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Ordering Viagra Online, Without Visiting a Doctor's Office
Tweet Share on Facebook October 24, 2008 Comment (91)While many websites sell drugs online illegally, one company called KwikMed offers consumers the option of buying certain medications—the erectile dysfunction drugs Cialis, Viagra, Levitra; the hair loss drug Propecia; and the smoking cessation—without ever seeing a doctor face to face. Though KwikMed hopes to offer additional drugs in the future, these five drugs are the only ones that have been approved by regulators to date. And it's all perfectly legal, the company says—though quite unusual. The arrangement that KwikMed has reached with the Utah Legislature allows the company's doctors to offer valid prescriptions through cyberspace; other states require that patients see a doctor in person, KwikMed says, before they can receive a prescription. Still, even if you don't live in Utah, you can probably order KwikMed's drugs. The company has received mail order licenses from many other states, and it has shipped medications to 46 states so far. A preliminary study of KwikMed (led by an independent researcher but including a company employee as a coauthor), published recently in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, shows the system is just as safe as having in-the-flesh primary physicians examine patients and prescribe erectile drugs.
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Darwin Awards for Car Surfers?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 17, 2008 Comment (14)Since I've written before about men's propensity for taking risks and have spent a fair amount of time poring over government statistics that show which types of accidents are most lethal for men, I thought I'd pretty much considered all the bizarre ways we end up offing ourselves.
Then I ran across this release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about car surfing. Yup, you read that right: car surfing, which the CDC defines as a "thrill-seeking activity that involves riding on the exterior of a moving motor vehicle while it is being driven by another person." Men were the victims of car surfing accidents in 70 percent of the cases. The feds, apparently, got the idea of looking into the phenomenon of car surfing after watching clips like this one on video sharing sites.
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Despite Diabetes, Athletes Push to the Limit
Tweet Share on Facebook October 10, 2008 Comment (9)While doctors once steered people with type 1 diabetes away from vigorous exercise, the development of new monitoring and insulin delivery technology has prompted them to change their tune. "The sky is the limit. From an athletic perspective, there's no type of exercise a person shouldn't do, as long as they're willing to monitor and manage their diabetes," say Larry Deeb, past president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association. Previously, doctors warned that sudden uncontrolled dips in blood sugar levels that often accompany intense exercise could cause fainting, seizures, and even comas.
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In a Way, Circumcision Is Beside the Point
Tweet Share on Facebook October 9, 2008 Comment (10)It isn't clear whether circumcision protects gay men from infection with the HIV/AIDS virus as it does heterosexual men, a study released this week says. Previous research has shown that circumcision lowers rates of AIDS infection by some 50 to 60 percent among heterosexuals. So there's nothing from this research that men—gay or straight—can or should act upon at this point. The science simply isn't reliable enough at this point to say, for example, whether uncircumcised men would benefit from running off and getting the procedure.
But here's what we do know about gay men and HIV in the United States:
- 53 percent of all new HIV/AIDS cases involve gay men, according to the CDC.
- 71 percent of all new HIV/AIDS cases in male adults and adolescents involve gay men.
- New cases of HIV are increasing faster among gay and bisexual men than other demographic groups, particularly among gay black men.
- Practicing safe sex offers protection.
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A Crash Course in Diabetes for Men
Tweet Share on Facebook October 6, 2008 Comment (9)A recent survey of men with diabetes revealed an interesting tidbit of information: Men may not be as irresponsible and cavalier as they sometimes seem when it comes to their health—it's just that we need a little extra info to understand how to be healthy.
In the survey conducted by the American Diabetes Association, a mere 30 percent of men with diabetes who responded claimed to know "a lot" about their condition and only 25 percent reported eating nutritious meals. Ouch. Yet—and this is the important part—60 percent felt that more information could help them better manage the disease. And 65 percent said having more information would mean they would have useful conversations with caregivers about the condition.
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Do Phthalates Mess Up Genital Development in Baby Boys?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 3, 2008 Comment (2)Are environmentally ubiquitous chemicals called phthalates, which leach from certain types of plastics, making the penises of baby boys smaller or hampering their testicles from descending into the scrotum? That’s the concern raised by a new paper published this month in the journal Environmental Research.
The study, the latest in an ongoing salvo against the chemicals by University of Rochester researcher Shanna Swan, is an extension of preliminary results that she published in 2005. That earlier paper—and the newer one—make the case that prenatal exposure to low doses of phthalates muck with several aspects of human male genital development, including the distance between the anus and the genitals at birth. Swan’s critics have railed against her research, which has received loads of media attention over the years despite being what they call scare science. The new paper seems to be flying largely under the radar, except for the coverage of it in this USA Today article.
In May, I published an article about phthalates and a sidebar that explained how--if you’re so inclined--you can try to avoid these extraordinarily widespread chemicals.
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Celiac Disease in Men Threatens Bone Health
Tweet Share on Facebook September 19, 2008 Comment (11)Did John F. Kennedy, a man generally remembered as one of our more youthful and vigorous presidents, actually have celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder triggered by exposure to gluten proteins found in wheat, barely, and rye? Quite possibly, says Peter Green, the director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. Though Kennedy managed to hide his symptoms from public view, he suffered from a slew of ailments that hint at celiac disease, including abdominal pain, diarrhea, migraines, and osteoporosis. Throughout Kennedy's life, doctors diagnosed him with ulcers, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and food allergies, but their treatments never seemed to help much. He never received the blood testing and intestinal biopsy that might have revealed celiac disease.
While Green's theory about Kennedy remains speculative, the disease often does go undiagnosed, and it seems to hit men particularly hard—especially where bone health is concerned. One of Green's articles, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, shows that celiac disease appears to progress faster in men, deprive men's bodies of more needed nutrients, and cause particularly acute damage to bones. In fact, says Alessio Fasano, the medical director at the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research, celiac disease is one of the leading causes of male osteoporosis, a condition that many men don't realize they can get. (History buffs may enjoy the History News Network's overview of Green's theory about JFK, and the Atlantic has a thorough description of that president's medical ordeals.)
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A Sociologist's Take on How Abortions Affect Men
Tweet Share on Facebook September 12, 2008 Comment (34)Earlier this week, I blogged about a conference on how abortions impact men emotionally. I pointed out that there's a dearth of dispassionate research exploring whether the controversial procedure affects men's mental health. That's very much the case, but I'd like to follow up with perspective, as well as some data, from one of the few academic researchers who has tackled the issue: Arthur Shostak, an emeritus professor of sociology at Drexel University. We weren't able to connect before that post.
Since the early 1980s, Shostak has been periodically surveying and interviewing what he calls "waiting-room men"—the 600,000 or so guys who sit and wait each year as their partners undergo an abortion, and who help them return home afterward. Though firmly pro-choice, Shostak says he considers every abortion "a tragedy" and cites reducing the need as one of the reasons he studies how the procedure affects men. Thirty years ago, he went through an abortion with his partner; since then, he has surveyed upward of 3,000 waiting-room men about their experiences.
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How Hard Do Abortions Hit Men?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 9, 2008 Comment (35)In August, the American Psychological Association released a major report that shows a single elective abortion does not increase a woman's risk of developing mental-health problems. (See our coverage of it here.) Not a page of the 91-page document addresses whether abortion affects the mental health of men. The imbalance is hardly unusual: Research looking at how abortion affects the male member of a pregnant couple is scarce.
This week, however, two organizations are speaking up about men and abortion, and their intent seems to be to frame the discussion in a strongly antiabortion context. The Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese of Chicago's Office for Evangelization—both staunch opponents of abortion—are wrapping up a national conference today that focused on the reported mental-health effects of abortion on men.
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The 'Silent Phenomenon' of Male Sexual Abuse
Tweet Share on Facebook September 8, 2008 Comment (20)September's issue of the American Journal of Men's Health features an editorial about the sexual abuse of men, a surprisingly common but rarely acknowledged problem. I discussed the issue with Demetrius Porche, the editor of the journal and author of the editorial. Porche, a men's health advocate, registered nurse, and dean of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing, has studied the problem for nearly a decade.
The sexual abuse of men isn't something that people are used to hearing about. Where and how does sexual abuse against men tend to happen?
Male sexual abuse happens in all kinds of settings to all kinds of men. We see it in prisons; we see it in boys' homes. Sexual assault is often part of violent crime. I've heard of burglars using sexual assault as a way of silencing and intimidating victims. Sometimes it happens within a family. Many males report inappropriate touching that escalates, in some cases, to sex. Another example is young boys "exploring" with each other. There's a fine line between exploring and getting coerced by another person who really knows what they're doing.
