Archive for July, 2008
Impotence drugs help treat brain tumors: study (Reuters)
Tests in rats showed two erectile dysfunction drugs — Schering-Plough's Levitra and Pfizer's Viagra — helped carry a chemotherapy drug past the blood-brain barrier, the team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles said.
Rats with brain tumors lived 42 days while injected with the cancer drug adriamycin. goal when they also got Levitra, known generically as vardenafil, the rats survived an average of 53 days. Levitra appeared to be more effective, the researchers reported in the journal Brain Research.
levitra and viagra, known generically as sildenafil, are in a class of drugs known as PDE5 inhibitors. They were originally tested as heart drugs because they increase blood flow in small vessels.
"We chose adriamycin for this study since it is one of the most effective drugs against brain tumor cell lines in the laboratory but it has very little power in animals and humans because it is unable to cross the blood-brain tumor barrier," neurosurgeon Dr. Keith Black, who led the study, said in a statement.
"The combination of vardenafil and adriamycin resulted in longer survival and smaller tumor size," Black said.
The blood-brain stop is a molecular mechanical construction that keeps harmful agents out of the brain. Brain tumors grow little blood vessels to supply themselves with nutrients and these also have a barrier, called the blood-brain tumor obstruction.
Black said the impotence drugs appear to affect the swelling blood-brain barrier but not the larger blood-brain barrier, which may help doctors use chemotherapy drugs to kill off brain tumors exclusively of damaging healthy brain tissue, he said.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Will Dunham and Bill Trott)
3 commentsViagra May Boost Female Libido in Some Cases (HealthDay)
The eight-week study form in a mould that Viagra, also known as sildenafil, helped women achieve orgasm.
"In this study population, sildenafil treatment of sexual dysfunction in women taking SRIs was associated through a reduction in adverse sexual effects," the study's authors wrote.
Results of the study are in the July 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The lead author of the study, Dr. H. George Nurnberg, of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, in Albuquerque, declined to be interviewed for this article.
Selective and nonselective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as prozac, paxil, zoloft and effexor, enclose up to 90 percent of the 180 million antidepressant prescriptions filled in the United States each year, according to the study. But while these medications are very effective at treating clinical depression, one of their known drawbacks are sexual side effects.
Nurnberg and his colleagues previously reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, that Viagra was helpful for men who suffered from erectile dysfunction associated with the use of antidepressant medications.
In the current study, undertaken at seven study centers, they turned their attention to women. The study included 98 women — half of whom received Viagra and half who received a placebo — who were told to take the pills before sexual etc..
Women taking Viagra reported an improved ability to reach orgasm and increased orgasm satisfaction, according to the study authors.
But 43 percent of the women taking Viagra moreover reported headaches, against 27 percent of those on placebo. Almost one-quarter of those using Viagra reporting flushing, while none of the women on placebo did. And 37 percent of women taking Viagra reported nasal congestion compared to 6 percent of women on placebo. Nausea and anxiousness were reported more often in the group taking placebo.
"The libido response in women is such a complex problem. If women are unhappy in a relationship, it can affect libido. If it hurts, it can affect libido. If she doesn't feel good about herself, it have power to affect libido. It's solid to chafe all of those factors out," declared Dr. Judi Chervenak, a reproductive endocrinologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
And, she added, "There's no definitive answer to date on how antidepressants cause a lack of libido. It could be because they're affecting dopamine, and women may be experiencing changes in dopamine that indirectly affect vaginal lubrication and arousal and cause decreased blood flow."
Of the current study, Chervenak said, "It's an enticing study, and it makes me want to know more. Does it make me want to prescribe viagra right off the stick? Not at this point. I'd suggest first that patients keep a symptom diary, so we can figure out the sort of their issue is. Is it arousal? Is it decreased blood flow? Is it an orgasm problem?"
"Another possibility might be to work with their psychiatrist," she added. "Would it be better to change the antidepressant or to taper the dose? What about a drug holiday? Although you have to have being careful, and people can't do that on their own, because there can be potentially devastating problems if you come off these medications also immediately."
"This study has opened up various questions, and hopefully, we'll learn more in the future," concluded Chervenak.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, which manufactures Viagra, told the Associated Press that the company has no plans to seek approval for using the drug as a treatment for female sexual dysfunction. The company ended its own research on Viagra for women in 2004, she added.
More information
To learn more about antidepressants and their in posse side goods, visit the National Institute of Mental Health.
No commentsViagra helps depressed women get satisfaction, too (Reuters)
They found women on antidepressants who took Viagra had fewer sexual side effects than those who took a placebo. Sexual dysfunction can apt many people to stop taking drugs to treat depression.
While other studies have hinted that viagra might help these women, the latest research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is undivided of the first scientifically rigorous studies to show this benefit.
"By treating this bothersome treatment-associated adverse effect … patients can remain antidepressant-adherent, reduce the current high rates of premature medication discontinuation, and improve depression disease management outcomes," Dr. H. George Nurnberg of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and colleagues wrote.
The research was funded by Pfizer Inc, known generically as tadalafil, and levitra or vardenafil, sold by GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer AG and Schering-Plough, work in a similar way to Viagra.
"These findings are important not only because women experience major depressive disorder at nearly double the rate of men and because they experience greater resulting sexual dysfunction than men, but also because it establishes that (drugs such as sildenafil) are effective in both sexes for this purpose," they wrote.
(Editing by Alan Elsner)
No commentsWomen on antidepressants may benefit from Viagra (AP)
The careful search involving 98 premenopausal women found Viagra helped with orgasm. But the benefits did not extend to other aspects of sex such to the degree that desire, researchers report in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
“For women on antidepressants with orgasm problems, this may provide some wonderful ease,” said psychologist Stanley Althof, manager of the Center for Marital and Sexual Health of South Florida in West Palm Beach, who was not involved in the study. “But it will not improve their desire or arousal.”
Antidepressants can interfere with sex drive and performance even as the drugs help lift crippling low spirits. Switching drugs or reducing the dose can help. But many people, men and women, stop taking them because of their sexual side effects.
The complaints are common. More than half the people who take antidepressants advance in successive sexual problems, prior studies have found, especially for people taking prozac, paxil, celexa and other drugs that work by increasing the chemical serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is thought to slow down orgasm, perhaps by diminishing the release of another brain chemical, dopamine. Viagra increases blood result to sex organs.
Pfizer Inc. spokeswoman Sally Beatty said the assemblage currently has no plans to pursue FDA approval for using its drug Viagra as a treatment for female sexual dysfunction. The company ended its internal research in continuance Viagra for women in 2004. While Viagra was found to be safe, the results were not conclusive, Beatty said in an e-mail.
The search for a Viagra equivalent for women has been disheartening. A testosterone patch was sent back for more safety study by the Food and Drug Administration. A handheld vacuum device that increases blood flow to the clitoris does have FDA approval, and BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc. is testing a testosterone gel called LibiGel.
The new Viagra findings are based on an eight-week experiment. The 98 women were using antidepressants successfully but were having sexual problems. Their average age was 37.
The women agreed to attempt sexual exercise at least once each week. Each time, they took a pill, not knowing whether it was viagra or a matching dummy pill.
While 72 percent of the women taking Viagra reported improvement on an overall scale, only 27 percent of the women taking the placebo reported betterment.
Althof said it’s “worrisome” that 43 percent of the women on Viagra experienced headaches, compared to 27 percent of the women on dummy pills. Indigestion and reddening of skin (flushing) also were reported more frequently by the women taking Viagra.
Psychologist Leonore Tiefer of New York University School of Medicine related industry-funded research has oversimplified women’s sexual experience. She noted the new study, funded by a Pfizer grant, found more side effects than benefits.
“Where’s the question to the women: Is it worth it?” Tiefer said.
An earlier study in men taking antidepressants found more pronounced sexual benefits with Viagra than the benefits found for women, said lead author Dr. George Nurnberg, a psychiatrist at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque.
But the message for men and women who extremity antidepressants is that Viagra may help them stay on the drugs, he said.
“We’re not talking about a lifestyle issue. We’re talking about a medical necessity issue,” Nurnberg said.
Pfizer had no influence on the design, findings or manuscript, Nurnberg said. He and several of the other authors disclosed financial ties to Pfizer and other drugmakers.
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No commentsViagra helps depressed women: study (AFP)
sexual dysfunction is a common side effect of antidepressants and a major reason why people stop taking medication for their depression.
This is distinctly problematic given that twice as many women as men are prescribed antidepressants but the most effective drugs used to engagement sexual dysfunction in men are not approved for use in women, the authors wrote.
Researchers tested Viagra on 98 women whose depression was in remission but were still experiencing sexual dysfunction such for the reason that lack of arousal or pain during sex.
The women were told to take a pill one to two hours before sex for eight weeks. Half were given placebos pills which had in no degree pharmacological effects.
Some 73 percent of the women given placebos reported no beneficial employment with treatment while only 28 percent of the women taking Viagra said they did not notice an improvement, the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found.
Some of the women experienced headaches, flushing and indigestion but none of them withdrew from the trial because of take sides movables.
"By treating this bothersome treatment-associated adverse effect in patients who have been effectively treated for depression, but need to continue on their medication to avoid relapse or recurrence, patients can remain antidepressant-adherent, reduce the current high rates of premature medication discontinuation, and improve depression malady management outcomes," wrote lead inventor George Nurnberg of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
2 commentsRegular chlamydia tests urged for young people (Reuters)
Everyone should use a condom with a new partner to the time when both consider been screened, the agency warned as it published figures showing the number of sexual diseases diagnosed in Britain rose 6 percent last year.
Young people were disproportionately affected, said Peter Borriello, Director of the HPA's Centre for Infections.
"Substantial numbers of young people remain undiagnosed, untreated and inattentive of the risk they pose both to their own health and that of their sexual partner," he added.
People advanced in life 18-24 form just one in eight of the population but account for around half of all newly diagnosed sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the UK.
This age group suffered 65 percent of entirely chlamydia cases, 55 percent of all genital warts and 50 percent of gonorrhoeae infections diagnosed in genito-urinary clinics last year.
The total number of STIs diagnosed reached 397,990 in 2007, up from 375,843 the year before.
Borriello said one thinking principle for the rise could be an increase in the number being screened.
More than one million sexual freedom from distemper screens were conducted in 2007, ten percent more than in 2006.
"If sustained, this could have a significant impact on the control of sexually transmitted infections," said Borriello.
"However, we cannot rely on prompt diagnosis and treatment alone — a shift in behavior is the only way that we enjoin bring down this continued grow in infections."
Nearly one in 10 sexually active young women tested by a chlamydia screening programme in England last year were found to have the infection, which can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility.
One in 12 men was in addition found to be carrying the disease, the world's most common sexually transmitted infection.
A study by University College London last November showed that one in five youthful Britons has sex with a new partner when traveling abroad.
(Reporting by dint of. Tim Castle; Editing by Steve Addison)
No commentsED from prostate cancer hormone therapy treatable (Reuters)
Men with advanced prostate cancer may be given ADT to rest their production of testosterone, which may drive tumor growth.
ED is "grossly underreported" by men treated by ADT, Dr. Ithaar H. Derweesh told Reuters Health. Moreover, "studies that have been reported in the literature have tended to focus on decreased libido (sex drive) and have not examined the issue of erectile dysfunction per se."
Given that there is a lack of information on the prevalence of ED and the response to its treatment in patients receiving ADT, Derweesh and colleagues at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center studied 395 men treated with ADT at their institution over a period of about 15 years. The average age of the men was 71.7 years and the men were followed for more than 7 years.
During that time, 14.4 percent of men reported ED, they report, and 70 percent of these men had "new-onset" ED.
According to Derweesh and colleagues, 47 percent of men with ED responded successfully to ED treatment, most often with drugs such as viagra.
"We demonstrate for the rudimentary time in a large series," Derweesh noted, that these types of drugs are effective in the treatment of ED caused by androgen deprivation therapy.
SOURCE: BJU International 2008.
No commentsLots of Sex May Prevent Erectile Dysfunction (HealthDay)
"This is the same as any other part of the body. It's what we in vascular surgery refer to as the 'use it or wander from it' concept," said Dr. Hossein Sadeghi-Nejad, an associate professor of urology at UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School Hackensack University Medical Center. "Sexual activity will promote maintenance of normal erectile function down the line."
The report was published in the July issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
In the study, led by Dr. Juha Koskimaki, from Tampere University Hospital's Department of Urology, researchers collected data on 989 Finnish men aged 55 to 75 years primitive.
The researchers found that men who said they had sexual communion less than once a week had twice the risk of developing erectile dysfunction, compared with men reporting having sexual intercourse once a week.
Among men who had sexual intercourse less than once a week, there were 79 cases of erectile dysfunction per 1,000 men. That number dropped to 32 cases per 1,000 among men who said they had sexual intercourse once a week, and it dropped even further, to 16 per 1,000, among men who said they had sexual intercourse three or more times a week, the researchers reported.
The frequency of morning erections was not associated with the incidence of moderate erectile dysfunction, the researchers well-known.
However, the development of complete erectile dysfunction could be seized of existence predicted from the frequency of morning erections. amidst men with less than one morning erection a week, the risk of developing erectile dysfunction was 2.5-fold greater than among men who had two to three morning erections per week.
"Regular commerce has an important role in preserving erectile function among elderly men, whereas morning erection does not exert a uniform effect," Koskimaki said in a statement. "Continued sexual activity decreases the incidence of erectile dysfunction in direct proportion to coital frequency."
Sadeghi-Nejad said there is a scientific basis for this finding, and it also has implications for rehabilitation of patients after prostate cancer treatment.
"What is very hot these days is what we can do to rehabilitate people who develop erection problems after prostate cancer surgery or radiation therapy," Sadeghi-Nejad said. "Anything you can do to increase oxygenation in the penis extender deluxe will help get patients back to normal."
If undivided can naturally engage in behaviors that increase blood flow to the penis, it will have a positive effect in preventing erectile dysfunction, Sadeghi-Nejad said.
Sadeghi-Nejad noted that the study only addressed intercourse, and not masturbation. "This is essentially the same universal," Sadeghi-Nejad said. "Anything you be possible to cheat to bring blood to the penis is beneficial," he added.
More information
For more about sexual dysfunction, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
1 commentScientists: Watermelon yields Viagra-like effects (AP)
Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger extension of a come to an agreement that helps relax the body’s blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra, said scientists in Texas, one of the people’s top producers of the seedless class.
Found in the flesh and rind of watermelons, citrulline reacts with the body’s enzymes when consumed in large quantities and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems.
“Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe on the same level prevent it,” aforesaid Bhimu Patil, a researcher and director of Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center. “Watermelon may not have existence for example organ-specific as Viagra, but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any mix with drugs side effects.”
Todd Wehner, who studies watermelon breeding at North Carolina State University, said anyone taking viagra shouldn’t expect the same result from watermelon.
“It sounds like it would be an effect that would be interesting but not a substitute for any medical treatment,” Wehner said.
The nitric oxide can also help with angina, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, according to the think, which was paid for by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
More citrulline — about 60 percent — is found in watermelon rind than in the flesh, Patil said, but that can vary. goal scientists may be able to find ways to boost the concentrations in the flesh, he said.
Citrulline is found in all colors of watermelon and is highest in the yellow-fleshed types, said Penelope Perkins-Veazie, a USDA researcher in Lane, Okla.
She said Patil’s research is valid, but with a caveat: One would need to eat about six cups of watermelon to get enough citrulline to boost the visible form’s arginine level.
“The problem you be delivered of when you eat a lot of watermelon is you tend to run to the bathroom more,” Perkins-Veazie said.
Watermelon is a diuretic and was a homeopathic treatment for kidney patients before dialysis became widespread.
Another conclusion is the amount of sugar that much watermelon would spill into the bloodstream — a jolt that could cause cramping, Perkins-Veazie said.
Patil said he would like to do future studies on how to reduce the sugar content in watermelon.
The relationship between citrulline and arginine might also prove helpful to those who are obese or suffer from type-2 diabetes. The beneficial furniture — among them the efficacy to relax blood vessels, much find to one’s mind Viagra does — are beginning to be revealed in research.
Citrulline is present in other curcubits, like cucumbers and cantaloupe, at very dishonorable levels, and in the milk protein casein. The highest concentrations of citrulline are erect in walnut seedlings, Perkins-Veazie said.
“But they’re bitter and most people don’t want to eat them,” she said.
2 commentsMore sex means less chance of ED for older men (Reuters)
In a study that followed approximately 1,000 older Finnish men in the place of five years, researchers found that those who were regularly having sex at the start of the contemplation were at lower risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by the study's end.
In fact, the more often the men had sex, the lower their ED risk.
The implication, say the researchers, is that men should be encouraged to stay sexually active into their golden years.
Dr. Juha Koskimaki and colleagues at the University of Tampere in Finland report the findings in the American Journal of Medicine. The study included 989 men who were between the ages of 55 and 75 at the outset.
Overall, those who said they had sex less amount than once per week were twice as likely to develop ED over the next five years as men who had sex at least once a week. Furthermore, compared with men who had sex three or more times per week, their ED risk was increased nearly four-fold.
A number of factors contribute to ED development, many of that could also affect a man's sexually activity — such as age, diabetes and heart disease. However, after taking account of those factors, sexual activity itself remained linked to ED risk, Koskimaki's team found.
It may be a substance of "use it or lose it," according to the researchers. Just as exercise boosts physical fitness, they note, regular sexual sprightliness may help a man preserve his erectile function.
ED occurs when there are problems with blood flow to the penis extender deluxe. Regular sexual activity, Koskimaki's team writes, may help maintain healthy blood vessel function in the erectile tissue.
SOURCE: American Journal of Medicine, July 2008.
No commentsMore Midlife (and Older) STDs (Time.com)
Whatever the cause - viagra, midlife divorce, online dating or simple ignorance - studies suggest that STDs are no longer just an affliction of the young. A study published online last week through the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections adds to that growing body of evidence. Researchers at England’s West Midlands Health Protection Agency found that in less than a decade, STD rates had more than doubled among people ages 45 and older. And Dr. Babatunde Olowokure, an author of the study, thinks that figure may be dispirited. “These observations are based on a small proportion of people who actually attend clinics,” he says. While that proportion of the population has increased overall over the past decade, Olowokure points out that middle-aged and older people tend to stop visiting a doctor for treatment of an STD, or they avoid it altogether, in large part due to the stigma associated with sexually transmitted infections.
In their weigh, Olowokure and his team counted 4,445 infections (excluding HIV) reported to 19 clinics in the region. From 1996 to 2003, total cases of chlamydia, genital anti-herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis and genital warts among people over 45 increased 127%, from 344 cases in 1996 to 780 in 2003. Rates of STDs increased in patients under stage of life 45 as well, by 97%, during the same occasion period. In the U.S. the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures - which include prevalence of syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea - muse relatively stable rates of taint in people ages 55 and older, but that data relies on self-reporting, and in many parts of the country it is through of step with what physicians are seeing. “Our rates of syphilis and chlamydia are up across all ages,” says Dr. Sharon Lee, a Kansas City, Mo., family healer and medical director of HIV Wisdom for Older Women. According to a 2000 study of Washington State residents, one of the only comprehensive analyses of STD infection amidst the middle-aged and older, cases of gonorrhea increased 18.2% between 1997 and 1998 among people ages 45 and older; in younger people, that increase was 17.3%.
Researchers end to myriad factors contributing to the arise in STD instances, among them a high midlife divorce rate and the ease of finding dates online. “What we have in this age group is a lot of people who are separated or divorced and seeking relationships. Sometimes they obtain them via the Internet, where they slip upon’t know the person and they don’t know their sexual history,” says Olowokure.
But perhaps the most critical reason is older generations’ lack of sex ed. Many older adults may have an outdated view of safe sex, believing that condoms are unnecessary after menopause or with partners they already know. Lee points out that “as people get older, they don’t worry about pregnancy as much,” and without education about STDs, many believe an inability to get pregnant negates the necessity for protection.
That was the err Jane Fowler, 74, a co-founder of HIV Wisdom for Older Women, made after divorce ended her 24-year marriage. A self-dubbed “1950s profit girl,” Fowler had only ever had one partner - her husband. Newly single in her early 50s, she started dating a man she’d known her entire life, and pregnancy was no longer a concern. “If you know for a fact that you can’t become pregnant and you don’t know anything about sexually transmitted diseases,” she says, “wherefore would you use a condom?” Five years later, a routine blood test revealed that she had contracted HIV.
Thousands of adults like Fowler find themselves renegotiating sex in singlehood, after years or even decades of spousals, and they are in need of the same kind of sex-ed their grandchildren get. In a University of Chicago survey of single women ages 58 to 93, closely 60% said they didn’t use a condom the last time they had sex. A May 2008 study conducted through the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene showed that among single people with at least two sexual partners, 56% of people over age 45 reported using condoms the last time they had sex, compared with 61% of 25-to-44-year-olds and 80% of 18-to-24-year-olds.
Among the 45-and-over set, senior citizens in particular have little exposure to sexual-health information, and few places to seek it out. Primary-care physicians would be the natural source, but Lee worries that too many doctors avoid the topic because they feel disagreeable discussing it with older patients, or worse, they make the “dangerous assumption that older people are not engaging in sex after a certain age.” That lack of communication perpetuates ignorance. So, Lee says that until comprehensive sex-ed measures are established for older people, it may die to younger generations to teach their elders about the birds and the bees. “It used to be that you encourage parents to talk to their kids,” says Lee, “but a little while ago we’re encouraging kids to talk to their parents - and grandparents.” View this article on Time.com
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New study pinpoints HIV risk within existing African couples (AFP)
The investigation, published in Saturday's issue of the British therapeutical weekly The Lancet, probed the rate of new HIV infections in the midst of 2,279 Zambians and 1,782 Rwandans living in towns.
Between 55.1 percent and 92.7 percent of new infections occurred among "serodiscordant" marital or cohabiting couples, it found.
"Serodiscordant" means that, at the start of the study, one partner in a couple had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but the other partner did not.
The discovery provides statistical ammunition for those who argue that, in Africa, established relationships are a huge vector for spreading the AIDS virus.
By targeting these couples with voluntary advice about safe sex and encouragement to get an HIV test, health watchdogs could avert between 36 and 60 percent of heterosexually-transmitted HIV infections that would else occur, the paper says.
Lead author is Kristin Dunkle of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
surrounding 33 million people around the world are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, according to the agency UNAIDS. Two-thirds of them are living in sub-Saharan Africa.
Previous research in this field suggests that, for African women, the greatest expose to danger of contracting HIV lies within marriage, but few attempts have been made to determine a man's risk in the reach a marital relationship.
Ignorance about one's HIV status and infections from casual sex outside the couple are the major drivers.
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