How many times have we seen this as the title on an article? The point is to frighten us with all the terrible consequences if we fail to diet. Except most people give up after the first line or two. It’s the same old, same old propaganda we’d prefer not to read. All lifestyle issues come down to choices and, as adults we have the right to live our lives as we think fit. It’s not for other people to keep bending our ears about this problem or that. This is the land of the free, after all.

Which forces the question, where do all these people get off on telling us what to do? This is like those victimless crimes. Sure, we may be carrying a few extra pounds but, if that’s the price we want to pay, what’s it got to do with anyone else? In their defense, these people fall into two different camps. One lot have our interests at heart. They just hate to see us suffering unnecessarily. They want us to heal ourselves so we will feel good about ourselves. This is like the nanny state, deciding what’s best for us and then ramming it down our throats. The second camp is more interesting.

This is all the people who say our extra pounds cost them dollars. Everyone knows the cost of the health insurance premiums has been rising sharply over the last twenty and more years. One of the reasons is more of us are falling ill than before and the cost of the long-term treatment forces up the premium rates. Since we are more likely to get Type II Diabetes, or cardiovascular diseases, or cancers, our lifestyles are adding extra dollars to their premium rates. Or they are shoppers. Since the rate of absenteeism is higher for those of us with extra weight, employers’ employment costs are higher so the prices for goods and services is higher. This is all a bit remote but it’s probably true.

So what are we supposed to do? Last year, there was a comprehensive report tying the use of statins as a treatment for high levels of cholesterol in our bloodstreams to the incidence of erectile dysfunction. Indeed, the statins were shown to reduce the level of testosterone and so affect the libido. This is the first major study with a credible number of participants – almost 4,000 men were followed over seven years at the University of Florence in Italy. The men taking statins were twice as likely to suffer low libido and erectile dysfunction.

Although this research is interesting, it has yet to be confirmed by a second trial. Since the manufacturers of statins could lose a lot of money, the funding for this study may be hard to find. Until then, we have a choice. We can ignore the whole problem and hopefully stay sexually active. If things do start to fail, Levitra is the most powerful of the three drugs and it will keep us going. Or we can lose weight the natural way with diet and exercise. This should give us more enjoyable sex. Or we can use drugs like statins. If dysfunction comes, heed the warning. Stop the drugs and use Levitra to recover.

Did you see, the other day, Warren G had to put out a statement clarifying his own level of sexual performance. This man is one of the partners in a firm making a male enhancement pill. It seems female celebrities market their own perfumes while male stars invite men to join their club and buy their albums. Anyway, Warren G appears in this commercial surrounded by five satisfied young women, having us believe he’s now so enhanced, he’s got to limit the number of women he can take at any one time. The things men will say to sell their own pills. So now he’s issued a PR statement clarifying he doesn’t need to use his own pills on a regular basis. He’s just a one-man army in the sack without them, thank you very much. But on the one or two times he has tried his own pills, he loves the results. So I hope we’re all clear on this now. Warren G wants your money, but doesn’t want you to think he actually has erectile dysfunction. That might damage his street cred and reduce the sales of his albums. Only red-hot lovers can sell albums into the rapper market (ignoring the obvious puns with condoms being wrappers). So these pills are for leisure use only when you have the good fortune to be faced with five tireless beauties.

The other question coming to mind is whether Warren G might be interested in endorsing a hair loss treatment. Not, you understand, we are suggesting Mr G has been losing hair. He just shaves his head because that’s the fashion. The stubble might suggest his hair line has been receding, but that’s just a rumor. After erectile dysfunction, hair loss is the big anxiety among men in the public eye. They fear their rep will be damaged if they are prematurely bald. So some shave their heads and others take that pill designed to slow down growths in the prostate. Except, there’s now a class action alleging negligence and all those dangerous legal things against the manufacturer. It turns out the European regulators identified erectile dysfunction as a side effect of this drug years ago and forced the manufacturer to change the labeling. The FDA has yet to notice any evidence of problems so we Americans have yet to receive any warnings.

It would just seem a logical direction for Warren G to take. First he let’s his own hair grow out, wearing a hair piece for the commercial if necessary. He endorses this hair loss product. The list of side effects always whizzes by too fast for anyone to read anyway. As and when men start to see a great head of hair but feel a little sad in the sex department, he can rerun all the ads for his enhancement product to get everyone back up to speed again. There’s only one flaw in this plan. The Europeans say the erectile dysfunction can be permanent and not even Levitra can cure it. So Warren G would wisely back away. Summing it all up, men losing their hair should make a feature of baldness. If they do try this hair loss drug, stop at the first sign of erectile dysfunction and start taking Levitra. Do not continue the hair loss drug.

Science is supposed to be objective, never caring anything for political correctness. Yet everything we do as humans gets caught up in the politics of the day. So it’s very difficult to get researchers to investigate clusters of disease if this might show an inconvenient truth, e.g. that one race is more likely to be affected by it, or that the disease is caused by the operation of a power plant or important commercial facility. Local people might suspect the water is contaminated but, because this could get caught up in major court cases, the majority of scientists do not want to get caught in the middle. So they quietly find other issues to investigate. This is unfortunate because there are some diseases that predominantly only affect particular races and geographical areas, e.g. thalassemia particularly affects people in Africa, South Asia and the Mediterranean. There may well be others but there’s no enthusiasm to find differences between groups of people. In particular, the emphasis is on confirming the similarity between the sexes. Apart from the functional difference to produce children, scientists prefer to confirm the presumption of equality.

This is actually misleading. There’s actually a considerable amount of evidence already forcing considerable changes in government policy, both at federal and state levels. Statistics are very important to defining future needs. All doctors are required to file a copy of the prescriptions they write. This shows the pattern of usage. Since these records were first compiled, women have been given more painkillers than men. There are a number of possible explanations. Women may complain of pain to their doctors whereas men prefer not to show weakness and live with pain. Or male doctors may encourage women to believe they are the weaker sex and so need more painkillers. At present, no one agrees on the reason. When we move to the statistics of hospital treatment, again more women attend for tests and treatment. So when it comes to training the next generation of doctors and nurses, there’s an increasing focus on the illnesses and diseases more common among women than men. Remember, women live longer than men and so, as the population ages, there will be more older women coming into the healthcare system as the years pass. This forces an increasing diversion of resources to the treatment of women.

Of course, there’s one thing the sexes do agree on. The signals from the nervous system all travel to the same part of the brain. This allows Tramadol and the other painkillers to have the same effect regardless of sex. Under normal circumstances, this would end the matter. Painkillers are all tried and trusted. If they work equally well, why is there a problem? The answer comes because of age. There’s clear research evidence showing that older people are strongly affected by Tramadol‘s side effects as they grow older. Indeed, there’s a general directive to reduce the dosage in line with age. If the patient is in hospital or residential care, there are instructions for seniors to be carefully supervised, particularly when they stand, sit or move around. Balance and coordination are often affected and, with bone density falling in the female population, there’s a greater risk of broken bones. Women really do need greater care if they are to avoid injury.

There are many causes of erectile dysfunction (ED). Many of these causes are related to high fat, high cholesterol diets. If you may be suffering from ED for this reason, a simple change in diet can not only improve your condition without medication, but also make you feel better and more energized overall, and lead to a longer, more pleasant life!

ED and Diet: The Connection

We all produce cholesterol naturally. Cholesterol – at appropriate levels – is vital to our survival: it produces vitamin D, builds cell walls, and helps us digest fat. However, too much cholesterol can not only cause ED, it can be fatal. Eating diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol leads to an increase in cholesterol in the body, which builds up along the inside of blood vessels and reduces circulation. Over time, cholesterol buildup restricts blood flow. Since an essential part of getting and maintaining an erection is good blood flow to the penis, cholesterol buildup due to poor diet is often a culprit in ED cases.

Changing Your Diet

Primary sources for saturated fat and cholesterol are red meats, deep-fried foods, dairy products, and eggs. A good rule of thumb is: if it comes from an animal, it almost definitely contains saturated fat and cholesterol. Plant-derived foods (unless they contain animal products or are deep-fried) are much lower in fat content. They also contain mostly unsaturated fats, which are less likely to contribute to poor circulation.

Here are some tips for improving your diet: Be conscious of what is going in your body.

Get in the habit of reading labels to see how much fat and cholesterol are in the products you’re going to eat. Remember to pay attention to serving size.

Make a simple rule (that you will follow!)

For example, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman maintains a vegetarian diet before 6pm, reserving meat for dinner time. Just don’t overdo it in the evening, or you will waste the day’s progress.

Switch to nonfat or low-fat alternatives.

Try preparing your favorite meals using soy milk instead of whole or 2% milk.

Reduce portion sizes for fatty foods.

Food writer Michael Pollan has regularly commented on the enormous size of American food portions. You can still enjoy your burger, pizza, or cake – just eat less, and supplement with healthier foods.

Medical Alternatives

Perhaps you’re making all the right lifestyle changes to avoid ED – eating properly, exercising, and making conscious efforts to reduce stress – but still having trouble. If this is the case, then you may want to purchase medication to treat your ED.

Currently, the leading ED medication on the market is Cialis. It functions the same way as competing medications, and outshines the competition in its effective duration. Unlike other ED medications, which only last 4-6 hours, you can take Cialis and be prepared for sexual activity for up to 36 hours. The ability to take just one pill and be ready for this long has earned it the nickname “the weekender.”

Furthermore, Cialis can typically be found at a lower price than its competitors, especially if purchased online. Just make sure you talk to your doctor.

Sometimes, paranoia is good for you. You can be just about to do something unwise or actively dangerous, and the suspicions kick in. What if? you ask yourself. And this hesitation saves you from making a mistake. So what’s the problem here? Well, some men are alarmed by all the stories going around the news media and the internet suggesting the online pharmacy industry is run by thieves who will take our money and fail to give us the drugs we need. As a note of explanation, ask yourself who owns many of the news media? Either the same corporations that also own pharmaceutical manufacturers, or the corporations that rely on all the advertising dollars spent by the manufacturers. So they have a direct interest in frightening you out of buying online. Remember, there are always one or two black sheep in every trade or industry. This does not make the whole industry suspect. All these scare stories are placed to protect the profits of Big Pharma. Anyway, some men seem not to draw the right lesson from these stories. They accept the lie that the online pharmacies, many of which are regulated by governments around the world, are unsafe. So they sign up to buy sex-enhancement remedies from random websites. This is not one of those out of the frying pan, into the fire decisions. This is abandoning a safe harbor to go for a swim with crocodiles. If the pharmacies, many of which have been trading for years, are criminal, what does that make the fly-by-nighters offering to turn you into stallion overnight? One of the less-well-advertised functions of the FDA is to police the market for supplements and non-pharmaceutical remedies. Although the manufacturers don’t have to get a license to sell their magic products, they do have to be truthful in what they claim for them. So, if the FDA finds misleading ads, they can order the ads removed and, in bad cases, the product pulled from the market. What then counts as the “bad” cases? Let’s say the manufacturer claims this herbal product will produce the most enhanced erection you have ever seen or felt. Making allowances for the usual exaggeration, the FDA might get suspicious if the business seemed to be growing. Although the placebo effect can persuade some men to produce erections, most herbal and “alternative” products don’t work. So repeat orders and good word-of-mouth would persuade the FDA to test samples. In the case of “ExtenZe”, the FDA found the herbs were supplemented by Cialis. It’s relatively easy to make your own product effective when you include the best of the erectile dysfunction drugs as a secret ingredient. Yet it’s this failure to warn men that makes this product so dangerous. When we buy a prescription-only drug, we are given clear instructions on safe dosages. If we don’t know we are taking a drug, we may believe it safe to take several tablets at once. This can produce an overdose which, if not treated properly, can be dangerous. Any drug, including Cialis, can be dangerous if you overdose. The FDA has therefore ordered the manufacturer of “ExtenZe” to cease selling their drug-enhanced product.

The first reliable evidence of condom use comes from around 1490 when a particularly virulent form of syphilis was going around Europe. The first official condemnation from the Church came in 1605 as men expanded the justification for condom use to avoid pregnancy. Once this potential was noted, the majority of states condemned their use as immoral. Disease and death were restricting population growth, and all governments had a direct interest in maximizing the birth rate. Come through to this century and we still have major problems with the spread of HIV and, truth be told, many countries will die out over the next hundred years as the birth rate has fallen below the level needed to sustain the populations. It seems nothing has changed over the last six hundred years except for the materials used to make the condoms.

Well, perhaps that’s not quite true. There are clear problems being addressed by manufacturers. Let’s start off in Europe where there’s the greatest openness about sex in the education system. It seems boys from the age of 12 upwards have been complaining the adult condoms are too big. For those of you not into the statistics, condoms usually have a diameter of about 2 inches and a length of about 7 inches. Even the healthiest of growing boys is likely to find this difficult to keep in place once penetration has been achieved. The Swiss are now producing a smaller condom under the name Hotshot for the 12-14 market. The hope is this will reduce the number of teens finding themselves fathers, and facing legal troubles for having sex with underage girls.

However, the experience of these boys matches the problems of men with erectile dysfunction. If the adult erection suddenly disappears after penetration, the condom is likely to come off and this can lead both to the transmission of disease and unwanted pregnancy. If this is affecting you, start using one of the erectile dysfunction drugs to restore continuity of erection until sexual activity is complete. This will keep your sex “safe”. As an aside, remember all the stories about erectile dysfunction drugs protecting against disease and pregnancy are myths. Only a condom offers the required level of protection.

But a slightly unexpected problem is emerging. As you may have noticed, with improved diet and better healthcare, more people are growing taller. Fifty years ago, it was quite unusual to see men over 6 feet. Now it’s increasingly common to see men of 6feet, 6 inches and over. The diameter and length of the condom was set before this spurt in human growth and more men have begun to report their condoms have split during use. Without wishing to boast too much, this is more common among men using erectile dysfunction drugs. For active research into the problem we have to travel to Australia. Without naming Levitra, men reported the risk of a condom breaking increased by 400% when an erectile dysfunction drug was used. The probability of breakage increased if the sex session proved long. In the old days before Levitra came along, erections would only last for a relatively short period of time. Now there’s great sharing, keeping the partner happy, but with the risk of wear and tear (literally). It’s therefore time for the US manufacturers to produce a Hotshot brand for our new giants.<

People with severe depression have it rough. Depression prevents you from being proactive about your condition, doing things you know you should be to overcome the disease: exercising and eating right. And when you try medical help, drugs often do not work, do not work well, cause bad side effects (like weight gain), make the depression worse, and/or build tolerance quickly.

For this reason, nearly half of people with depression feel like they cannot find a successful medical solution.
Whenever a new drug comes out, there is always excitement – and concerns. This time, however, a well-known drug with a world-class reputation is creating a lot of buzz.
How good is this news? Find out below.

Many Depressive Conditions Do Not Respond to Treatment

SSRIs

Short for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, SSRIs control the amount of serotonin in your body. They have side effects like:
– Weight gain
– Fatigue
– Dizziness
– Headache
– Nausea/Vomiting
– Apathy
– Drowsiness
– Tremors
– Suicidal thoughts
– Sleep disruption
– Inability to experience pleasure
– Sexual dysfunction

Well-known SSRIs used for treatment of depression include:
– Zoloft (sertraline)
– Paxil (paroxetine)
– Prozac (fluoxetine)
– Seroplex (escitalopram)
– Celexa (citalopram)

Tricyclic Antidepressants

These are one of the oldest classes of drug still used to treat depression. Newer drugs have largely replaced them because of fairly severe side effects, but are still used in special situations.

Common side effects include:
– Dry mouth
– Dry nose
– Blurry vision
– Constipation
– Cognitive/Memory impairment
– Fever
– Confusion
– Dizziness
– Drowsiness
– Anxiety
– Emotional blunting
– Sexual dysfunction
– Weight gain
– Restlessness
– And many more!

Examples sometimes still used today are:
– Elavil
– Asendin
– Sinequan
– Tofranil
– Pamelor
– Surmontil

MAOIs (Monoamine oxidase inhibitors)

When SSRIs and Tricyclic antidepressants fail, MAOIs are often called in. They are better at treating atypical depression, but are dangerous. They have bad withdrawal symptoms and very grave side effects. They are potentially lethal. Many psychiatrists will not prescribe these because of the risks. Instead, they turn to off-label treatments.

Many naturally occurring substances in the body (serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine) and reuptake inhibitors and releasers may cause MAOIs to spike dangerously.

Why an alternative is needed

These drugs do not respond to many cases of depression. Furthermore, people often experience horrible side effects, are made worse, or develop addictions. Even when the drugs work, patients can only stay on them for so long because of the tolerance that is built, long-term harm done, and the awful withdrawal symptoms.
Sometimes doctors turn to off-label drugs.

Some examples are narcotics, Ritalin, benzodiazepines, and Tramadol.

The Promise of Tramadol

This is a popular off-label treatment already because of a wealth of evidence that it really works for many cases of depression, even the severe kind that do not respond to other treatments. There are several properties that make it an ideal drug for depression treatment, and ongoing studies are turning up positive results.

Properties:
– Serotonin releasing agent
– Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor
– NMDA receptor antagonist
– TRPV1 receptor agonist
– And many more

Trials

So far, trials have shown that Tramadol provides immediate relief in 100% of severe refractory depression cases. It is less addictive than other alternatives, and while you can build tolerance, you can quit for a few days and then start again anew.

We are all used to the idea of physical therapy. Someone with bulges in all the right places comes along and massages, manipulates, and generally pummels us until the WWF referee decides that’s the best of three submissions, and the pain stops. Yes, that’s right. The research evidence confirms that almost all the forms of physical therapy, both medically approved and “alternative”, do produce real improvements in the health and mobility of the patients. In part, this may be the placebo effect, i.e. you believe all this effort is having a good effect so you feel better. No matter what the reason, the fact most people do feel better after physical therapy is a good result. But physical therapy is now being placed into a broader framework which we are calling pain management. There are going to be times when you may benefit from guided exercises to rebuild strength and encourage mobility, or feel joints eased after manipulation. Equally, there may be times when you just need someone to sit down with you and talk.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is now widely used in Europe and is occasionally available for private patients in the larger US cities. This starts with the “cognitive” element. The medical research provides good quality evidence that we all respond better to treatment if we understand all the medical stuff involved. So the therapy starts with a question and answer session to bring everyone up to speed on the nature of the pain, what’s likely to be causing it, how the treatment to date has attempted to help, and so on. Once you understand the extent of the problem, the discussion moves on to the strategy for improving your quality of life.

This is the “behavior” element. Let’s say you have difficulty walking, the therapist will start off with practical suggestions on how you might redesign your home to make everything more easily accessible, how you might organize work, and what physical therapy might strengthen muscles and improve mobility. Everything is aimed at giving you practical hints and tips for immediate use. The idea is that you change your activities around to make the best of your limited ability to move. By optimizing your physical resources, you get a better quality of life. The therapist may come to your home or visit your workplace to talk you through how best to implement the suggestions.

Overall, the intention is that, within a limited number of meetings with the therapist, you learn the basics of how to get the best out of life. The expectation is that, wherever possible, you will turn your life around without the help of Ultram or any of the other painkillers. These drugs are not cheap and, over months or years of use, the bill soon mounts up. CBT may be a more expensive initial payment, but if you can learn how to cope without Ultram as a regular drain on your finances, this is a big saving over your lifetime. This does not deny you the freedom to take the painkiller should pain flare up. But the hope is to keep the need to the absolute minimum.

There is yet another of those disconnections between the Europeans and our own medical profession. You would always hope that doctors would be doctors no matter where they were in practice. Yet even when you put aside Sarah Palin’s paranoid allegations about European hospitals as death camps, there are a number of key disagreements between the two groups of professions. The one we should be most worried about is that the European insistence on evidence-based practice is rejected in the US.

In the US, the FDA licenses drugs or medical devices, and then leaves it to the market to decide how it should all be used. The Europeans believe that all treatments and therapies should be tested. If there is no evidence a particular approach is effective, the national or international regulator issues a directive. The effect is to deny this treatment funding from the public purse. It’s always open to individuals to have their own private health insurance cover non-approved treatments, or they can pay for it out of their own pockets. In the US, doctors can decide to do whatever they like with what’s available. All they care about is whether they can charge patients for the treatment. Obviously, it’s bad for business if too many patients die, but this can usually be hushed up. Unlike Europe, American hospitals do not publish survival and death rates by department. In a perfect world, you would always have access to this information before deciding whether to trust a hospital.

Anyway, the latest disconnection covers Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This is increasingly routine in Europe but still rare in the US. This is explained by the relative costs. One specialist doctor sees a given number of billable patients an hour. A CBT specialist may spend an hour with one patient deciding how best to treat him or her. One-to-one therapy is considered the most effective. Every major piece of published research confirms CBT as more effective than standard medical approaches to treatment. So the fact you may spend more money today on one patient today means you may not need to treat that patient again for months or years. Now you understand why this is not popular in the US.

“Cognitive” means you teach the patient about the physical and emotional problems. Control over pain comes from understanding more about it. The “behavioral” means you look carefully at how the patient moves when performing basic tasks. The “therapy” then devises better ways of performing those routine tasks. It teaches basic coping strategies so you move within the physical limitations with less pain. Exercises and activities are designed to improve your general mobility. Joints are eased and muscles toned up. The idea is to give you a mixture of physical strategies and relaxation techniques to give you control over the pain and the emotions associated with it. This does not deny a place for Tramadol and the other painkillers. But with longer use, there’s a real risk of dependence. You can keep a small supply of Tramadol to hand just in case the pain unexpectedly grows more intense. Otherwise, CBT teaches you to live without reliance on routine medication.

If you’re suffering from pan then even the simplest everyday tasks turn into a real challenge and can even make the pain worse. Some people manage to handle pain and live with it, but it’s a sure way to reduce the overall quality of life in a very short time. The most popular solution is of course taking painkiller medications, but as millions of Americans use these drugs on a regular basis there are frequent complaints about side effects these substances deliver. However, there’s also a group of people who revert to using natural pain relief methods advocating their safety and effectiveness.

In case if pain has become an ordinary challenge in your life, you should seriously think about using natural pain relief solutions in order to get rid of it. There are some questions that are commonly asked about natural pain relief, so reading the answers might give you a better idea of where to start with natural pain relief as alternative to typical drugs like Tramadol.

1. In what forms are natural pain relief solutions available?

Many natural pain relief solutions come in the traditional form of oral pills and tablets, similar in shape to typical painkillers like Tramadol but composed only from natural ingredients. Topical solutions are also available in the form of cremes, balms, oils and gels.

2. What is the main difference between usual drugs and natural painkillers?

The only thing that is usually different is composition. The drugs you buy at the pharmacy may contain natural ingredients but are usually composed primarily of synthetic chemical substances. Natural pain relief drugs carry only herbs and plants that have been processed and molded into the shape of a pill.

3. Where such drugs can be purchased?

A large part of herbal painkiller drugs is FDA approved, meaning that you can buy them from the same sources as ordinary medications. There are also a lot of non-prescription medications available through the Internet, which has become quite a popular platform of drug sales in the recent years.

4. Why choosing natural drugs over traditional medications?

Traditionally used synthetic medications are known for their fast response and rapidly delivered effects. But it all comes with the cost of frequent side effects that can be quite harmful, especially if the medications are used on a regular basis. Natural painkillers on the other hand are virtually free of any side effects and there’s no harm delivered when using natural pain relief agents.

5. Why using painkillers at all?

Sure, some of us can cope with pain perfectly, managing to perform daily activities without being seriously affected by pain. But pain is one of the leading causes for the decrease in quality of life and it can seriously affect any of your activities, especially if experienced on a regular basis. Painkillers help cope with pain and get adequate treatment of the underlying conditions without the bitter effects of pain.

6. Should I consult with my doctor before using natural pain relief?

As in the case of using any medication, both prescription and non-prescription, it is highly recommended to consult with your physician before using natural pain relief. Sure, these drugs are generally safe but only a professional physician can set the right dosage and recommend a specific drug according to your individual health condition.