Sex Is Healthy For Your Prostate
Since many of my male patients are over the age of 40, there comes a time when I, as their doctor, have to have “the talk” with them. Most of my male patients had a similar talk with their fathers, or a significant elder, when they were adolescents about the “birds and bees” and how sexual activity pertains to maturing and developing healthy, intimate relationships.
It may surprise you to know that I also talk to my male patients about the importance of sexual activity but from a much different perspective – one that can save their life by keeping their prostate healthy. You read that right – regular sexual activity can keep your prostate, and the rest of you, healthy well into your old age. Let me explain how.
Seminal Fluid and Your Prostate
As a doctor, I recommend regular prostate screening to my male patients over 40. This includes getting a physical prostate exam and blood work to determine their PSA, prostate specific antigen, levels to be sure they are not developing prostate disease.
At this examination time, I also like to talk to my male patients about recent studies cited in the British Journal of Urology that have shown that regular clearing of seminal fluid from the prostate through ejaculation can help prevent prostate cancer.
Many urologists believe that they see a direct cause and effect between how often a man ejaculates and his development of prostate cancer. Indeed, when my own father was diagnosed with prostate cancer, the first question his urologist asked him was how often do you have sex? Since my mother had died years before, and my father had not re-established another relationship, his level of regular sexual activity had dropped to zero.
As I explain to my patients, the prostate gland is responsible for producing seminal fluid, the fluid that carries their sperm. The prostate draws zinc, potassium and citric acid from the general blood supply and then concentrates it about 600 times. Researchers speculate that likely any carcinogens that are in the blood are also drawn into the prostate along with the other elements it uses to create seminal fluid. Without regular ejaculation, the amount, and length of time seminal fluid stays, in the prostate can become a risk to your health. According to the urologists theory, your chances of prostate cancer increase.
However, if you’re a man who does not ejaculate regularly, these fluids build up in your prostate and the prostate is then constantly immersed in stagnant, cancer-promoting fluids.
What’s A Guy To Do?
When I have this discussion about prostate health and sexual activity with my patients, many of them confide that they do not have a regular sexual relationship with a significant other. Some of them are divorced, some are widowers, and some are just single and casually dating occasionally without sexual intercourse involved.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating that anyone start engaging in risky, promiscuous sexual activity just to keep their prostate healthy! Rather, as I tell my patients, if you don’t have a regular sexual relationship with a significant other, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with engaging in masturbation once or twice a week until you develop a loving, intimate relationship with someone. In fact, it’s actually good for other aspects of your health as well. It can decrease stress, help you sleep, and lower your blood pressure.
How Much Sexual Activity Is Good?
As I also counsel my patients, don’t get into the thinking that if a little sexual activity is good for your prostate, more and more sexual activity will be even better for it. Not true. In fact, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine that focuses on all processes in the physical body being in balance, your sexual activity and release of seminal fluid need to be balanced as well.
Too frequent ejaculation can lead to what urologists call “nonspecific prostatitis”, or inflammation of the prostate, as inflammation has been proven recently as setting the stage for disease to set in. So how much ejaculation is beneficial? Here’s a general guideline for men over 30:
- 30-40: 3-4 times a week.
- 40-50: 1-2 times a week.
- 50-60: At least once a week.
- 60′s and over: At least once every few weeks.
Trouble Ejaculating? Try Exercise and Nutrition
Exercise is always beneficial to a man’s sexual health as it helps him keep his weight normal. Obesity is one of the frequent causes of ejaculation problems due to lowering of testosterone. Regular, aerobic activity 3-4 times a week coupled with some weight training 2-3 times a week can do a lot to keep your weight normal and your hormone levels stable. In addition, it helps to keep blood and lymph circulating in the lower part of a man’s body.
Your prostate diet may also be to blame for poor testosterone production and the ability to ejaculate properly. Make sure your diet includes enough zinc, protein and vitamin C, the very building blocks of testosterone and seminal fluid. In addition, watch for xenoestrogens (environmental estrogen) in your diet from microwaveable foods packaged in plastics and/or through drinking water and/or sodas in plastic bottles that may have become heated and released bisphenol A.
As I tell my patients, protecting your prostate health through regular ejaculation, whether it’s through sexual activity in a shared relationship, or your own personal privacy, is a completely natural and health promoting thing to do. It’s all about keeping your body in natural balance!
Keep Your Children Healthy Using Common Sense
If your goal is to have healthy kids in your family, most people do not realize that common sense is your most useful approach in trying to do this the proper way. The lives of our children are surrounded by fast food and cell phones, things that keep them from being as active as they should be; as parents, we need to show them the benefits of exercising and eating right. In the paragraphs that follow, we will show you several ways that you can help your kids become satisfied and healthier.
As smoking is very bad and everyone knows the perils of it, you should make your child aware of this and convince them not to smoke. But you can do more than this. For one thing, if you’re a smoker, you’d be doing your kids as well as yourself a favor if you quit. It is dangerous to be a smoker and almost as bad to have second hand smoke. So you’ll want to naturally keep your child away from smoke. Aside from this, setting the right example is immensely important. If your kids see you smoking, this will make more of an impression on them than any words you say. You could also have a no smoking policy in the house that applies to guests as well as family members to keep the house free of second hand smoke.
You should take your children for regular check-ups with a doctor that you know and trust. Your pediatrician should know which vaccinations are necessary as well as noticing any issues or problems that need addressing. It is important to treat your child with the right medicine if they get a minor health problem like a cold, fever or ear infection. It is best to keep your child away from others if he or she is ill and keep ill people away from them.
For both kids and adults, dental health is an important part of a healthy body. Be certain that your kids understand how important it is for them to brush their teeth twice a day. Make dental appointments for them on a constant basis. Acknowledge the advice that the dentist gives. Also watch that they don’t eat too many sweets that can be harmful to the teeth, including chewing gum. Childhood is the best period to start protecting your gums and teeth. This can hinder dental problems from becoming an issue later on in life. Keeping healthy kids is not a hard thing to manage.
The Perfect Zig Zag Diet for Weight Loss
Calorie limitation will take you a long way.
However it will only take you so far. Once you get to a certain stage, the body begins taking steps to avoid fat reduction and encourage fat storage as this is what it really thinks will enable you to survive. Your body can’t really know the difference between a calorie restricted diet and starvation other than the former is simply a milder variety of the latter. This is the reason why the slimmer you get, the more difficult it becomes to get rid of fat. You can create a significant calorie deficit by eating very low-calorie and low-carb for a few days, but go any further than that and you are going to come to a fat burning brick wall. Your system will trump all of your work by bringing down levels of fat loss hormones and increasing levels of fat storing hormones. On the other hand, a zig zag diet plan helps keep your fat burning hormones running sound.
The key hormone that controls all of the others is leptin.
Excessive leptin levels are linked to excessive body fat amounts and a higher calorie consumption, which allow you to burn fat more readily. Low leptin amounts are connected with lower body fat amounts and calorie restriction which makes it more challenging for you to burn fat. That’s pretty much all you have to understand without getting too scientific. If you wish to get ultra lean and shed fat faster than an average person on a diet, you must outsmart your body and make best use of its fat burning potential, even when it doesn’t want to do so.
That’s where a zig zag diet regime (often called calorie cycling) is important.
So we recognize that in order to shed fat, we must produce a calorie deficit, which implies consuming less. But simultaneously, as we make this happen, it makes it harder to lose fat because the body is taking measures against it. So what’s the remedy? Restrict calories for several days to burn as much fat as possible while your leptin amounts are ample. And then, after they start to decrease, employ a cheat day and reset your leptin amounts. This works like a dream because it will take several days of calorie restriction for your leptin amounts to lower substantially, but only a day of overeating to reset them.
So let’s get this straight… gorging once every several days is actually beneficial for fat burning?
Absolutely. In fact, the most effective foods to cheat with are also the worst foods for you: high carb and high fat foods lift leptin levels more than all other types of food. But you must do it properly. Don’t play the leptin card and employ it as an excuse to have numerous cheat days weekly. This will blow up in your face and also in your gut. A cheat day every few days is okay and will actually work in your favor if you’re putting in the work on the non-cheat days and doing what you’re supposed to. I’ve known about the wonder of cheating for a while and I’ve been employing cheat days routinely, but I was making a couple of major blunders.
The first error was enjoying back-to-back cheat days.
I used to do this often on either Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday. I thought I had been sensible almost all week, so I could enjoy all weekend. The problem with this was that after my first cheat day, my glycogen stores were maxed from my carb binge. So when I had my next cheat day shortly after, the subsequent carb binge would go instantly to fat storage. I was still dropping enough fat on my non cheat days to generate a net fat loss for the week, but I would’ve dropped more fat by deliberately spreading out my cheat days. Now, I have a mild cheat day mid-week and a full out cheat day on the weekend. The added advantage of following a cheat day with a fasting day or extremely low-calorie day is that your body burns more fat on the low-calorie day since leptin amounts are restored.
The second mistake was less active cheat days.
Obviously, when you are taking in more food energy than you’re getting rid of, you’re bound to store some of it as fat. You might gain a little bit of fat over these cheat days. But on your non-cheat days, there’s a high probability you’ll lose more fat for a weekly net fat loss. This is exactly what you’re shooting for. But suppose there was a means to avoid fat gain completely during cheat days enhancing your results even more? Well there is and it’s called intense exercise. When you endure strenuous weight training or intense cardio exercise like HIIT, it reduces the glycogen stores in your muscles. Then when you eat lots of pizza or pasta, the very first thing your body wants to do is fill up those stores… meaning the cheat foods are going to your muscles instead of your fat stores. Boom!
Intense physical exercise on cheat days is money for preventing excess fat gain. Intense is the important word here. Walking around the neighborhood is okay, but it won’t work well for this. You need something that’s going to knock you out and provide your muscles a serious beating. Once I began including intense exercise on my cheat days, I felt a pump like never before during my workouts. Additionally, and I know this seems silly but it’s true, I experienced less of a full, overweight feeling in my stomach after consuming junk food because it wasn’t traveling to my gut. Just trust me on this one.
I learned all this from the cheat day expert, Joel Marion.
His latest system called Xtreme Fat Loss Diet teaches all of this in detail plus much more. There are other topics such as using supplements that I haven’t even brought up in this post. Joel has improved this system after a period of experimentation to develop a five-day cycle which may be the perfect zig zag diet for fat burning. In reality, it’s so Xtreme, that Joel himself stresses it’s not meant to be a long-term solution. But the concepts you learn from the course make it completely worth it since you can tailor them to your routine. The most impressive thing about XFLD is that it’s the first program I’ve seen that establishes a synergistic effect from fasting, cheating, and training so that when you combine all three in the correct manner, the results you obtain completely blow away anything you might accomplish from doing each one of these individually. I’ll just leave it at this. Go check it out for yourself!
How To Take Care Of The Diabetic Foot
According to the American Diabetes Association, there are 25.8 million people living with diabetes. Diabetes is a condition characterized by blood sugar levels that are too high. Over time these high sugars cause complications that include heart problems, visual changes, kidney disease and nerve damage. One of the most common diabetic complications, is foot problems.
Diabetic patients suffer from many different foot problems such as infections, slow wound healing and amputations. These complications occur because hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar levels, cause damage to the nerves and the blood vessels in the feet. When this occurs, the patient cannot feel pain from open wounds and poor blood flow to the foot delays healing, resulting in foot infections that are difficult to treat and may need to be managed through amputations.
Good glucose control is the best way to prevent all complications from diabetes. To achieve this, the diabetic patient should eat the proper diet, check fingerstick readings regularly and completing routine blood testing to measure diabetes control. In addition, one of the most important ways to protect your feet from diabetic complications is by wearing proper orthopedic footwear.
When selecting orthopedic shoes consider these tips to find the perfect footwear!
Shoes should fit well but not too tightly. Shop at the end of the day to buy shoes that will accommodate for foot swelling. Also, look for footwear with a wide toe box to keep toes from rubbing.
Also, look for diabetic shoes with thick cushions and shock absorbing soles to prevent pressure sores on the foot.
Next find shoes with removable inserts so that orthotic devices can be inserted if these are recommended by your doctor to correct certain foot deformities, like bunions or hammer toes.
If you have diabetes, schedule an appointment with a podiatrist. This doctor is specially trained to inspect the diabetic foot for abnormalities, nerve problems and poor circulation. Only your podiatrist can recommend shoes that will best meet your individual needs.
Don’t forget to take good care of your feet through daily foot inspections and careful cleaning. Wear quality socks that wick moisture and are free of holes and seams. Invest in quality orthopedic shoes that fit properly. Good sugar control goes a long way in preventing diabetic complications. Be sure to stick to the diabetic diet and take medications as prescribed. Daily sugar checks are also important to keeping your sugars under good control. These little steps go a long way in preventing diabetic foot ulcers, infections and amputations!
Causes And Symptoms Of Mono In Children
Children are prone to several medical conditions. Common colds, fever, diarrhea and flu are some of them. But there is one more disease that is very common among children. It is called Mononucleosis or Mono for short. For some, they call it as kissing disease. Yes, kissing disease. A disease that most people thought would only affect teens and adults but not children.
What Is Mononucleosis Or Kissing Disease?
Mononucleosis is a condition caused by the Epstein-Barr virus or EBV. It is a kind of virus that belongs to the family of herpesvirus and cytomegaloviruses. On the negative side, Mono is difficult to diagnose in children. Mainly because it might not show any symptoms at all or the signs can be mistaken as a common cold or flu.
How Mononucleosis Is Transmitted?
Mono is popularly called as the kissing disease because it is commonly transmitted through the saliva. Then again, people do not have to kiss in order to get infected.
Since the virus is in the saliva of the infected person, people may get infected by sharing of food, spoon and other utensils. Drinking from infected straws and glass can also increase the likelihood of contacting the infection. These unsanitary habits are common to children. This also explains why children are prone to Mono.
What Are The Common Signs And Symptoms Of Mononucleosis Or Mono?
Based on statistics, 90 percent of people are at risk of developing the disease. Once a person gets infected, the body’s immune system will prevent it from getting infected again.
Some people do not realize that they have been infected with this kind of disease because most of the cases happen during early childhood. Individuals who have Mononucleosis at the early age may suffer from mild symptoms. Following are some of the most common symptoms of Mono in children that parents need to watch out for:
1. Fever
2. Sore throat
3. Swollen lymph glands
4. Fatigue
5. Puffy eyes
6. Enlarged liver and spleen
Typically mononucleosis is misdiagnosed as sore throat because their symptoms are similar. Often, medical doctors will give the child a course of antibiotic. The antibiotic will then have a negative reaction to the body. Children can suffer from mild to moderate rashes or hives. At times, doctors conclude that the patient has an allergic reaction towards the antibiotic. Conversely, it is just the natural reaction of the disease to the antibiotic. Aside from the rashes, children can suffer from severe abdominal pains, dry cough or runny nose. To prevent misdiagnosis, it is better to let the children undergo blood test because it is the only way to confirm if the patient has been infected with the mononucleosis or mono disease.
Usually, people who have been infected with this kind of virus may notice the symptoms after 15 to 30 days of being infected. The symptoms may last for about a week or two depending on the body immunity of the person being infected.
There are no specific treatments to this disease. It will just go away on its own. However, there are treatments to relieve the symptoms.
Mononucleosis, mono or kissing disease, whatever one may call it, is very common to teenagers and adult however lately it has become more evident to children as young as ten. It is very contagious but not lethal. Fortunately, it has mild symptoms in children and it can be managed easily by rest and adequate fluid intake.
Finding the Best Discounts for Prescription Drugs
There are many reasons why you will at some point in your life need to take prescription drugs. The biggest problem that you will face is that the drugs may end up costing more than the visit to the doctor. It is so important to go and find a good drug prescription discount that you can use. This way you will be able to at least afford the prescription you will need. These discounts will come in a variety of forms and depending on the drug that you will need to take you will find that there are different levels of discounts available.
Finding the level of discount that can be applied will be at sometimes tricky. You will first need to know what the drug is. Then you will need to know if there is a generic alternative that is available and what the price difference is. One of the biggest ways to be able to get a discount on prescription drugs is to request the generic or to see if there is an alternative to the drug, you are currently taking. If that is not the case, you will need to work with the pharmacy as well as the manufacturer to see if they are able to provide with any type of discount or sampling program to help you to get the medication that you need.
No matter what the situation is, you need to make sure that you are using the drugs as directed as well as trying to apply the discounts that you are able to receive. One of the best ways that you can do this is by acquiring a discount card. There are many places that this may be available. In some places, you will find that the local government on the county level is offering these. You will also see that you may be able to get a card from one of a multitude of different sources through insurance or through a private provider. No matter what the situation is, you will at some point need to secure some type of discount option that you will be able to use in order to get your drugs at a reasonable price.
Regardless of why it is that you need the drugs the fact that you need them is enough for you to go and find a way to get discounts on your prescription drugs. You need to look to the pharmacies as well as confer with your doctor so you will be able to see what it is that you qualify for and how it is that, you will be able to get the drugs you need. Remember to try to work with your doctor to see if there may be an alternative to what you are taking and what it is that will give you the best chance to get back to a normal life. It is not about how much you are paying to get the prescription as much as you are paying to get the life you need and to get back to some sort of normalcy with your health.
It does not matter how you do it, but you will need to find a way to get the prescription drugs you are supposed to have. Finding discounts of some sort that will help you to provide for your needs and to get you something that is affordable is very important and can only help you to get as close to a normal life as you would like. Getting the price you want and need is the most important thing to be able to maintain your health.
What To Know About Skin Bleaching
Skin bleaching, also known as skin whitening or skin lightening, is the procedure in which the concentration of melanin is decreased using chemicals. This is often executed in order to achieve a more even skin tone. A lot of these remedies entail topical creams or lotions with melanin-inhibiting chemicals utilized alongside with sunscreen and/or a prescription retinoid. Below are many commonly used bleaching agents with info on each:
• Hydroquinone – Hydroquinone is certainly one of the most frequently used elements in skin bleaching. Hydroquinone works by suppressing the skins ability to produce melanin. In this sense it is not exactly a bleaching the skin, but instead works by impeding the skin from manufacturing new color. Over time this can give the appearance of whitened skin. Although this ingredient is acknowledged for its effectiveness, it should be noted that it can cause skin irritation for some people. Further, the FDA deliberated a ban on over-the-counter sales of products having hydroquinone in 2006. The FDA’s rationale powering the ban were justified by worry that the hydroquinone could possibly function as a carcinogen and for that reason contribute to causing cancer. The ban nevertheless failed when when it was voted on. It has since been subsequently advocated by others as well that the harmful effects caused by this chemical only appertain to to it’s use in extreme numbers or from it’s conjunction with other ingredients that could cause irritation.
• Tretinoin – Tretinoin is the acid form of vitamin A. It is generally prescribed by a dermatologist to manage skin discoloration in addition to a number of various other skin conditions from acne to hair loss. This substance might for some make the skin sensitive and possibly thin the skin as well. This skin may aw well be overly sensitive to sun exposure.
• Arbutin – Arbutin is a product produced from the leaves of multiple plants, but mainly the bearberry plant. It helps it prevent formation of melanin. There is discussion concerning whether or not Arbutin results in the same carcinogenic threats that hydroquinone does. Many however continue to contend that it is a safer alternative for hydroquinone.
• Kojic acid – Kojic acid is a substance produced from the fermentation of rice. It is eaten in greater levels in the Japanese diet and recognized as an antioxidant. It, in addition to that, is said to hinder the creation of melanin. Kojic acid does though lose its effectiveness in the event that it is exposed to sunlight. It might likewise irritate the skin. Lastly some discussion exists about if there exist carcinogenic attributes to this chemical.
• Vitamin C – Vitamin C in increased concentrations is believed brighten the skin tone not to mention suppress melanin production. Vitamin C also happens to be an essential factor in virtually any balanced diet. It will help to defend your skin from problems resulting from free radicals as well.
Forget erectile problems with Viagra
Erectile dysfunction is quite a common sexual problem among men. Read further to learn more about Viagra, the first prescription medication for impotence by Pfizer.
Men around the world have problems in their sex life, which usually arise as a result of sexual problems that they are facing. All men, at least once in their lifetime, are known to suffer from some or the other sexual problem. Some of these sexual problems that are commonly known to affect men include erectile dysfunction or impotence, premature ejaculation or rapid ejaculation, lack of sexual desire and problems related to orgasm. Erectile dysfunction or impotence, as it is commonly known as, is one of the most common sexual problems experienced by men. It is a condition, in which a man has problems achieving or maintaining erections long enough for a satisfactory sexual intercourse. Men suffering from such sexual problems are often embarrassed by their condition and suffer in their relationships as well.
What is Viagra?
Men, in earlier times struggled to deal with this sexual problem, but now plenty of treatment options are available for treating impotence. Viagra is one of these treatment options, which was the first drug to be introduced as an impotence treatment. It is manufactured by Pfizer, and was initially to be used as a treatment for men suffering from blood pressure problems. But during the clinical trials, it was observed that the active ingredient of Viagra, sildenafil citrate, helped men with erectile problems. It was then that the pill was introduced as the first impotence treatment. Viagra has since then helped millions of men in treating their erectile problems. Many men are known to use this pill for increasing their sexual desire or libido, which is not correct.
You should avoid using this pill if you are not suffering from erectile dysfunction for a prolonged period of time. This pill should only be used when you are sexually stimulated, as otherwise it will not be that effective. This pill is available in the dosage strengths of 25 mg, 50 mg and 100 mg, which can be prescribed to you based on the severity of the condition. This pill, with the help of its active ingredient, works by relaxing the corpora cavernosa muscles and increasing the blood flow in your penis. When the blood flow in your penis increases, it allows you to achieve better and longer erections than before.
How to take Viagra? What are the side effects of Viagra?
You are supposed to take one Viagra sildenafil pill along with a glass of water, before or after meal, at least 30 to 60 minutes before you engage in sexual activity. The pill is effective for four hours after you take the pill, but you need to be careful not to take more than one pill within a span of 24 hours. This pill can be taken by men who are 18 years of age or above, but should be avoided by men who are suffering from certain health conditions such as severe heart disorders or failure, recent heart attack or stroke, low blood pressure, severe liver dysfunction, severe kidney dysfunction, hereditary of the back of the eyeball, rare hereditary problems of galactose intolerance. Some of the side effects that you can experience while using this pill include headache, facial flushing, upset stomach, nasal congestion, dizziness and bladder pain.