How do I know if I have Erectile Dysfunction (ED)?

If you are unable to attain or maintain an erection suitable for intercourse, you could have some form of Erectile Dysfunction (ED).

If I have tried injection therapy or Viagra and they didn’t work, will Vacuum Therapy work for me?

Yes! Vacuum Therapy can work for you. Several medical studies have shown that Vacuum Therapy is a success for over 90% of men with Erectile Dysfunction and will produce an erection sufficient for intercourse.  

Will Vacuum Therapy work for me if I am a Diabetic?

In most cases yes it will. Erectile Dysfunction is very common among males that are diabetic, up to 66% of men with diabetes will show some form of Impotence. Vacuum Therapy is safe to use for diabetics and is an excellent treatment option since ED medications such as Levitra, Cialis or Viagra are proven to be less effective for men with diabetes.

Will vacuum therapy work if I have had Prostate Cancer Surgery?

Vacuum Therapy is often used by Urologists as a proven therapy to restore potency following Radical Prostatectomy Surgery.

Will this system work if I have heart problems or if I am on blood thinning medication?

Yes, using vacuum therapy does not affect the heart rate like some medications do. Vacuum therapy systems will work for almost all users that need it.

How does Vacuum Therapy work?

Vacuum Therapy works by creating a vacuum seal that effectively creates the necessary blood flow in the penis to create a satisfactory erection. It takes 30 seconds to 1 minute to effectively create an erection. After an erection is achieved, a retaining ring is placed at the base of the penis to hold the blood in the corpus cavernosa, the area that fills with blood, maintaining the erection.

How long do you wear the Retaining Ring?

The Retaining Ring should be worn for no more than 30 minutes. After the ring is removed, please wait 1 hour before creating another erection.

What if I’m not able to achieve a full erection the first time I use a VTD?

Practice sessions may be necessary to achieve a satisfactory erection if it has been awhile since you have good potency.

Is there an age limit to using Vacuum Therapy?

No, there is no age limit as Vacuum Therapy work  regardless of your age.

What is the benefit of the Penile Foam Sleeve?

It improves the comfort level while using the pump. Plus the constriction rings are easier to remove. The flattened base of the sleeve is positioned against the users body, providing an excellent seal. It can be worn during intercourse with no discomfort to the male or female partner.

What is the PRELUDE?

The prelude is a simple effective device for the exercising the penis which empowers the user to participate in his recovery and restoration of penile function. Consider that the penis is like every part of the human body, requires exercise to stay healthy and preform the intercourse. Men losing erectile function due to surgery, disease, diabetes, or medication often experience loss of penile length. The PRELUDE is a therapeutic device and NOT designed to create an erect penis capable of penetration for intercourse.

What is a penile sleeve?

Our penile sleeves are made from high quality foam that can be used with with just about every vacuum therapy device. They come in three different sizes and and two color options as well as the standard and extended sleeve.

Why would I use a penile foam sleeve?

A penile foam sleeve can provide a consistent and quality seal for vacuum therapy devices. The soft foam sleeve is worn during intercourse with no discomfort to either partner. With the sleeves  most feel a higher comfort level while using tension rings.

According to 2011 National Center for Health Data statistics, almost one in three Americans has vitamin D blood levels below 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml), the threshold that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) says is needed for good bone health. Some experts say even higher levels are needed.

Figuring out all the factors that can affect a person’s vitamin D levels is complicated. You can get the vitamin from food (mainly because it’s been added; few foods are natural sources of vitamin D) and by taking supplements (many doctors recommend taking 800 IU of vitamin D3 a day).

But vitamin D is also produced by the body in a complex process that starts when rays in the invisible ultraviolet B (UVB) part of the light spectrum are absorbed by the skin. The liver, and then the kidneys, are involved in the steps that eventually result in a bioavailable form of the vitamin that the body can use.

A review paper about the many factors influencing a person’s vitamin D levels appeared in 2011 in Acta Dermato-Venerologica, a Swedish medical journal. Here are nine interesting factors identified in the paper:

1. The latitude where you live. At higher latitudes, the amount of vitamin D–producing UVB light reaching the earth’s surface goes down in the winter because of the low angle of the sun. In Boston, for example, little if any of the vitamin is produced in people’s skin tissue from November through February. Short days and clothing that covers legs and arms also limit UVB exposure.

2. The air pollution where you live. Carbon particulates in the air from the burning of fossil fuels, wood, and other materials scatter and absorb UVB rays. Ozone absorbs UVB radiation, so holes in the ozone layer could be a pollution problem that winds up enhancing vitamin D levels.

3. Your use of sunscreen — in theory. Sunscreen prevents sunburn by blocking UVB light, so theoretically, sunscreen use lowers vitamin D levels. But as a practical matter, very few people put on enough sunscreen to block all UVB light, or they use sunscreen irregularly, so sunscreen’s effects on our vitamin D levels might not be that important. An Australian study that’s often cited showed no difference in vitamin D between adults randomly assigned to use sunscreen one summer and those assigned a placebo cream.

4. The color of your skin. Melanin is the substance in skin that makes it dark. It “competes” for UVB with the substance in the skin that kick-starts the body’s vitamin D production. As a result, dark-skinned people tend to require more UVB exposure than light-skinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D.

5. The temperature of your skin. Warm skin is a more efficient producer of vitamin D than cool skin. So, on a sunny, hot summer day, you’ll make more vitamin D than on a cool one.

6. Your weight. Fat tissue sops up vitamin D, so it’s been proposed that it might be a vitamin D rainy-day fund: a source of the vitamin when intake is low or production is reduced. But studies have also shown that being obese is correlated with low vitamin D levels and that being overweight may affect the bioavailability of vitamin D.

7. Your age. Compared with younger people, older people have lower levels of the substance in the skin that UVB light converts into the vitamin D precursor, and there’s experimental evidence that older people are less efficient vitamin D producers than younger people. Yet the National Center for Health Statistics data on vitamin D levels fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that vitamin D inadequacy is a big problem among older people. They don’t show a major drop-off in levels between middle-aged people and older folks.

8. The health of your gut. The vitamin D that is consumed in food or as a supplement is absorbed in the part of the small intestine immediately downstream from the stomach. Stomach juices, pancreatic secretions, bile from the liver, the integrity of the wall of the intestine — they all have some influence on how much of the vitamin is absorbed. Therefore, conditions that affect the gut and digestion, like celiac disease, chronic pancreatitis, Crohn’s disease, and cystic fibrosis, can reduce vitamin D absorption.

9. The health of your liver and kidneys. Some types of liver disease can reduce absorption of vitamin D because the ailing liver isn’t producing normal amounts of bile. With other types, steps essential to vitamin D metabolism can’t occur — or occur incompletely. Levels of the bioactive form of vitamin D tend to track with the health of the kidneys, so in someone with kidney disease, bioactive vitamin D levels decrease as the disease gets worse, and in end-stage kidney disease, the level is undetectable.

Sulforaphane, one of the primary phytochemicals in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables that helps them prevent cancer, has been shown for the first time to selectively target and kill cancer cells while leaving normal prostate cells healthy and unaffected.

The findings, made by scientists in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, are another important step forward for the potential use of sulforaphane in cancer prevention and treatment. Clinical prevention trials are already under way for its use in these areas, particularly prostate and breast cancer.

It appears that sulforaphane, which is found at fairly high levels in broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables, is an inhibitor of histone deacetylase, or HDAC enzymes. HDAC inhibition is one of the more promising fields of cancer treatment and is being targeted from both a pharmaceutical and dietary approach, scientists say.

“It’s important to demonstrate that sulforaphane is safe if we propose to use it in cancer prevention or therapies,” said Emily Ho, a principal investigator in the Linus Pauling Institute, lead author on the study and associate professor in the OSU Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences.

“Just because a phytochemical or nutrient is found in food doesn’t always mean its safe, and a lot can also depend on the form or levels consumed,” Ho said. “But this does appear to be a phytochemical that can selectively kill cancer cells, and that’s always what you look for in cancer therapies.”

The findings were published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, a professional journal. Research was supported by the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the OSU Agricultural Experiment Station.

The Linus Pauling Institute has conducted some of the leading studies on sulforaphane’s role as an HDAC inhibitor – one, but not all, of the mechanisms by which it may help prevent cancer. HDACs are a family of enzymes that, among other things, affect access to DNA and play a role in whether certain genes are expressed or not, such as tumor suppressor genes.

Some of the mechanisms that help prevent inappropriate cell growth – the hallmark of cancer – are circumvented in cancer cells. HDAC inhibitors can help “turn on” these silenced genes and restore normal cellular function.

Previous OSU studies done with mouse models showed that prostate tumor growth was slowed by a diet containing sulforaphane.

“It is well documented that sulforaphane can target cancer cells through multiple chemopreventive mechanisms,” the researchers wrote in their study. “Here we show for the first time that sulforaphane selectively targets benign hyperplasia cells and cancerous prostate cells while leaving the normal prostate cells unaffected.”

“These findings regarding the relative safety of sulforaphane to normal tissues have significant clinical relevance as the use of sulforaphane moves towards use in human clinical trials,” they said.

The results also suggest that consumption of sulforaphane-rich foods should be non-toxic, safe, simple and affordable.

In a surprising finding, vitamin C is found to prolong proper functioning of retinal cells

Portland, Ore. — Nerve cells in the eye require vitamin C in order to function properly — a surprising discovery that may mean vitamin C is required elsewhere in the brain for its proper functioning, according to a study by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience

“We found that cells in the retina need to be ‘bathed’ in relatively high doses of vitamin C, inside and out, to function properly,” said Henrique von Gersdorff, Ph.D., a senior scientist at OHSU’s Vollum Institute and a co-author of the study. “Because the retina is part of the central nervous system, this suggests there’s likely an important role for vitamin C throughout our brains, to a degree we had not realized before.”

The brain has special receptors, called GABA-type receptors, that help modulate the rapid communication between cells in the brain. GABA receptors in the brain act as an inhibitory “brake” on excitatory neurons in the brain. The OHSU researchers found that these GABA-type receptors in the retinal cells stopped functioning properly when vitamin C was removed.

Because retinal cells are a kind of very accessible brain cell, it’s likely that GABA receptors elsewhere in the brain also require vitamin C to function properly, von Gersdorff said. And because vitamin C is a major natural antioxidant, it may be that it essentially ‘preserves’ the receptors and cells from premature breakdown, von Gersdorff said.

The function of vitamin C in the brain is not well understood. In fact, when the human body is deprived of vitamin C, the vitamin stays in the brain longer than anyplace else in the body. “Perhaps the brain is the last place you want to lose vitamin C,” von Gersdorff said. The findings also may offer a clue as to why scurvy — which results from a severe lack of vitamin C — acts the way it does, von Gersdorff said. One of the common symptoms of scurvy is depression, and that may come from the lack of vitamin C in the brain.

The findings could have implications for other diseases, like glaucoma and epilepsy. Both conditions are caused by the dysfunction of nerve cells in the retina and brain that become over excited in part because GABA receptors may not be functioning properly.

“For example, maybe a vitamin C-rich diet could be neuroprotective for the retina — for people who are especially prone to glaucoma,” von Gersdorff said. “This is speculative and there is much to learn. But this research provides some important insights and will lead to the generation of new hypotheses and potential treatment strategies.”

Is Nutraceuticals just a fancy name for the same vitamins you can buy at the discount stores? No—and let me explain why.

Your body uses vitamins for a variety of biological processes, including growth, digestion and nerve function. There are 13 vitamins that the body absolutely needs: vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and the B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folate).

There are two categories of vitamins.

• Water-soluble vitamins are easily absorbed by the body, which doesn’t store large amounts. The kidneys remove those vitamins that are not needed.
• Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed into the body with the use of bile acids, which are fluids used to absorb fat. The body stores these for use as needed.

Let’s talk about the word vitamin. Derived from the Latin word for life, vitamins are vital for our bodies to function properly—that’s what the term essential vitamins and minerals means. Many  people believe that all the vitamins we need can be obtained in food. While this could theoretically happen, most meals we eat would have to be altered dramatically by adding many, many more healthy vegetables, fruits and fiber and many fewer poor food choices, like sugar in any form, trans-fats, empty-calorie foods, etc.

With the evolution of agriculture, many studies have proven that the vitamin and mineral content in our food chain has decreased. The veggies we have today are not of the same quality that our great-grandparents enjoyed.

So now that our bodies need supplements for better health, we need to figure out how the body can best use the tools we give  it to maximize its function.

Fox example, there’s iron:

And then there’s iron:

Which form will be the highest and best for the body to assimilate? Your body has to recognize what it takes in as food. Minerals are particularly hard to absorb, so the intestine must know that what you are consuming is actually a usable form of food. This is the definition of Nutraceuticals, vitamins developed under the guidelines of GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices as defined by the FDA) and designed to be used most effectively by the body, with no fillers or additives that the body can’t process.

You are not only getting the highest pharmaceutical grade of dietary supplements, but you know that the body is getting to use every bit of the essential vitamin or mineral that you are taking. In the long run, this can be the most cost effective way to help you reach your health and wellness goals. 



Hope this helps.

How does menopause affect women with type 2 diabetes? Find out about the extra care needed to help you sail through this transition.

Menopause is a topic that often generates a lot of opinions from women — those who welcome it and those who dread it. There’s also a lot of discussion about whether it’s something that should be “treated” or left to occur naturally, without any medications.

For some women, menopause is more than just the end of their child-bearing years. It can have a profound effect on chronic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes. Women with diabetes often have to be more aware of the changes than most other women.

Changes Within “the Change”

If you usually ovulate every 28 days or so, you may have wide variations as you approach menopause. You may have cycles that go 40 days or longer between periods and at other times find that your periods come only a couple of weeks apart. While this is happening, the levels of your hormones, estrogen and progesterone, are changing quite a bit, too. These hormonal changes can affect your blood glucose levels, which for women with type 2 diabetes could cause problems.

To avoid complications from type 2 diabetes, it’s essential to keep your blood glucose levels as even as possible — something that can be tricky during menopause.

Recognizing Menopause Symptoms

Some symptoms of menopause could be confused with signs of too high or too low blood glucose, including dizziness, sweating, and irritability. With symptoms being so similar, it may be hard for a woman to tell which is which. Rather than guessing, you should check your blood glucose levels when you’re experiencing these signs. If the symptoms persist or get more uncomfortable, try talking to your doctor about treatment options.

Women with type 2 diabetes who are overweight may undergo menopause later than their type 1 diabetes peers. It’s been found that estrogen levels in women who are overweight drop more slowly than those who are underweight or of normal weight.

At the Onset

Menopause is also a time when women who didn’t know they had type 2 diabetes may first be diagnosed with it. Brian Tulloch, MD, an endocrinologist at Park Plaza Hospital and Medical Center and clinical associate professor at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, explains, “The biggest issue here is with certain minorities who have a three- to five-fold higher chances of having type 2 diabetes.” Hispanics, for example, have a higher rate of diabetes than whites, he says. Add to this higher genetic risk the frequency of obesity and the decline of physical activity, and you see why so many women are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes as they begin the onset of menopause.

Health Complications

Women with type 2 diabetes who have gone through menopause may no longer have wild hormonal swings affecting blood glucose levels, but they do have other health issues to keep in mind. They are at higher risk of developing atherosclerosis, the hardening and thickening of the artery walls that can lead to stroke or heart attack. Weight gain after menopause isn’t unusual, but it seems to be more common among women with type 2 diabetes. This adds to the risk of heart disease.

With menopause and a more sedentary lifestyle comes another risk: osteoporosis, the bone-thinning disease. While women with type 2 diabetes aren’t at as high a risk of osteoporosis as those with type 1 diabetes, they do have a higher risk of breaking bones than a menopausal woman who does not have diabetes.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), or hormone therapy, after menopause remains a controversial topic, but could be an option for women with type 2 diabetes who are experiencing difficult menopause signs and having trouble keeping their blood glucose under control.

Studies on HRT safety after menopause have conflicting results, but some doctors seem to be coming around to favoring hormone use again, albeit in a more careful manner. Says Dr. Tulloch, “There’s now a tendency to go against what was believed five years ago, when [the Women’s Health Initiative study of post-menopausal hormone use] suggested post-menopausal estrogen wasn’t such a good idea. I think the pendulum has swung back the other way.”

However, not all doctors agree with this. The general consensus is that a woman should begin HRT only if her symptoms, such as hot flashes, are severe and can’t be managed any other way. If a woman chooses not to go on HRT, she should discuss her diabetes medication with her doctor, as she may need a lower dose than she was on before menopause. Be sure to discuss your individual situation with your own doctor to come to the best course for your well-being.

Menopause involves change for every woman; working with your medical team at this important life passage will help you make the healthiest transition.

This section created and produced exclusively by the editorial staff of EverydayHealth.com. © 2011 EverydayHealth.com; all rights reserved.

Read the original article “Menopause and Type 2 Diabetes” at everydayhealth.com

What you eat, what you wear, and even how much you sleep can lead to a yeast infection.

Want to cut your chances of developing a yeast infection? Doctors say modifying some everyday habits can alleviate yeast infection symptoms and reduce the odds you will have a vaginal infection. “Many women don’t realize they have the ability to reduce their chances of developing a yeast infection,” says Robert Goldfarb, MD, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital in West Bloomfield, Mich.

If you’ve had more than two yeast infections in a year, consider making a few of these lifestyle changes to cut your chances of developing another one.

Control Your Sweet Tooth

A diet rich in refined carbohydrates, such as white sugar, white flour, and white rice, including bagels, sugary sweets like cookies, cakes,  candy, and alcohol, which has a lot of sugar in it, has led some women to experience vaginal itching, odor, and other classic symptoms of a yeast infection.

The exact link between a sugar-filled diet and a yeast infection is unclear, but one theory is that elevated glucose levels in the blood make it easier for the yeast organism Candida albicans to “stick” to the vaginal cells. “Another theory is that elevated glucose levels affect the immune response of the vagina so it can’t fight off the yeast as well as it should,” says Saul Weinreb, MD, a gynecologist at Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore.

Clean Out Your Closet

Tight jeans, thongs, and underwear not made from cotton don’t allow air to circulate around your vagina. “Yeast thrives on moist, dark environments,” says Dr. Goldfarb. “And the increased moisture caused by these clothes creates the perfect environment for yeast to grow.”

If you have recurrent yeast infections, switch to cotton underwear and alternate between jeans and clothes that allow better air flow. In addition, Goldfarb suggests changing out of damp clothes immediately after working out. “And don’t spend hours in a wet or damp bathing suit after swimming,” he adds.

Sleep Soundly

Tossing and turning all night long or not getting a full eight hours of sleep can lead to a weakened immune system. “Getting a restful sleep helps your body repair itself and maintain optimal health,” says Goldfarb.

A weakened immune system can lead to higher levels of naturally occurring vaginal acidity, which lowers your vagina’s pH level, creating an environment that allows vaginal yeast to grow. “Some women aren’t able to naturally fight off yeast when their vaginal pH dips low,” says Goldfarb. “And they develop a yeast infection.”

Say Goodbye to Stress

Stress compromises your immune system. That’s why many women develop a yeast infection when they’re going through stressful, major life changes like planning a wedding, getting a divorce, facing unemployment, or moving.

To cut down your chances of a yeast infection, consider stress-reduction techniques, such as meditation, yoga, and regular exercise.

Forgo Feminine Sprays

Whether they’re scented or unscented, feminine wipes and sprays strip your vagina of bacteria — and not all bacteria need to be cleaned away. “Altering the vaginal environment with feminine sprays may cause yeast to grow because these products reduce the body’s natural bacteria that help fight yeast growth,” says Dr. Weinreb. “These products can be very irritating to the skin around the vagina, too.”

To freshen up, Goldfarb recommends skipping feminine wipes and sprays, instead opting for washing with a mild soap and warm water. “Always use a clean washcloth,” he adds.

Monitor Your Medications

A yeast infection is one of the most common side effects women experience as a result of taking certain prescription medications, including oral contraceptives, antibiotics, and steroids.

The reason birth control pills lead to women developing a yeast infection is that they increase estrogen levels in a woman’s body. “Those increased estrogen levels can increase a woman’s susceptibility to vaginal yeast,” says Weinreb. And some women are more susceptible to that excess yeast growth. While antibiotics kill bacteria that may be causing disease, they also kill “friendly” bacteria, which have antifungal properties, giving more space for yeast to grow. Steroids can lead to yeast infections because they dampen the body’s natural immune defenses.

If you develop a yeast infection while taking a certain medication, talk to your gynecologist or primary care doctor. Your doctor may be able to switch you to another medication.

Not all women will develop a yeast infection as a result of these habits. “But for women who are predisposed to yeast infections,” Goldfarb says, “making some lifestyle adjustments can greatly reduce the number of yeast infections they experience in their lifetime.”

The section created and produced exclusively by the editorial staff of EverydayHealth.com. © 2011 EverydayHealth.com; all rights reserved.

Most doctors receive little or no training on how to talk about sex with patients who have heart disease or have survived a heart attack. Their training in human sexuality is often very basic, covering anatomy, disease, and dysfunction. It is rare for them to have learned much about sexual pleasure or the psychological and interpersonal experience and importance of sex. As a result, a lot of doctors won’t initiate conversations about sex with patients and do their best to avoid being asked questions about sex. This is particularly problematic when it comes to heart disease, a condition where one of the biggest obstacles to sex is getting accurate information.

It’s also frustrating because if you or someone you’re having sex with has heart disease or has had a heart attack, the doctor who is treating the condition is the best person to help you figure out when and how you can begin to bring sex back into your relationship. If the doctor isn’t bringing it up, you may have to make the first move. Here are some tips on how to start a conversation with your doctor about sex and heart disease, and some questions you may want to ask.

When Do I Ask? If sexuality is important to you, in some ways it’s a good idea to let your doctor know from the outset. If you’ve been diagnosed with heart disease and/or are having scheduled surgery, you may want to let your doctor know you have questions and concerns about how your sexuality may be impacted. They may not be able to give you concrete answers, but it puts sex on the table for later, when your condition may be better understood.

Timing is important in getting your sex questions heard and answered. Try not to leave the sex questions to the end of your appointment as you have one hand on the doorknob. This increases the chance that the sex conversation will be “left for next time” and then not raised again.

Who Do I Ask? Not all health care professionals receive the same training in human sexuality, and different kinds of doctors will have different boundaries when it comes to talking about sex. If you have questions specifically about your body, your medical condition, and functional issues of sex, your family doctor, internist or cardiologist is an appropriate person to ask (even if they wish they weren’t).

If your questions are more about your partner, your sexual relationship, or how you feel about your condition, talking to a psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker, or psychotherapist is probably a better bet. If your sexual problems predate your heart condition you may also want to consider talking to a sex therapist. They may or may not know a lot about heart disease (some sex therapists have medical training, many don’t), but they specialize in sex and so won’t have any discomfort with the topic.

Prepare Some Questions. If you’re uncomfortable raising the issue of sex it can help to prepare some questions in advance. You may want to do some reading in advance. A good resource is the book Answering Your Questions About Heart Disease & Sex. Written by a cardiologist, Dr. Eduardo Chapunoff, it offers a medical overview of what is known about sex and heart disease and speaks at length to the relationship between patient and doctor. Below are a just a few of the many questions Dr. Chapunoff offers in his book as conversation starters:

• When can I start having sex again?
• Are there certain kinds of sexual activities (e.g. intercourse, oral sex, sensual touch and massage, anal sex, etc…) that I need to avoid, or that I can start doing first?
• Are certain sexual positions better than others to reduce the risk of pain or strain to my heart?
• What should I do if I feel pain or get short of breath during sex? How do I know when I need to call you, or go to an ER?
• Are any of the drugs I’m on going to impact my sexual function or feelings?
• Is it safe for me to take drugs like Viagra, Cialis, or Levitra?
• Are there specific things I should tell a partner about my condition and having sex?

You aren’t going to be able to change who your doctor is, and if they are fundamentally uncomfortable with sex you may need to get answers elsewhere. But at a minimum, your doctor should be able to offer a referral. It’s your right to get honest and direct answers to these questions, and it’s your physician’s professional responsibility to address these issues in a respectful way.

Read the original article “Talking to Your Doctor About Sex and Heart Disease.”

Sexuality is not just for the young. Results from a University of Chicago survey published in 2007 suggested that over half of Americans remain sexually active well into their 70s. That said, sexual activity does subside with age. Biological factors tug in that direction, as do social arrangements: older people, especially women, often end up single when a spouse or partner dies. But researchers at Indiana University report that 20% to 30% of long-lived Americans are sexually active into their 80s.

Sexual Activity in Older Adults

Read the original Harvard Medical Newsletter article “Sex in the Second Half of Life.”

Ever wonder if his “big O” was all a big show? Turns out, plenty of guys say they have faked an orgasm at least once. Here’s why.

If you think women are the only ones who bluff in the bedroom, think again: One in four men say they have faked an orgasm at some point in their sex lives.

Studies back up the idea that women report faking orgasms more than men do, but it’s clear that these Oscar-worthy acting performances are not limited to the female gender. What’s the deal? For both men and women, faking orgasms seems to be tied to relationship troubleshooting — namely how one is perceived during and after sex.

Men who have faked it report using a combination of moaning, vocalizations, and changes in physical movements. And there could be a number of reasons behind the act.

Why Men Fake Orgasms

If a man’s climax is all a sham, this could be why:

• To make haste with a delayed orgasm. On average, data show that men tend to take about seven minutes from penetration to climax. If a man believes he’s taking too long, he may decide it’s best to fake the orgasm and get the sexual act over with.
• To conceal premature ejaculation. Some men pretend to have an orgasm as a front for premature ejaculation, says urologist Craig Niederberger, MD, FACS, head of the department of urology at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
• To preserve his pride. For men who lose an erection during sex or sense they won’t be able to have an orgasm, it might be easier to fake the orgasm than to talk about why it didn’t occur.
• To please his partner. A man faking an orgasm might be worried that his partner is uncomfortable due to the length of intercourse. He might also be concerned that his partner will feel hurt if they stop sex before the orgasm.
• To abide by the “rules.” Some couples have a certain idea about how sexual intercourse will play out. Researchers theorize that some men can’t think of another way for sex to end other than an earth-shattering orgasm, so they end up faking it if it doesn’t happen naturally.
• To get things over with. Occasionally, men have sex with their partner for the partner’s sake — but since they aren’t really into it, they end up faking an orgasm to resolve the situation.

No More Need for Make-Believe: How to Solve the Problem

Faking an orgasm every once in a while might not be a big deal, but if it’s happening on a regular basis, it may be time to get some help. Here are some ideas:

• Talk to your doctor. There are a number of medical conditions that can cause delayed orgasm, premature ejaculation, or difficulty maintaining an erection. But according to Dr. Niederberger, delayed orgasm is something of a subjective measure. “Is it 10 minutes? Or 20 minutes? It’s really up to the man and, of course, his partner,” he says. Bottom line: If it is taking you longer to reach orgasm than you or your partner would like, it’s okay to ask for help.
• Talk to a therapist. Occasionally, faking orgasms is rooted in emotional issues. You might need a couples therapist or sex therapist to help you understand why you are having difficulty experiencing an authentic orgasm with your partner.
• Masturbate. Self-stimulation is recommended to help you discover what stimulates you. Next, share this information with your partner.
• Cut back on alcohol or illicit drugs. Men are more likely to fake an orgasm when under the influence, likely due to the fact that substance abuse affects sexual performance.
• There’s no need to feign it. Instead, get to the root of the problem — it will lead to a more satisfying sex life for both you and your partner.

Read the original article “Do Men Fake Orgasms?” on everydayhealth.com.