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Erectile Dysfunction Often a Sign of Heart Disease, Diabetes
Tweet Share on Facebook May 19, 2008 Comment (88)Erectile dysfunction, once thought to have primarily psychological causes, is now recognized to often stem from physiological problems such as poor blood flow to the penis. Increasingly, research indicates that ED can be an early warning sign of coronary artery disease, which also results from obstructed blood flow and, if untreated, can lead to heart attacks and stroke. Recent studies—including two published online today—also link sagging erections to diabetes, which has negative effects on cardiovascular health. More than half of American men age 40 to 70 suffer from erectile dysfunction, so that's a lot of men who may be at risk of vascular disease—and may not realize it.
"Symptoms of erectile dysfunction seem to occur three to four years before symptoms of coronary artery disease," says Robert Kloner, a cardiologist at Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, Calif. Researchers first started tracking a link between erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular problems in the mid-'90s, and in the last few years they have recognized that erectile dysfunction precedes and is therefore predictive of future cardiovascular problems.
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6 Myths About Commuting By Bicycle
Tweet Share on Facebook May 15, 2008 Comment (54)Tomorrow happens to be National Bike to Work Day, which made me curious about how many of us actually bike to work regularly. The numbers, according to the most recent census, are sobering: Only four tenths of 1 percent of Americans get to work on a bicycle. Seventy-seven percent, in contrast, drive—and by themselves. Could it be that surging gas prices might be prompting a change? Media reports suggest that the bike industry is on the verge of a boom, and there’s at least anecdotal evidence to suggest that Americans are itching to get back in the saddle.
In its blog, the Environmental Protection Agency wonders why people are or aren’t biking to work, and safety concerns, distance, and smelliness emerge from the comments as key barriers. I happen to be in that 0.4 percent, have been for the past six years or so, and imagine I will be until I retire or die. And, though I’m no spandex-clad enthusiast who shells out thousands of dollars for top-of-the-line racing bikes and gear, I’m convinced that such barriers are surmountable.
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A Few Places to Find Reliable Health Information
Tweet Share on Facebook May 9, 2008 CommentThere aren't many publications and Web resources that offer men balanced, science-based, practical news and advice about how they can maintain and improve their health. The Harvard Men's Health Watch, Johns Hopkins's health update called "Spotlight on Men's Health," and the Medical University of South Carolina's men's health E-newsletters are a few that generally do. Here are a few kernels of useful advice drawn from their recent offerings.
A recently posted podcast about prostate cancer from the Medical University of South Carolina says that the condition, in many cases, can be safely left untreated. "One of the largest studies of its kind concludes that most older men with early prostate cancer do not shorten their survival odds if they adopt a 'wait-and-see' approach to the disease," according to the podcast. I came across similar data when I explored this wait-and-see, or "active surveillance," approach for an article last summer.
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'Bad Dads' Reality TV Show Stirs Controversy
Tweet Share on Facebook May 2, 2008 Comment (38)Corrected on 6/6/08: An earlier version of this blog incorrectly spelled a Fox spokesman's name. The correct spelling is Scott Grogin.
This week, I received an intriguing E-mail from Glenn Sacks, a men's advocate and journalist, crying foul about the possibility that a reality show called Bad Dads might air on Fox. The show's producers and officials from the National Child Support Center plan to hunt down deadbeat dads and humiliate them into paying child support with the cameras running, according to an article first published in the Hollywood Reporter and then by Reuters, which calls the concept "ambush reality TV—but for a noble cause."
The show's premise peeves men's activists, who say it perpetuates the stereotype that men are irresponsible when it comes to child rearing. Ned Holstein, the executive director of the advocacy group Fathers & Families, says: "According to U.S. Census data, noncustodial mothers are 20 percent more likely to default on their child support obligations than noncustodial fathers. There is absolutely no reason to name the show Bad Dads when the average noncustodial father is more likely to pay his child support than the average noncustodial mother." Adds Sacks: "The worst part about Bad Dads is the way it publicly humiliates children of divorce by depicting their fathers as not loving or caring for them. These children did not volunteer to be humiliated on national television."
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Suicidal Veterans Have Resources to Turn To
Tweet Share on Facebook April 23, 2008 Comment (9)Democratic lawmakers have called for the resignation of Ira Katz, the chief mental health official at the United States Veterans Affairs Department, after E-mails emerged suggesting that Katz attempted to conceal the high rate of suicide among veterans.
One E-mail has a subject heading of "Shh!" and states that 12,000 veterans a year attempt suicide while under care of the veterans agency—far more than the department has admitted publicly. Another, according to the Associated Press, says an average of 18 veterans kill themselves each day. If that number is correct, it means that more veterans have killed themselves in one year than have been killed in combat during the entire Iraq war.
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Our Heart Risks Begin Mounting at Puberty
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2008 Comment (3)Puberty's rough on a growing boy's heart. And not just because of the roller coaster of testosterone-induced crushes that don't always pan out as hoped. During adolescence, boys experience silent physiological changes that leave them at a higher risk of heart disease than their female counterparts for the remainder of their lives, researchers reported today.
Men's blood pressure and triglyceride levels increase during adolescence, even as their beneficial HDL cholesterol levels fall, Antoinette Moran, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, found after tracking 507 teens. In contrast, teenage girls experience decreases in triglycerides and an increase in HDL. You can click here to read more about the study, which was published in the journal Circulation.
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(Web) Extra: Read All About Proton Beam Therapy
Tweet Share on Facebook April 18, 2008 Comment (19)After writing an article last September about prostate cancer treatment options, I received a flood of mail chastising me for not mentioning proton beam therapy. I noted in a subsequent blog entry that, as a result of that feedback from readers, I decided to take a second look at proton beam therapy. The resulting magazine piece was published Wednesday on the U.S. News website and will appear in print on Monday. Let me know what you think of it.
For that article, I expanded my scope beyond prostate cancer to other cancers and also looked at the expansion of proton centers. It's a fascinating and complex topic, and one that I expect we'll be hearing a lot more about in the future. In the meantime, I've excerpted and responded to six of the comments I got on my earlier blog post. Here they are, in no particular order:
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(Web) Extra: Proton Beam Therapy (Part 2)
Tweet Share on Facebook April 18, 2008 Comment (3)Part 2 of six posts today about proton beam therapy. To start from the top, click here.
MD of Missouri on head-to-head comparisons
...I would suggest that, while proton beam therapy is excellent, so is brachytherapy (radioactive seed implants) done by an expert. I would welcome a head-to-head comparison between the two. I would bet that brachytherapy would be proven to provide similar excellent outcomes.
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(Web) Extra: Proton Beam Therapy (Part 3)
Tweet Share on Facebook April 18, 2008 Comment (3)Part 3 of six posts today about proton beam therapy. To start from the top, click here.
Rick Plummer of Florida on the "stonewalling effect" from urologists
...I was not informed about proton therapy by my urologist, like many of these men, and found it on my own through diligent research on the internet. When I asked him about the option I was told "Oh no! Don't go there. They will burn you up!" There was a unifying theme to the stories I was told by men in treatment at [University of Florida]. Almost all of us had to overcome this "stonewalling effect" or discouragement by the doctors and were left to our own devices to come to a decision about which treatment option to take. We were universally happy with our treatment at the Proton Institute and felt bonded as if we were soldiers in a battle unit. Often that meant we had gone up against a common enemy and prevailed. Not Cancer, but our Urologist!
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(Web) Extra: Proton Beam Therapy (Part 4)
Tweet Share on Facebook April 18, 2008 Comment (1)Part 4 of six posts today about proton beam therapy. To start from the top, click here.
Harold Peters of Tennessee on post-treatment side effects of therapy
My eight weeks at LLUMC was an extended holiday, with free daily use of the LLU recreation center a definite bonus. However, as it turned out, I am one of the small percentage who did experience post-treatment side effects. There were none whatsoever during the treatment, but we were cautioned that a small percentage of those receiving proton treatment might experience some post-treatment bleeding—either rectally or during ejaculation, or both. I experienced both.
