancer in women, Dr. Anna R. Giuliano of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, and colleagues and sought out more information on the matter.
The team conducted a forward-looking study of 290 men from southern Arizona, ages 18-44 years, who were recruited by a variety of means including college posters, encounters at health clinics, and radio and newspaper advertisements.
The participants were examined at the start of the study and every 6 months thereafter. On average, the subjects were followed for 15.5 months.
Upon entering the study, 30 percent of men were infected with HPV. The 12-month rate of new infection was 29.2 percent.
Over the entire study period, roughly half of men were infected with HPV and nearly a third of the HPV types found are known to cause cancer. About 75 percent of the infections cleared within a year of detection.
The HPV vaccine is currently being tested internationally in men.
"Should we show that HPV prevention vaccines…are effective in men we can potentially reduce a proportion of infections acquired by men," which in winding could reduce the risk in their sexual partners, Giuliano concluded.
SOURCE: Journal of Infectious Diseases, September 15, 2008.
No commentsOct 11
Man’s ‘Viva Viagra’ missile misfires in NYC court (AP)
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Arye Sachs’ antics infringe on a trademark held by Pfizer Inc.
Sachs was ordered to stop displaying anything with viagra logos.
He towed the 25-foot rocket last month to various spots in Manhattan, including Pfizer’s headquarters.
His plan was to invoke Viagra while distributing politically themed condoms. The judge worried persons would mistake the missile for a Pfizer-approved ad.
Sachs’ phone rang unanswered Wednesday, and lawyers for Pfizer didn’t return phone calls.
2 commentsOct 11
NYC man sued over 25-foot Viagra rocket (AP)
An attorney for viagra-maker Pfizer Inc. says that the man’s use of the company’s logo could disarrange consumers into thinking the rocket was an actual trumpeting for the drug used to treat male impotence.
But 48-year-old Arye Sachs of West Babylon says no one would be deterred from buying the blue pills on this account that of he what he did. He says he knows on this account that he’s a “customer.”
Sachs hauled the missile adhering a trailer hitched to his car through Manhattan, where he parked it in front of the Trump Tower forward Sept. 8. He also drove it past Pfizer’s headquarters.
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Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com
No commentsOct 2
Horny Goat Weed may offer Viagra alternative (Reuters)
The herb has all along held a fame as a natural aphrodisiac. The lab experiments, which did not look at whether the plant actually increases appetency, could lead to new drugs to help men get erections, said Mario Dell'Agli, a researcher at the University of Milan, who led the study.
"This could be the natural viagra," he said in a telephone interview. "The novelty is that we have synthesised a new molecule that one day may be able to replace Viagra."
Erectile dysfunction is a common condition worldwide, and drugs like Pfizer Inc's But the medicines, which inhibit every enzyme called phosphodiesterase type 5 that restricts blood flow around the body, including to the penis extender deluxe, can have side effects ranging from headaches, upset stomach and visual problems including blindness.
The Italian team looked for alternatives through studying a number of plants reputed to boost sexual performance.
After homing in on corneous horny goat weed, the researchers modified a compound in the plant called icariin and found it blocked the erection-inhibiting enzyme as well as Viagra did.
Because the compound targets the enzyme more precisely, it may have fewer side effects than Viagra, known generically as sildenafil, Dell'Agli said.
Further tests in animals and humans are needed but the extract from the herb represents a potential new erectile dysfunction manipulation with fewer side effects, Dell'Agli said.
"The compound icariin is present in the horny goat weed in large amounts and its activity against (the enzyme) is lower compared to Viagra," he said. "But the new indivisible particle we synthesized from icariin is as good as Viagra against (the enzyme)."
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Elizabeth Piper)
No commentsSep 22
Sleep Apnea May Cause Erectile Dysfunction (HealthDay)
University of Louisville researchers found that, in a study of mice, one week of chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) — the lack of oxygen suffered during obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) — resulted in a 55 percent decrease in their daily spontaneous erections. After five weeks, the length of time between mice attempts at mating increased on average by 60-fold.
The findings, published in the second September issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, showed that when the mice went back on standard oxygen levels for six weeks, they recovered 74 percent of their original erectile function.
A second treatment using tadalafil, which is generic cialis and increases the availability of nitric oxide, improved erectile and sexual functioning of almost totally the mice to near-normal levels.
"Even relatively short periods of CIH … are associated with significant effects on sexual spryness and erectile function," Dr. David Gozal, professor of pediatrics at the University of Louisville, wrote in the article.
Researchers place no differences in levels of testosterone or other indicators allied to erectile function in mice exposed to CIH for eight weeks.
"Although this study was performed in research animals, chronic intermittent hypoxia has profound effects on multiple organ systems and a strong biologic plausibility exists that similar tools and materials will be observed in humans," said John Heffner, past president of the American Thoracic Society, "Early identification and effective therapy of OSA is critically important, especially considering the high prevalence of this disorder."
More information
The American Sleep Apnea Association has more about symptoms and treatment of sleep apnea.
2 commentsSep 12
“Condom” ring-tone a hit in India (Reuters)
The innovative "Condom a Capella" ring-tone that has the word "condom" sung in many overlapping melodies is the work of an Indian duo, Rupert Fernandes and Vijay Prakash. The website http://www.condomcondom.org, where the ring-tone can be heard, has had through 2 million hits.
The campaign has been produced by the BBC World Service trust in India and aims to target the increasing designate by number of India's mobile phone users, presently estimated at over 250 million.
According to latest figures, 2.4 million people are estate with HIV in India. Only about half of the at-risk population, including sex workers and men who have sex with men have access to HIV prevention measures, the latest UNAIDS fact sheet on India states.
Stigma and taboo associated with sex education are the major challenges facings HIV/AIDS prevention programs in India. Less a third of the young population surveyed could correctly identify the ways to prevent HIV infection, the UNAIDS report states.
Never before has a mobile ring-tone been used to communicate a social or public health message, said Yvonne MacPherson, Country Director, India, BBC World Service Trust.
"We wanted to create a conversation piece that would get people talking and ultimately break down the interdict about condoms," she commented to Reuters Health. "We want condoms to be seen as a single one other health product."
2 commentsSep 12
All types of sexual activity carry some STD risk (Reuters)
Many people may engage in "noncoital" sexual activities such as oral sex, mutual masturbation and anal sex to prevent pregnancy and cut the risk of STDs. However, all of these sex acts come with some degree of STD risk, and it's still important for people to protect themselves, according to an ACOG expert committee.
"Most people, including adolescents, are improbable to use condoms during oral sex, which places them at risk for acquiring an STD," Dr. Richard Guido, one of the report authors, said in an ACOG statement. "This unlikelihood is in some measure because of a greater perceived safety compared with intercourse."
Writing in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, the panel advises doctors to ask patients — adults and teenagers — about all of their sexual activities, and to counsel them on to what degree to reduce their STD risks. Although this "is a sensitive issue to address for both patients and physicians, it's important to discuss sexuality frankly and without judgment so that we can help our patients fully protect themselves against STDs," Guido added.
While oral sex is generally safer than vaginal or anal sex, the ACOG committee notes, it is not without risk. The viruses that cause genital anti-herpes, genital warts and hepatitis can all be transmitted through oral sex. The same is true of the bacterial STDs syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
When it comes to HIV transmission, receptive anal sex carries the highest risk, followed by receptive vaginal sex, according to ACOG. However, there have been cases of HIV linked to oral sex.
"Noncoital sexual activity is not necessarily 'safe sex'," Guido and his colleagues scratch in the report.
They advise "correct and consistent" condom appliance for all types of sexual activity, but especially vaginal and anal sex. Staying in a mutually monogamous relationship, and getting tested for STDs in advance of starting a new relationship, are among the other ways to curb STD transmission. Another precaution, the committee notes, is to unstained sex toys between uses.
It's recommended that every part of sexually active women age 25 or younger be screened for chlamydia once a year, while all sexually active teenagers should be screened with regard to gonorrhea. Other screening tests are done based on individuals' STD put in peril factors or somewhat symptoms they may have.
The ACOG committee points out that lesbian women should be screened in succession the same basis as heterosexual women.
"Most lesbians have been sexually active with men at some point," Guido said. "Even without this sexual history, there are some STDs that can be transmitted between two women during sexual activity."
SOURCE: Obstetrics & Gynecology, September 2008.
No commentsSep 12
Philly school rekindles same-sex education debate (AP)
Who’s in?
Turns out, about 270 boys. And 100 more are on a waiting list.
Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia, person of the incorporated town’s newer charter schools, began its second year on Wednesday, aiming to be an educational beacon in the financially and academically troubled district.
Because it’s a single-sex public school — one of four in the city — Boys’ Latin faced huge opposition and almost didn’t have being.
Critics contend it’s unfair for taxpayers to fund a prep school course of studies for boys only. Supporters say Boys’ Latin is desperately needed in a city where 45 percent of students drop out and male academic achievement badly lags that of the fair sex.
“Obviously something had to be done differently to engage these young men and prepare them for graduation, and for success beyond high school graduation,” said David Hardy, Boys’ Latin co-founder and acting principal.
The Women’s Law Project and the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania had opposed Hardy’s charter application based on its exception of girls.
It was initially rejected by Philadelphia control officials in January 2006, but was approved five months later after then-district CEO Paul Vallas called the gender achievement gap “a crisis.” Boys’ Latin opened in fall 2007.
New rules implemented by the U.S. Education Department in 2006 allow same-sex education whenever schools plan it will expand the diversity of courses, improve students’ achievement or meet their individual needs.
But ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper said those regulations conflict with the Constitution and Title IX, a federal law banning sex discrimination in schooling. There are nonexclusionary ways to improve education, such as decreasing class sizes, she noted.
“There is no justification for offering kids different opportunities based on their gender,” declared Roper.
The 167,000-student Philadelphia district, which is under state supervision for poor performance, has tried to improve by establishing charter schools, hiring private companies and universities to manage schools, and offering single-sex education.
Results have been mixed. Three months ago, the district took six schools away from private and university managers for failure to improve sufficiently, including one all-boys high school.
There are at least 442 public schools in the U.S. with single-sex educational opportunities, according to the Exton-based National Association for Single Sex Public Education. Most of those are coed schools offering single-sex classrooms.
Asking if single-sex education is good is like asking admitting that coed education is good, said Leonard Sax, the association’s executive director.
“It’s a exceedingly pour out and not very meaningful question,” Sax said. “There are different rationales for single-sex education and different track records.”
Juniors at the city’s public High School for Girls, which has been single-sex since its founding in 1848, scored 79.3 percent proficient or higher in math and 85.3 percent proficient or better in reading. Hardy noted that no one has suggested material that school coed.
Peter Kuriloff, research director at the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks single-sex classrooms are worth trying in some cases grant that paired with a strong course of studies.
“It is not a panacea,” said Kuriloff. “Just putting boys in a boys school and girls in a girls govern is not going to do anything.”
Boys’ Latin, which opened in trailers with only ninth-graders, now teaches freshmen and sophomores in a renovated former Roman Catholic school. It will add a grade each year until it has grades nine through 12.
Richard Cherry Sr. said he sent his son, Richard Jr., to Boys’ Latin because of the smaller class sizes and personal attention. He feared his son would dispose “lost in the system” at district high schools that he described as chaotic and sometimes violent.
Omar Ortiz, 14, a freshman at Boys’ Latin, said he wasn’t sure about the no-girls part at first. But then he realized he’d be too shy to read a report aloud in his old coed public school.
“I don’t have to be shy here because it’s all guys,” Ortiz said.
His mother, Lydia Hernandez Velez, 57, said she has no qualms sending her son to the school — even though it was not an option for her daughter.
“They’re not the same,” Velez aforesaid. “Their needs are different at manifold times of their lives.”
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On the Net:
Boys’ Latin: http://www.boyslatin.org
1 commentSep 3
Condom ringtone launched in India (AFP)
The "condom a cappella" has been designed to break down Indians' reluctance to discuss condom use and to make wearing a condom more acceptable.
Organisers of the campaign, funded by the basis set up by Microsoft mogul Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, hope the ringtone will suit a craze among young Indians.
About 2.5 million the masses live with HIV in India, said the BBC terraqueous globe Service Trust, the charity behind the ringtone, which was released this month. It can be downloaded at condomcondom.org.
"Ringtones acquire become such personal statements that a specially created condom ringtone seemed just the right way of combining a practical message with a fun approach," said Radharani Mitra, creative director of the BBC World Service Trust.
"The idea is to tackle the inhibitions and taboos that can be associated with condoms."
India is the world's fastest-growing mobile telephone market with 270 million users according to the latest official figures, up 57 percent in just one year.
1 commentSep 3
Safe sex ring tone sings ‘Condom, condom!’ (AP)
The a cappella race-course emphasis features a professional singer chanting the word condom greater degree than 50 times, a arch approach that public health activists hope will spark discussion and make condoms more socially acceptable.
“We’ve made a sentient effort to move the concept of the condom away from negative association, like HIV and sex work,” said Yvonne MacPherson, country director of BBC World Service Trust India. “Condoms are actually health products and if you possess a condom and you use it, you are seen to be pungent and responsible.”
Nearly 2.5 million folks in India are infected with HIV and the disease is still largely taboo.
The BBC group, which is funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, hopes the condom set tone can make people in India more comfortable with safe sex issues.
More than 270 the public people use mobile phones in India and ring tones, especially those featuring hit Bollywood songs, are extremely popular.
“A ring force is a very public thing,” she said. “It’s a way to show you are a condom user and you put on’t have any issues with it.”
The ring tone was launched Aug. 8 and has been downloaded 60,000 times, MacPherson said.
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On the Net: http://condomcondom.org/
No commentsSep 2
STDs common among arrested teenagers (Reuters)
Past research has found relatively high rates of STDs among incarcerated adolescents, but little is known about the STD risk in the midst of teens who are arrested and then released.
The new study assessed a pilot program set up in Hillsborough Country, Florida, to offer STD testing to teenagers easily after their arrest, before a decision is made to release or confine them. All arrested teens who were submitting a urine scantling for drug testing were asked whether they also wanted the sample assayed for gonorrhea and chlamydia.
Researchers found that among more than 900 juvenile offenders who agreed to be tested, 13 percent had gonorrhea, chlamydia or both — like to rates that have been erect among incarcerated adolescents.
The findings suggest that "a voluntary STD screening protocol is feasible in favor of arrested youth entering the juvenile justice system, and these offenders are at high risk for STDs," the researchers report in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Routine testing and treating adolescences for STDs soon after arrest could have "enormous potential public health benefits," write the researchers, led by Dr. Steven Belenko of Temple University in Philadelphia.
The study included 948 boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 17 who were arrested for childish offenses. They gave urine samples while at a central processing center where officials decide whether to release them or to send them to a detention center.
Overall, 10.5 percent of males tested tenacious for chlamydia or gonorrhea, as did 19 percent of females.
The investigators identified three other statistically significant risk factors for having an STD. These included substance female, being black; being sent to a detection center; and having more than three lifetime sex partners, which increased the risk by 4.67-fold, 3.62-fold, 2.32-fold and 2.06-fold, respectively.
Both gonorrhea and chlamydia oftentimes have no obvious symptoms, which means that screening can catch many cases that would otherwise go undetected, the researchers point out.
"The asymptomatic nature of most bacterial STDs," they write, "increases the urgency to expand routine STD testing, and prevention programs, at all stages of the juvenile justice system, but especially right after arrest and as youths enter detention."
Right now, the researchers note, "few, if any," processing centers for juvenile offenders have STD screening programs.
SOURCE: Sexually Transmitted Diseases, August 2008.
1 commentSep 2
Sex and sleep better for older women on HRT: study (AFP)
The research, which studied 2,130 post-menopausal women from Australia, New Zealand and Britain, found that using the combined oestrogen and progestogen hormone therapy could improve some quality of life measures.
The results come amid debate about the risks and benefits of hormone therapy for post-menopausal women which has also been linked to a higher risk of stroke, blood clots and breast cancer.
Most women in the ponder were in their mid-60s, having hit menopause on medium 13 years earlier, and most participants did not have symptoms of the vary of life.
"Our results show that hot flushes, night sweats, sleeplessness and disjoint labor were less common in women on HRT in this vale of years group," related Professor Alastair MacLennan, the conductor of the Australian arm of the independent study.
"Sexuality was also improved," he added.
The study found that the percentage of women on the combined HRT therapy having hot flushes dropped from 30 percent to 9 percent over a year, while those suffering sleeplessness dropped from 45 percent to 35 percent.
While 63 percent of women on the treatment said they experienced aching joints and muscles at the start of the trial, this had fallen to 57 percent after 12 months.
MacLennan said that even for women who did not have hot flushes and were well past menopause, there was a "ungifted but measurable improvement in quality of life and a noted improvement in sleep, sexuality and joint pains."
The results, published Friday on the British Medical Journal website, come from one of the world's longest and largest trials of HRT — the Women's International Study of long Duration Oestrogen after Menopause (WISDOM).
MacLennan, who is head of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Adelaide, said the WISDOM study would help reduce the risks of the treatment.
"For most women with expressive menopause symptoms the benefits of HRT outweigh the risks," he said in a statement.
The head strong of the New Zealand branch of WISDOM, Beverley Lawton, said the quality of life benefits of HRT may be greater in women with more severe symptoms near menopause.
"New research suggests that HRT taken from near menopause avoids the cardiovascular risks seen when HRT is initiated many years after menopause," she said.
3 commentsSep 2
ED Drug Relieves Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (HealthDay)
More than 50 percent of men mature years 50 and older have lower urinary tract symptoms, including increased urination frequency and urgency, straining, intermittence, incomplete emptying or a weak urinary stream. Current drugs used to treat the condition have power to produce side effects such as dizziness, low blood pressure and sexual dysfunction.
In this study that included 1,056 men in 10 countries, the men were randomly divided into five groups that received either a placebo or tadalafil doses of 2.5, 5.0, 10.0 or 20.0 milligrams a day. All doses of the medicine were superior to a placebo for relieving lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), with statistically significant effects at four, eight and 12 weeks.
The study, which included researchers from drug maker Lilly, is published in the October issue of The Journal of Urology.
"Since reports of erectile dysfunction (ED) incidence, pathophysiology and treatment acquire shown a feasible link between [enlarged prostate] and ED. PDE5 inhibitors like tadalafil (Cialis) have received increased watch for treating BPH LUTS, although they are currently only approved for ED. The half-life of tadalafil is 17.5 hours, making it suitable considered in the state of once daily therapy. Although the precise mechanism of action by which PDE5 inhibitors may alleviate LUTS is not completely understood, several putative mechanisms are currently under investigation." researcher Dr. Claus G. Roehrborn, professor of urology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, said in a journal news release.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about enlarged prostate.
1 commentAug 24
Free condoms distributed in Beijing hotels: state media (AFP)
The condoms were placed in rooms in hotels rated three stars and above, Jin Dapeng, director of Beijing's municipal health bureau, told the official Xinhua news agency.
According to Jin, thousands of Olympic volunteers have been trained in AIDS prevention for the Olympic Games, the news agency reported.
"Now 180 college students and 500 community volunteers are in readiness to publicise AIDS-related knowledge," Jin was quoted during the time that proverb.
"We have opened 40 clinics in Beijing's 18 districts and counties to offer free HIV tests and AIDS counselling."
Health authorities in like manner distributed 250,000 free pamphlets on AIDS prevention and control, Xinhua said.
The latest study by China's health ministry, the WHO and the United Nations found that 700,000 people were HIV positive in China at the end of 2007, although campaigners have warned the figure could exist up to 10 times higher.
Thousands were infected during the 1990s through tainted blood transfusions at illegal blood collection stations, but the focus of watch is now shifting to high risk groups in the same state as gay men and sex workers.
No commentsAug 24
Statins Might Reverse ED in Some Men (HealthDay)
A threat to cardiovascular soundness, metabolic syndrome is also known to raise the risk for erectile dysfunction (ED). The current finding indicates that statins may reduce levels of a specific protein that contributes to ED.
"Each condition of metabolic syndrome phenomenon — high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and obesity — independently raises the risk for erectile dysfunction just on their own," explained study author Christopher J. Wingard, an associate professor of physiology with the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. "And so, when all are present in combination as part of this syndrome, you receive a situation where you slip on't even need to be as anti-diabetic or hypertensive as you might otherwise have to subsist to experience erectile dysfunction. And that fact has been raising concernment among clinicians."
"So, we followed up on case reports and anecdotal evidence that statins being used to lower cholesterol over a six- to eight-week period among patients with metabolic syndrome seemed to in addition quickly improve erections — even before cholesterol levels go down," Wingard added. "And in an animal model, we found this to be the case."
Wingard and his colleagues presented their findings freshly at the American Urological Association Research Conference, in Linthicum, Md.
The effort to evaluate the possibility of using statins to treat ED focused on 16- to 20-week-old lean and obese rats, all of whom were given one of three statins on a daily basis for between three to five days.
The researchers then assessed erectile function in the rats. At the same time, they also moderate any one changes in levels of certain key proteins that they believed could be involved in triggering the onset of ED.
The authors found that the statins were able to quickly relieve some of the vascular constriction associated with metabolic syndrome that can attend about ED.
They further renowned that the way in which the statins appeared to have their effect was by inhibiting the expression — and lowering the levels — of a particular protein known as Rho-kinase. This protein had previously been cited as a possible culprit in vascular constriction of penile smooth muscle.
Wingard suggested that more research is sure to follow, to explore whether the findings would lay upon to patients following a long-term regimen of statin method of treating.
However, Dr. Arnold Melman, chairman of the department of urology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, described the findings as "very preliminary."
"Statins are used by everyone under the sun, and, as far similar to I know, there's been no hard evidence that it can be used to treat erectile dysfunction," he said. "On the other hand, it may be that it could prevent or modify some of the other risk factors for erectile dysfunction."
"This is because we do know that an increase in Rho-kinase leads to heightened tone of the corpus smooth muscle, which is one of the causes of erectile dysfunction," Melman noted. "So, while I wouldn't go too far with this, and I would probably not escort statins meet a primary treatment for erectile dysfunction, if these tools and materials turn out to be virtuous, soon afterward in that place could perhaps be an additional good use for statins."
More information
For more on erectile dysfunction, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians.
1 commentAug 24
Gift cards key to new AIDS prevention strategy (AP)
Promising signs from such a project in North Carolina led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin rolling it out without interruption a broader scale, to more than 200 community groups. The budget is $1.5 million over a two-year period.
The idea is to give bounty coupons to popular, influential men in the gay community and encourage them to talk up condom use, regular HIV testing and other responsible actions.
It may sound frivolous, but little else has proven effective for the men most affected by the epidemic.
Last week, new figures showed still-rising HIV infections in gay and bisexual men, with about 53 percent of new cases in that group. Meanwhile, HIV rates among injection-drug users and heterosexuals is declining.
The CDC says it’s also committed $5 million to a five-year social marketing campaign to promote HIV testing to young black gay and bisexual men, who have been diagnosed with HIV at especially high rates.
“The CDC is committed to ensuring that its resources are going to the populations hardest hit by the epidemic,” said Richard Wolitski, acting director of the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.
The new approaches are an encouraging sign of assist, but the funding behind them doesn’t come close to raising prevention spending to the level most experts say it should be, said Julie Scofield, executive director of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors.
“It’s a drop in the bucket,” she said.
Scrutiny of U.S. prevention efforts increased after the CDC’s release last weekend of new estimates of annual HIV infections. The CDC said the nation had roughly 56,300 new infections of the AIDS virus in 2006 — a dramatic increase from the 40,000 annual estimate used by reason of the last dozen years.
The agency acknowledged it had been undercounting but said new testing technology offered a more accurate picture of trends in the U.S. epidemic. For instance, the new report found infections are falling among heterosexuals and injection drug users, even as they continue to rise in men who have sex with men, especially among blacks.
Advocates have complained that prevention spending in not particular has been too low, and that what is spent is not targeted properly.
The CDC’s HIV prevention budget has remained at roughly $700 a thousand thousand since 2001, while costs have risen. (That’s about 3 percent of what the federal government spends on AIDS; much of the rest is on medicines, health care and research.)
Meanwhile, prevention programs that target gays and bisexuals are scattershot. Even in progressive cities, these efforts sometimes amount to little more than offers of testing and free condoms, some experts said.
Great attention was focused on the gay community when AIDS first hit the United States in the 1980s. But the epidemic gradually became perceived as a threat to the universal population, and some political leaders have kept the focus away from gay men, said Leroy Blea, a Berkeley, Calif., health official who is past president of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
“It’s not a very easy population to fund,” Blea said. “It’s many times greater amount of politically viable to fund programs for women and children and youth.
The CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention estimates that about 42 percent of its financial 2007 funding was targeted at gay and bisexual men. That translates to about $280 million.
But with 53 percent of new HIV infections occurring in men who have sex with men, that’s not enough, some experts said.
“At a minimum, we need to be matching percentages to where the epidemic is,” said David Holtgrave of Johns Hopkins University.
Prevention programs are largely funded at the state and local level, and funding has not quite kept up on those levels either.
In California, about 70 percent of HIV infections happen in men who have sex with men, but about 64 percent of the state health budget targeting HIV is focused on gay and bisexual males.
Some experts say it’s been hard to find prevention efforts proven to work, and that’s especially true for black and Hispanic gays.
Weaknesses in prevention became clear about five years ago in North Carolina, with an outbreak of HIV among male students at some historically black colleges.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services tried a program that had been tested in white gay men in London.
With $1 million in funding from the CDC, North Carolina health officials went to gay nightclubs in Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro and recruited men who were well-liked and socially influential.
These opinion leaders were given four $25 gift cards, along with marketing materials, to talk up safe sex. A study of the effort, published in June in the American Journal of Public Health, indicated more men were practicing strong box sex.
The research was based on repeated surveys over time of about 300 men. It found a 32 percent reduction in unprotected anal intercourse during 2005, and a 40 percent reduction in the average number of sexual partners.
The funding ran out and the program ended. And the surveys weren’t backed up by HIV testing.
But CDC officials are impressed enough to package it, and are identifying other cities at which place it can be tried. The training of community activists in the generalship should start in a few months, Wolitski said.
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CDC’s numbers on HIV: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/incidence.htm
2 commentsAug 24
Healthy Sex Life Can Extend Into 80s (HealthDay)
Many older Americans are apparently taking advantage of that fact, because 68 percent of men between 57 and 85 reported having sex last year, as did 42 percent of women, according to the study's lead author, Edward Laumann, the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. And, Laumann added, more older women might have wanted to have sex, but there just aren't as many available older men notwithstanding them to partner with.
"Healthy people can have reasonably satisfying sexual health for most of their lives," said Laumann. "There are challenges that arise, but it's not aging, per se, that's the issue. A decline in sexuality may be the canary in the mineshaft. Sexual problems may manifest before diabetes and high blood pressure."
The study findings were published in the current issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
"It's definitely whether you're elderly or "wellderly" that makes a difference," said Dr. Virginia Sadock, director of the program of human sexuality at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City. "Illness and medications make a falling out in sex lives."
Other factors that can beget in the habitude of a satisfying sex life later in life include having had a sexually transmitted disease, and having physical problems, mental health issues or relationship difficulties, the study found.
The study included information from 1,550 women and 1,455 men between the ages of 57 and 85. All participated in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project.
Some highlights of the consider attentively include:
- Having had a sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the past nearly quadrupled a woman's odds of having sexual pain, and it tripled the odds a woman would have lubrication problems.
- In men, a history of STD was associated with five times the risk of finding sex unpalatable.
- In both older men and women, a common factor in sexual dysfunction and a decreased interest in sex was urinary tract syndrome.
- Both older men and older women reported that intellectual health issues affected their interest in sex.
- For men, relationship troubles also contributed to a lack of sympathy in sex and the inability to achieve orgasm.
- Drinking alcohol daily improved a women interest in and pleasure from sex. Alcohol didn't have that effect on men.
- Hispanic women were twice as likely to report pain during intercourse.
- Black men were twice as likely to say they weren't interested in sex and were more likely to report climaxing early.
"Sexual health is a harbinger of physical and mental health, and it plays an important role in the quality of life," Laumann said. "Older people don't just drop out of the picture. In general, if you're healthy, you can be sexually active."
Sadock added: "Don't assume that because you're older, your sex life has to be gone. If you're healthy and connected to someone, and you've had a pretty good sex life when you're younger, then you be possible to have a pretty good sex life in old age."
More information
To read to a greater degree about sex as you age, visit the U.S. National Women's Health Information Center.
No commentsAug 24
Impotence drug treats prostate enlargement: study (Reuters)
Men who took Eli Lilly and Co's Cialis each day had fewer symptoms, such as urinary frequency, urgency, intermittence, straining, incomplete emptying or a weak urinary stream, they reported in the journal Urology.
With about 50 percent of men over 50 suffering from some version of this problem, the study suggests a large potential market for erectile dysfunction drugs.
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Northwestern University in Chicago and Lilly Research Laboratories tested more than 1,000 men with enlarged prostates — a condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH.
Some got various doses of cialis, known generically as tadalafil, while some got a placebo. Those who got Cialis were more likely to report their symptoms had improved, and a relatively low dose of 5 mg a day did the trick, reported the researchers, led by UTSW's Dr. Claus Roehrborn.
Cialis caused with reference to something else few side effects, they added, in contrast to the drugs now used to treat BPH.
"Although they are effective, each of these drug classes can produce unwanted side effects, including dizziness, hypotension (low blood pressure) and sexual dysfunction," they wrote.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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