Erectile dysfunction(ED), which affects an estimated 18 million men in the US alone, is the inability of a man to maintain a firm erection long enough to have sex.

It is a problem more commonly associated with older men, but it can occur at any age. This problem, if ongoing and left untreated, can cause stress, affect self-esteem and cause relationship problems.

The FDA has approved three drugs namely, Cialis, levitra, and viagra to treat erectile dysfunction. They all work by increasing the flow of blood into the penis so that when a man is sexually stimulated, he can get an erection.

These drugs, though effective in treating ED, must be taken with caution because there are certain situations in which these drugs may not be safe to take. For example if you taking alpha-blockers for blood pressure or prostate problems, the combination of Cialis or Levitra with these drugs can also cause dangerously low blood pressure.

Recently the FDA approved once-daily use of Cialis in a dose of 5 milligrams or a new 2.5-milligram dose for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). In a news release from Eli Lilly and Company, which makes Cialis, the once-daily Cialis "may be most appropriate for men with ED who anticipate more frequent sexual activity (e.g. twice weekly)."

For those who are embarrassed about getting products to help with their ED problem from their doctor, there are online pharmacies, like eDrugstore.MD, that sell genuine FDA approved drugs dispensed by a licensed US pharmacist and for much lower prices.

There is no reason to not do something about your ED problem anymore.

The following is a press release from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College. I think it is quite exciting that type 2 diabetes may be treated with intestinal surgery.

NEW YORK – Growing evidence shows that surgery may effectively cure type 2 diabetes – an approach that not only may change the way the disease is treated, but that introduces a new way of thinking about diabetes.

A new article, published in a special supplement to the February issue of Diabetes Care by a leading expert in the emerging field of diabetes surgery, points to the small bowel as the possible site of critical mechanisms for the development of diabetes.

The study’s author, Dr. Francesco Rubino of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, presents scientific evidence on the mechanisms of diabetes control after surgery. Clinical studies have shown that procedures that simply restrict the stomach’s size (i.e., gastric banding) improve diabetes only by inducing massive weight loss.

By studying diabetes in animals, Dr. Rubino was the first to provide scientific evidence that gastrointestinal bypass operations involving rerouting the gastrointestinal tract (i.e., gastric bypass) can cause diabetes remission independently of any weight loss, even in subjects who are not obese.

“By answering the question of how diabetes surgery works, we may be answering the question of how diabetes itself works,” says Dr. Rubino, who is a professor in the Department of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and chief of gastrointestinal metabolic surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.


Focus on the Upper Intestine


Dr. Rubino’s prior research has shown that the primary mechanisms by which gastrointestinal bypass procedures control diabetes specifically rely on the bypass of the upper small intestine – the duodenum and jejunum. This is a key finding that may point to the origins of diabetes.

“When we bypass the duodenum and jejunum, we are bypassing what may be the source of the problem,” says Dr. Rubino, who is heading up NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell's Diabetes Surgery Center.

In fact, it has become increasingly evident that the gastrointestinal tract plays an important role in energy regulation, and that many gut hormones are involved in the regulation of sugar metabolism. “It should not surprise anyone that surgically altering the bowel’s anatomy affects the mechanisms that regulate blood sugar levels, eventually influencing diabetes,” Dr. Rubino says.

While other gastrointestinal operations may cure diabetes as an effect of changes that improve blood sugar levels, Dr. Rubino’s research findings in animals show that procedures based on a bypass of the upper intestine may work instead by reversing abnormalities of blood glucose regulation.

In fact, bypass of the upper small intestine does not improve the ability of the body to regulate blood sugar levels. “When performed in subjects who are not diabetic, the bypass of the upper intestine may even impair the mechanisms that regulate blood levels of glucose,” says Dr. Rubino. In striking contrast, when nutrients’ passage is diverted from the upper intestine of diabetic patients, diabetes resolves.

This, he explains, implies that the upper intestine of diabetic patients may be the site where an abnormal signal is produced, causing, or at least favoring, the development of the disease.


A Theoretical Explanation


How exactly the upper intestine is dysfunctional remains to be seen. Dr. Rubino proposes an original explanation known in the scientific community as the “anti-incretin theory.”

Incretins are gastrointestinal hormones, produced in response to the transit of nutrients, that boost insulin production. Because an excess of insulin can determine hypoglycemia – a life-threatening condition – Dr. Rubino speculates that the body has a counter-regulatory mechanism (or “anti-incretin” mechanism), activated by the same passage of nutrients through the upper intestine. The latter mechanism would act to decrease both the secretion and the action of insulin.

“In healthy patients, a correct balance between incretin and anti-incretin factors maintains normal excursions of sugar levels in the bloodstream,” he explains. “In some individuals, the duodenum and jejunum may be producing too much of this anti-incretin, thereby reducing insulin secretion and blocking the action of insulin, ultimately resulting in type 2 diabetes.”

Indeed, in type 2 diabetes, cells are resistant to the action of insulin and the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin to overcome the resistance.

After gastrointestinal bypass procedures, the exclusion of the upper small intestine from the transit of nutrients may offset the abnormal production of anti-incretin, thereby resulting in remission of diabetes.


A Call for Research


In order to better understand these mechanisms, and help make the potential benefits of diabetes surgery more widely available, Dr. Rubino calls for prioritizing research in diabetes surgery. “Further research on the exact molecular mechanisms of diabetes, surgical control of diabetes and the role played by the bowel in the disease may bring us closer to the cause of diabetes.”

Today, most patients with diabetes are not offered a surgical option, and bariatric surgery is recommended only for those with severe obesity – a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 35.

“It has become clear, however, that BMI cut-offs can no longer be used to determine who is an ideal candidate for surgical treatment of diabetes,” says Dr. Rubino.

“There is, in fact, growing evidence that diabetes surgery can be effective even for patients who are only slightly obese or just overweight. Clinical trials in this field are therefore a priority as they allow us to compare diabetes surgery to other treatment options in the attempt to understand when the benefits of surgery outweigh its risks. Clinical guidelines for diabetes surgery will certainly be different from those for bariatric surgery, and should not be based only on BMI levels,” he notes.

“The lesson we have learned with diabetes surgery is that diabetes is not always a chronic and relentless disease, where the only possible treatment goal is just the control of hyperglycemia and minimization of the risk of complications. Gastrointestinal surgery offers the possibility of complete disease remission. This is a major shift in the way we consider treatment goals for diabetes. It is unprecedented in the history of the disease,” adds Dr. Rubino.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all cases of diabetes, and is a growing epidemic that afflicts more than 200 million people worldwide.

Remember the fuss about David Beckham's "boyzilian" in an underwear advert? Or Frank Lampard's waxed armpits? Well, the male beauty regime is about to get a whole lot more complicated. Last week Harvey Nichols launched Jean Paul Gaultier's new make-up range for men. Monsieur – a range of 17 products for men, which includes bronzers, a brow pencil and eyeliner – is the latest part of a rapidly expanding male grooming industry.

A spokeswoman for the Knightsbridge store said on Friday that Monsieur was proving popular with "fashion-conscious straight men to metrosexual and gay men. In general there has been a great boost in male grooming products, and men's make-up is a natural extension of this trend." She added: "Many men already borrow their girlfriends' products."

The men's toiletry market was worth an estimated £806m in the UK last year, up from £639m since 2002.

[..]

Mr Kynaston sounds a note of caution for men considering lip gloss and an application of "guyliner": "I'm a big advocate that grooming should be invisible with men. Does the average woman want a guy to wear more make-up than her? Men still want to be men, and women want men to look like men." However, he added: "No one would have predicted hair removal to explode as it did. Who knows what's next?"

The rest of the story here.

I don't know about you, but the idea of men wearing makeup just makes me think of the word "sissified"!

I mean I am not against men using products to keep their face clear and clean and using a concealer to cover some acne break outs. I think even men need to go for a facial now and then. But I draw the line at men wearing eye-liners, mascara and face powder even when the face powder is called bronzers!

I don't even like the make-up the male TV news anchors or TV personalities have to wear to be on TV, because to me some looked like a mortician had done their make-up!

I prefer my men to still look like men, and not a primped up one!

I wrote earlier about my experiences with night sweats and how those night sweats were related to my peri-menopausal condition. What I totally forgot about was the fact that flaxseed oil has been found to be quite effective in controlling hot flashes.

I have a big bottle of flaxseed oil that I bought from my favorite online supplement store quite some time ago. Naturally when I remembered what flaxseed oil can do to hot flashes, I quickly took one capsule before I went to bed last night. I don't know if the fact that I didn't feel hot last night had anything to do with the capsule I had taken before bed time! But what I do know was that I felt cold even before I went to bed and continued to feel cold all night long! Haha, I even had to turn on my electric blanket!

But then again, I don't feel hot and sweat every night. Maybe every other day or something like that, but I do hope that once I start taking the flaxseed oil regularly again I will feel much better and not feel hot all of a sudden and then feel cold some time during the night.

A friend told me that her transition to post menopausal was very smooth. Two years before she became menopausal she had started taking evening primrose oil, and she attributed that fact to her smooth transition. I have never heard her complain about hot flashes or felt any different and I believe that the evening primrose oil was the reason for it.

Thank goodness that there is something we can do that can help our hot flashes!

Last night I talked on the phone with a good friend from Malaysia. She has a family history of diabetes and therefore I wasn't surprised when she told me she had just been diagnosed with diabetes.

She discovered her condition when she visited her doctor about frequent dizzy spells. It turned out that the dizziness was actually caused by her vision. The blood vessels in her eyes had started to bleed a little.

After tests confirmed that she was diabetic, she was immediately put on oral diabetic medication. Despite the medication, her fasting blood sugar is till a little higher than normal.

Having been diagnosed with prediabetes myself, I naturally have some experiences with controlling my blood sugar through diet and exercise. I offered my friend some tips on how to get her blood fasting sugar to normal level.

I will be in Malaysia before the end of this month and I am thinking about bringing some of my diabetic recipe books for her, and some food supplements that can help with lowering blood sugar levels.

I am quite concerned about her condition because her older sister is also a diabetic and her blood sugar level is consistently high even with medication.

The key to keeping your blood sugar levels under control is diet and exercise. I am fully convinced of that fact.

Not too long ago, I made references on this blog to a product called ethocyn which is a skin-rejuvenating molecule developed and produced by Chantal Pharmaceuticals.

Chantal Burnison, a chemist, biologist and lawyer, developed the ethocyn molecule initially to reduce the appearance of scars, but soon discovered that the molecule was effective in the production of elastic fibers which could also be used to reduce wrinkles and fine lines.

I think it is exciting that there are beauty products in the market that have been proven effective in clinical trials to reduce wrinkles and fine lines. I think it is time I seriously do something about the sagging I have noticed on my face.

Time for some beauty products with ethocyn to counter the loss of elasticity in my facial skin!

I was checking out 2008 makeup trends when I came across two videos called The Makeup Gourmet hosted by makeup artist, Chris Scott. Wow, I liked what I saw! I did not realize that there are several makeup videos on YouTube!

Incidentally, the 2008 spring makeup colors are lilac eye colors and blue. Other 2008 spring makeup trends include soft light cat eyes, nude lips, pastel eyeshadows, colorful eyeshadows, and red lips.

Check out the following videos. Chris Scott shows how to do Asian Eyes, even if you are not.

Last Monday, I was in a car for seven hours. With a few breaks along the way of course.

It is amazing how stiff you can get sitting for that long! Not to mention bored! Anyway, after that long road trip I feel my hip acting up a little. Previously, I had thought the pain in my hip had something to do with my kidney stones. Now, I think that is not the case at all. I think the pain had more to do with the mattress I was sleeping on. Ever since I got myself a new mattress the pain is gone except for a slight stiffness from that long road trip.

I had an ultra sound done to see if the kidney stones could be detected but none was detected. The radiologist told me that an ultra sound is not the best way to detect kidney stones. I am pretty convinced that I do have stones because of the occasional dull aches on my left back.

Anyway, the best way to get rid of stones is to drink lots of water, unless of course the stones are too big to be passed out naturally! Not a pleasant thought, at all!

One of my close friends was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Can you imagine how tough it would have been for her if she did not happen to have Health Insurance? The health insurance she had allowed her to have surgery very soon after the lump in one of her breasts was discovered to have been cancerous. And it also allowed her to have follow-up treatments to help her recover completely from the cancer.

Many people go without health insurance because they can't afford it. But there are many health plans that are pretty affordable if anyone cares to search around and Compare Insurance plans that are available out there.

Sites like OnlyInsurance.com are useful in that you can Compare Life Insurance and choose one that best fits your budget and the kind of coverage you need. There are plans that cover you for as little as £3 a month. There is also a section on the site called Money Saving Tips to guide you on choosing the best life insurance coverage for yourself or your family.

At OnlyInsurance.com you can also compare car, travel, home, health, and vehicle insurance plans. You do not have to settle for the first offer you come across. Choose and compare and settle for the best one that meets your budget and needs.