Study says HIV could be eliminated in a decade

LONDON – The virus that causes AIDS could theoretically be eliminated in a decade if all people living in countries with high infection rates are regularly tested and treated, according to a new mathematical model.

It is an intriguing solution to end the AIDS epidemic. But it is based on assumptions rather than data, and is riddled with logistical problems. The research was published online Tuesday in the medical journal, The Lancet.

"It's quite a startling result," said Charlie Gilks, an AIDS treatment expert at the World Health Organization and one of the paper's authors. "In a relatively short amount of time, we could potentially knock the epidemic on its head."

Gilks and colleagues used data from South Africa and Malawi. In their model, people were voluntarily tested each year and immediately given drugs if they tested positive for HIV, regardless of whether they were sick.

Within 10 years, HIV infections dropped by 95 percent. Other initiatives like safe sex education and male circumcision were also used.

The strategy would cut the estimated number of AIDS deaths between 2008 and 2050 by about half, from about 8.7 million to 3.9 million, leaving only sporadic HIV cases.

Experts think the strategy's cost would peak at about $3.4 billion a year, though expenses would fall after an initial investment.

"This is certainly beyond the bounds of the current infrastructure for many countries, but that is not a reason not to think big," said Myron Cohen, of the University of North Carolina, who has done similar research. He was not involved in the WHO study.

Only 3 million people are currently on AIDS drugs. Nearly 7 million people are still awaiting treatment, and about 3 million more people were infected last year. Worldwide, WHO guesses that about 33 million people have HIV.

Increasing access to testing and drugs would stretch already weak health systems in Africa, which has most of the world's HIV cases.

"This is not like giving someone a Tylenol," said Jennifer Kates, director of HIV policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, DC. Once people start AIDS drugs, they must continue indefinitely. "The idea should be explored, but it's a huge leap," Kates said.

Handing out AIDS drugs to everyone who tests positive could also worsen drug resistance.

In addition, doctors don't know if it's safe to take AIDS drugs for decades; the oldest drug combinations have only been around for about a dozen years.

Other experts questioned whether the strategy might infringe on patient's rights. Once people test positive for HIV, they would be advised to start treatment, even if they weren't sick.

That would benefit the community, but not necessarily the patients themselves. AIDS drugs come with side effects including vomiting, liver failure, and heart attacks.

WHO emphasized that the study findings do not signal a policy change. "This is only a theoretical exercise," said Dr. Kevin De Cock, director of WHO's HIV/AIDS department. He said WHO would hold a meeting next year to study the idea more closely.

- AP -

Drug addiction causes 65 pct of Russian HIV cases: agency

MOSCOW – Nearly two thirds of Russians with HIV contracted the virus that causes AIDS by using illegal drugs, the country's consumer rights and sanitary oversight agency said Monday.

"The taking of drugs by a parenteral means remains the main way AIDS is transmitted, representing 65 percent of cases," the Rospotrebnadzor agency said in a statement released at a Moscow press conference.

Russia has a total of 448,000 HIV cases, representing about 0.3 percent of the population, with more than 80 percent of them between the ages of 15 and 30, the agency said.

"AIDS is mainly spreading in Russia among drug addicts, while sexual transmission is the second main cause," said Alexandre Golyussov, head of AIDS prevention at the agency.

Despite prevention programmes, nearly 37,000 Russians have contracted HIV since the beginning of the year and the figure could reach 50,000 by year's end, compared with 44,713 new cases in 2007, according to Russia's federal centre for the fight against AIDS.

Russia recently condemned the spread of Afghan drug trafficking into Russian territory, accusing Kabul and international coalition forces in Afghanistan of failing to stop the illegal trade, especially in opium.

- AFP -

Fat-Sensing Hormones Might Fight Obesity

As you push your chair back from the Thanksgiving table this year, a molecule produced in the small intestine will be swarming through your bloodstream, ready to register on your brain the impact of the fat you've just consumed.

For now, the signal might keep you feeling full for a while. But, researchers are hoping that one day variations of this family of hormones -- known as N-acylphosphatidylethanolamines, or NAPEs -- can be used to control appetite and therefore obesity.

"We're excited but we have to be cautious," said Dr. Gerald Shulman, senior author of a study in rats that's published in the Nov. 26 issue of the journal Cell. "We would love to be able to take this to man tomorrow because we need effective ways to treat obesity and, right now, we have very few agents that work effectively. But we have much work to do."

Shulman is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor of internal medicine and of cellular and molecular physiology at Yale University School of Medicine.

Shulman's research team had been looking for a new, fat-derived signal that might regulate food intake. A sensitive blood-screening test -- called LC tandem mass spectrometry -- turned up the NAPE group of molecules.

Levels of NAPEs increased consistently in rats and mice that had just eaten a fatty meal. And when synthesized and re-injected into the lab rodents, NAPEs shut down the rodent's food intake, with one dose lasting 12 hours or longer. NAPEs also entered the brain, appearing to concentrate in the hypothalamus, an area with a high concentration of neurons involved in the regulation of food intake, the researchers said.

Rats receiving NAPEs chronically (through a catheter in the jugular) ate less and lost weight.

"That's what we have, a gut-derived fat that works centrally to inhibit food intake," Shulman said.

Shulman and his colleagues believe that aberrations in how NAPEs are secreted in people who eat lots of high-fat foods may contribute to obesity. "Some of our animal data suggests that NAPE secretion is dysregulated in our animal models of diet-induced obesity," Shulman said.

"We're moving up the species ladder to see if chronic NAPEs reduces food intake and is well-tolerated in non-human primates," Shulman said. "If everything there looks good, that would give us a lot of motivation to actually do trials in humans."

David Earnest, professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, said, "The NAPEs work to suppress appetite or decrease food intake, [but] feeding is a complex behavior. There are a lot of factors that figure into eating disorders. The findings are very interesting and exciting, basically because we have identified these NAPEs which are synthesized by the gut and presumably can be used in supplementary fashion to treat obesity in humans."

"Unfortunately, things don't always work out according to plan," he added. "Not to say that NAPEs don't offer hope. These are some encouraging observations."

More cash needed to help care for Indians with HIV

BANGALORE – Father Sunny Joseph has no doubts about what is required to help treat children and adults with HIV. "We need more money," he said. "We need much more, for medication especially."

The reed-thin Roman Catholic priest is administrator at Snehadaan, a community care centre located beyond the glass-fronted IT offices on the rural fringes of the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

Men and women come here for treatment they cannot get elsewhere, either through poverty, lack of medical facilities, or because their families are sick, dead, unable or too ashamed to care for them.

The iron-framed beds in the centre's scrubbed, whitewashed wards also provide a place to die with dignity.

Local facilities like Snehadaan are at the heart of India's latest five-year plan to cut infection rates, yet Joseph said budgets are tight and demand is high.

The centre receives a total of 1,350 dollars per month from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the local Karnataka Health Promotion Trust.

The Samartha Project, a five-year, 20-million-dollar US Agency for International Development (USAID) programme focusing on 12 high prevalence rural areas in Karnataka state, provides 1,200 dollars per month.

Local benefactors and the charitable trust that runs the centre also contribute.

Out of that monthly total, 1,800 to 2,000 dollars goes on drugs. The rest goes on wages and running costs.

"It's not enough," said Joseph.

Dr Nalini Mehta, national programme officer for the UNAIDS body, said India's HIV-AIDS strategy was wide-ranging and well-regarded, with a massively increased budget in recent years.

But Snehadaan's experience indicated the scale of the task, he told AFP ahead of World AIDS Day on Monday.

"There will be individual centres who will say there is not enough (money). There is scope for a lot more and I don't think that the government doesn't know that. They do understand but they are upscaling," he said.

Despite the pressures, the 42 staff at Snehadaan work to provide everything from counselling and support to palliative care for some of the 500,000 people in Karnataka with HIV and AIDS-related illnesses.

Between 2.0 million and 3.1 million people are estimated to have HIV-AIDS in India, according to the latest government estimates, and Karnataka is one of six states where prevalence is highest.

As in other areas of health care, many of the country's poorest slip through the net.

So-called "first-line" anti-retroviral therapy (ART) -- a cocktail of drugs to slow the effects of the virus on the body's immune system -- is free in India's patchy public health system.

For those whose bodies develop resistance to the drugs, second-line ART costs 14,000 rupees (280 dollars) for two months' treatment.

That puts it way beyond the means of people in impoverished rural areas where HIV is spreading and where the average salary is as little as a dollar day.

UNAIDS has expressed concern that second-line ART and paediatric treatment is "inaccessible" in most Indian states.

As a result, Snehadaan follows a similar strategy to schemes targeting high-risk groups such as sex workers and intravenous drug workers: prevention and myth-busting.

"We can see from our experience from 10 years ago that when someone died, no one from the family would take the body away. Now they take the body back to their native places," said the centre's medical trainer Madhu Babu.

"That shows that there has been some change."

Older people's views are more entrenched, he said, but children could spread a positive message.

At present, the centre has 50 beds, and 20 children aged 11 and younger live on site and receive treatment when they are not in class at the Shining Star School.

The colourful plastic climbing frames, smiling class photographs on the walls and a star-covered Christmas tree contrast with the ghostly figures lying motionless and dying in nearby wards.

The youngsters were either born with the disease, orphaned by it, or their families were unable or unwilling to care for them. Some mainstream schools also refused to teach them.

Teacher Christeena Nalini Radhamma says the scheme seems to be working.

"These children enjoy it here. As a form of punishment we say we will send you home, and they don't want to go," she said.

- AFP -

China sees sharp rise in HIV-positive gay men

BEIJING – The number of gay men in China who are HIV positive has risen sharply in the last three years, according to a survey of Chinese cities conducted by the Ministry of Health.

Men with HIV make up 4.9 percent of the gay population, up from 0.4 percent in 2005, the Xinhua news agency said Friday, citing Hao Yang, deputy director of the disease control department under the Ministry of Health.

"Sex becomes the major way of AIDS transmission in China and its spread among men having sex with men is worsening notably. I think whether we can well control AIDS transmission among gays will greatly affect the future of the whole country's battle against the epidemic," Hao said.

Heterosexual sex was still by far the most common way for HIV to spread in China, accounting for 40.4 percent of new cases in 2008. Same-sex intercourse accounted for 5.1 percent of new infections, up from 0.4 percent on 2005, and drug use accounted for 28.3 percent, according to Hao.

Xinhua did not give comparative figures for heterosexual transmission or transmission through use of injected drugs.

The survey was carried out in 61 Chinese cities on more than 18,000 gay men, said Wu Zunyou, director of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The health department surveyed gay men in three cities in 2005, and in five cities in 2006.

In one unidentified city surveyed this time, 15 percent of gay men surveyed were HIV positive, Xinhua said.

China has become more open about addressing AIDS and HIV in recent years, but embarrassment about talking directly about sex hinders frank education. Many people also avoid testing for HIV, for fear of losing their jobs or being socially ostracized.

Although homosexuality is also more tolerated, it is still taboo in many socially conservative Chinese families and cities.

By September, China reported about 260,000 HIV positive in total, among whom 77,000 had developed AIDS, and 34,000 have died.

The number of HIV-positive people increased by 50,000 in 2007, Xinhua said.

- Reuters -

AIDS cases in Asia to hit 10 mln by 2010: experts

MANILA – Cases of HIV/AIDS could hit 10 million in Asia by 2010 -- more than doubling the current estimate -- unless nations take stronger steps to control the disease, experts warned on Friday.

Meanwhile there could be 500,000 new cases each year as infection rates rise among men having sex with other men.

Some 50 million women are being endangered by the high-risk behaviour of husbands and boyfriends, said Amala Reddy, of the Joint United Nations Programme on Aids.

The new estimates were announced by officials at the unveiling of an online database on HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region.

The site, at www.aidsdatahub.org, contains information on HIV prevalence, risk behaviour and government response in various Asian countries and even in regions within these countries.

It brings all information on HIV/AIDS in Asia to one place where it can be accessed by governments, non-government organisations and researchers, the experts said at the Asia Development Bank headquarters in Manila.

Reddy conceded that the situation in the Asia-Pacific was not as bad as in Africa, where as much as 20 percent of the population in some countries may be infected.

In Asia, the disease would likely infect three to five percent at most and was still concentrated among high-risk groups like sex workers, intravenous drug users and men having sex with men, she said.

But she warned there was still a great risk as there were an estimated 75 million men in Asia who frequented prostitutes and 10 million prostitutes.

There were 20 million intravenous drug users and men who had sex with men -- both bisexuals and homosexuals.

In addition, there were 50 million women at risk because they were the wives or girlfriends of men who engaged in high-risk behaviour, she added.

She warned that in many Asian countries, the HIV/AIDS prevalence was rising among men who engaged in sex with other men.

In some Asian countries, such men may continue to have sex with their wives and other women, she added.

ADB special adviser Ian Anderson said that while the relative number of HIV/AIDS infected people in the Asia-Pacific are small, they could have a serious effect as most of them are in their most economically-productive years.

"Because it is relatively small, this is the time to keep it small. So we won't have to put the genie back in the bottle later," he said.

- AFP -

Go back to basics, says UN ahead of World AIDS Day

GENEVA – The United Nations on Friday urged countries to focus on the roots of the AIDS epidemic and draw on a panoply of tried-and-tested tools to help prevent HIV spreading among groups of people who most at risk.

"There is no single magic bullet for HIV prevention, but we can choose wisely from the known prevention options available so that they can reinforce and complement each other," said Peter Piot, the outgoing executive director of UNAIDS.

Launching a report ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1, Piot called for understanding how the most recent HIV infections were happening and why they occurred in the first place.

"Not only will this approach help prevent the next 1,000 infections in each community, but it will also make money for AIDS work more effectively and help put forward a long term and sustainable AIDS response," he said.

Unlike previous years, UNAIDS did not give any fresh figures for the number of infections and deaths ahead of World AIDS Day, saying the relevant data had not yet been amassed.

Statistics published ahead of the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in August say that around 33 million people had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2007, in a range of 30.3 to 36.1 million.

Around 2.7 million people became infected, or on average around 7,500 people per day, while deaths were estimated at around two million.

Speaking at a press briefing, UNAIDS' director of evidence, monitoring and policy, Paul De Lay, said that so-called "combination prevention" -- which involves a behavioural, biomedical and structural approach to treatment -- was key to tackling the epidemic.

A biomedical approach could include male circumcision, or using anti-retrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission, while behavioural approach could include encouraging condom use or reducing the number of sexual partners.

"The epidemic is constantly changing, and therefore the analyses of new infections must be undertaken at regular intervals," he said.

Attention had to remain focussed on the most high-risk communities such as sex workers, injecting drug users and gay men, De Lay said.

Meanwhile, two leading organisations shone the spotlight on access to antiretroviral drugs, which can turn HIV from a death sentence to a manageable disease.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Friday announced that two million people living with HIV had now been reached with the lifeline treatment through programmes it supports, an increase of 43 percent increase over a year ago.

The Global Fund provides nearly a quarter of all international resources to fight AIDS.

In another development, the International AIDS Society (IAS), which organises the big international conferences, called on the Group of Eight (G8) to stand by their pledge, set down at their Gleneagles summit in 2005, for universal access to antiretroviral drugs by 2010.

"Based on the G8's own reporting at its July 2008 meeting in Hokkaido, Japan the IAS has calculated that G8 countries have, to date, pledged approximately 22.2 billion specifically for global HIV programmes between 2008 and 2010," the IAS said.

"This amount is just 36 percent of the UNAIDS-estimated 61 billion dollars that is needed over this period."

At the end of 2007, some three million people had access to antiretrovirals, marking a major upturn in previous years, but this was still two-thirds short of a goal of universal access of 2010 enshrined by the UN and supported by the G8.

- AFP -

U.N. warns against cuts to AIDS prevention programs

GENEVA – HIV infections could surge if countries pinched by the global financial crisis cut AIDS prevention programs, a United Nations agency said on Friday.

Paul De Lay, a senior official at UNAIDS, said that economic turmoil was a threat to development programs as cash-strapped governments start to pare back on international aid.

The world must maintain current assistance levels, he told a briefing before World AIDS Day on Monday.

"(Or) what we'll find in the next four or five years is a resurgence in new incident infections and we won't be able to scale up the treatment that is clearly going to be needed as more and more people become symptomatic and need access to drugs," he said.

An estimated 33 million people worldwide were living with the HIV virus, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, at the end of 2007. AIDS has killed 25 million since being identified in 1981.

An estimated 2.7 million people become infected each year.

Treatment programs which provide life-extending drugs have expanded and now reach nearly 4 million people -- short of the estimated 9.7 million in need of antiretrovirals -- De Lay said.

Five new people are infected each year for every two put on treatment, he said. But antiretrovirals have come down in price and are getting easier to take, De Lay said.

"We are all expecting that the roll-out of a new category of drugs, the integrase inhibitors, will continue to improve patients' response and make it easier and easier to take the drug regimens," he said.

Isentress, made by Merck and Co. is the such first drug on the market. Researchers reported last month that it worked slightly better than an older HIV drug called efavirenz in suppressing levels of the AIDS virus.

A year ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Isentress for use in HIV patients whose infection has begun to resist the effects of other drugs.

The drug could compete with another integrase inhibitor called elvitegravir being tested by Gilead Sciences.

De Lay said clinical trials now using integrase inhibitors are mainly looking at how they can fit into combination drug regimens and ultimately reduce how often pills need to be taken.

He expected them to be rolled out in a more general way in the near future, "probably about a year to two years."

- Reuters -

World AIDS Day 2008

Mark Alvin L. Abrigo, RN

24/11 to 02/12/2008

• Country: Philippines
• Cities: Manila City, Quezon City, Pasay City, Bagiuo City, Angeles City, Iloilo City, Cebu City, Zamboanga City, Davao City, Cagayan De Oro City and General Santos City
• Venue: Red Cross Offices, Parks and Government Offices

Statement of Solidarity against HIV / AIDS

Over a span of a decade, our country still maintains its record within a level categorized as a low prevalent country in terms of HIV and AIDS. The present prevalence rate of our country remains a record low. On the other hand, the Philippines should remain to be vigilant and carefully watch the looming effects of this global concern. As reflected by the present character of the Filipino population, our society is relatively influenced and challenged by cultural diversities, economic hardships, hasty migration, and sexual identity issues. High-risk groups of the population become emerging priority concerns such as migrant workers, seafarers, female sex workers, men who have sex with men, youth population and a plenty of drug users.

Today, we are sounding off a strong voice that Red Cross is a part of an alliance and a campaign against HIV/AIDS. We are taking part in this campaign as an advocate in helping the affected population beset by the effects of HIV/AIDS and an active key player in the area of prevention and risk reduction. As one of its priority health issues, PNRC shall, as ONE organization, involve its services, in particular but not limited to, the Community Health and Nursing Services, Red Cross Youth, Social Services, and Blood Services towards a more strategic and effective HIV/AIDS Programme. We shall renew relationships with government and non-government organizations to make our programs more responsive to the needs and gaps.

We call on those people affected with HIV and AIDS to remain steadfast. The Filipino nation along with PNRC recognizes the need to respond to their special needs. Your role in society is not rendered meaningless. It gives you a noble opportunity to carry out a challenge to send everybody a warning. A stern reminder that irresponsible action can make other people infected.

We call on everyone to remain vigilant towards preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS. A constant public health threat continues to plague our society thus PNRC should blow its horn as a beacon of humanity to take the lead in combating the spread of HIV and AIDS.

We call for an understanding of people affected with HIV/AIDS. Communities should realize its common responsibility of respecting everyone’s right. A person living with HIV and AIDS deserves a place in the society and should be given opportunities to live with human dignity.

As an organization with its roots in the community, we are conveying our statement of commitment to take responsibility in fighting and curbing the disease and in helping people especially those affected by HIV and AIDS. To ensure that this call shall be put into action, we shall engage in partnerships with those who can teach us how we can serve better in line with achieving our major health goals thus contribute to the goals of the entire Health Sector. This action is part of the PNRC’s continued commitment to alleviating human suffering at all levels and in vulnerable situations.

Women’s Health: What Women Want??

Excellent gynecological health, high energy, and sex derive before, during and after menopause

By John R. Lee, M.D.

Your uterus, also known as your womb, is a remarkable and powerful muscular organ, ranging from the size of the fist in a woman who hasn’t given birth, to the size of a watermelon to a woman in her last trimester of pregnancy. Any woman who has experienced, monthly crams, labor and childbirth, a deep orgasm that involves the uterus, or even the twinge from having a tissue sample taken during a pap smear has no doubt to the power and muscularity of her uterus. And the uterus, it seems, has equal power to make life a joy or a misery.

Every month, for decades, the uterus builds up a glandular body lining – the endometrium – in response to hormonal signals and release its menstruation if the signals for pregnancy don’t come. If a pregnancy does occur, the uterus gradually enlarges and becomes a perfect incubator for nine months of gestation.

In a woman’s uterus, nature has created a powerfully protected anticancer milieu that almost always remains intact unless we throw it out of balance. When a woman does get endometrial cancer, the most common time for it to begin is about five years before the onset of menopause, when estrogen is still plentiful, but anovulatory cycles may be causing a chronic progesterone deficiency and therefore setting up estrogen dominance.

Endometrial cancer is one of the types of cancer we know most clearly how to prevent. Avoid unopposed estrogen.

Uterine Enlargement and Fibroids

The Uterus is one of the first organs to manifest symptoms when a woman’s hormones are out of balance. Two of the most common uterine symptoms of premenopause syndrome are an enlarged uterus and uterine fibroids. Women with PMS often experience painful periods (dysmenorrhea) which are most often caused when the endometrial lining of the uterus extends into the muscular wall of the uterus. When shedding of the endometrium occurs (menstruation), the blood is released into the muscular lining, causing severe pain.

Conventional medicine treats this pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Ibuprofen, but ignores the underlying metabolic hormonal imbalance that caused it. The problem can be simply resolved by restoring proper progesterone levels, which restores normal growth and shedding of the endometrium.

Estrogen dominance causes the uterus to grow, and without the monthly balancing effect of progesterone it doesn’t have the proper signals to stop growing. In some women this results in an enlarged uterus that presses on other organs, such as the bladder, and often on the digestive system, and generally causes discomfort and heavy menstrual bleeding.

In other women estrogen dominance results in fibroids, which are tough, fibrous, non-cancerous lumps that grow in the uterus. Some fibroids can grow to the size of a grapefruit or cantaloupe, causing constant bleeding and such heavy menstrual periods that the blood loss is akin to hemorrhaging.

Fibroids always shrink at menopause, but the most common course of action a doctor takes when a patient comes in with a fibroid is to remove the uterus. The explanation given is that a fibroid is too difficult to remove without irreversibly damaging the uterus. But in most cases this is no longer true. If you do end up needing to have a fibroid surgically removed, find a doctor who can do it without removing your uterus with it. If you have many small fibroids, it may be more difficult to remove them. On the other hand, their smaller size may make it easier to treat them without surgery.

What Doctors Aren’t Telling Women?

What doctors aren’t telling women is that giving them estrogen before menopause will cause a fibroid to grow – and that giving them estrogen after menopause (when it would naturally shrink) will likely cause it to continue to grow. What most doctors don’t know about fibroids is that avoiding estrogen and using some natural progesterone cream will almost always shrink a fibroid enough to minimize or eliminate symptoms long enough to get to menopause, when it will normally shrink significantly enough to cease being a problem.

It’s ironic that our conventional medical culture has evolved in such a way that a woman who has an enlarged uterus or fibroid is considered to have a disease. And that her uterus is considered a liability, all because it has become a virtual requirement that your doctor prescribe Premarin and Provera to you when you reach menopause.

Having a uterus also means that your doctor can’t just prescribe estrogen alone; he or she also is required to prescribe Provera (synthetic progesterone) to offset the cancer causing effects of estrogen. The first attempts at hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in the 1960s used only estrogen, and this human experiment cost the lives o thousands of women who died of uterine (endometrial) cancer in the 1960s and 1970s before it dawned on the medical profession that unopposed estrogen was the cause.

It another decade of intense public relations and marketing campaigns to convince women that it was safe once again to take HRT because they would now be protected form cancer by the addition of a synthetic progestin to the mix, most commonly Provera.

But as Gail Sheehy so aptly described in her pioneering book The Silent Passage, there aren’t too many drugs in the world that will make women feel worse then Provera. Many women outright refuse to continue taking Provera when they experience its side effects (something akin to severe, permanent PMS) and will even risk cancer and take unopposed estrogen to avoid it.

This gives your doctor yet another reason to suggest that removing your uterus will solve a lot of problems. The promise is that once your cancer prone uterus is gone, you’re safe, and you can take only estrogen without Provera. The promise is that estrogen will save you from heart disease, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease, so the trade-off of losing you uterus is well worth it. Or so the conventional wisdom goes. Unfortunately, these promise aren’t true. If you’re removing your uterus and take estrogen, your troubles have only begun.

Your Body, Your Choice

The economics of these choices are extremely difficult for you and your doctor. We aren’t suggesting that you shouldn’t ever have your uterus removed, because in rare cases that is necessary. But we are strongly recommending that you take into account the hidden agendas that exist in this type of situation before making a decision, and that you make your decision based on what’s best for you.

Natural Healing Options

What to Do?

• Use natural progesterone cream.
• Eat a plant based, fiber rich diet everyday.
• Take a liver supporting and detoxifying herbal formula that includes some or all of the following herbs: milk thistle, goldenseal, burdock root, yellow dock, dandelion root.

What to Avoid?

• Unopposed estrogen.
• All dairy products.
• Feed-lot meats (eat only range-fed, organic meats free of drugs and pesticide residues).

____________________
Excerpts from “What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Premenopause” by John R. Lee, M. D., Jesse Hanley, M. D. and Virginia Hopkins.

More than half of Beijing's prostitutes shun condoms: state media

BEIJING – More than half of Beijing's prostitutes do not use condoms despite sexual transmission having replaced drug use as the most common infection route for HIV, state media said Tuesday.

Just 47 percent of the 90,000 sex workers in China's capital used condoms, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Fang Laiying, director of the municipal public health bureau, as saying.

Sexual transmission has also replaced intravenous drug use as the most common transmission route for the HIV virus for the first time in Beijing, accounting for 55 percent of infections, the report said.

But the infection rate among the city's prostitutes was unknown as Beijing does not provide a testing programme.

Free condoms are already provided in 22,000 venues in China's capital, including hotels and holiday resorts, and nearly 3,000 vending machines have been installed in entertainment sites, Xinhua said.

Condom machines are also to be installed at construction sites which employ more than 500 workers by the end of the year, Fang was quoted as saying.

Beijing had reported 5,635 instances of people living with AIDS or HIV by November 1 since the first case was reported in 1985, of which 75 percent were from other regions in China, Xinhua said.

At the end of 2007, China had around 700,000 people living with HIV, including an estimated 85,000 who had developed AIDS, according to Xinhua.

Campaigners have previously warned that the true figure could be up to 10 times higher.

Thousands were infected during the 1990s through tainted transfusions at illegal blood collection stations, but the focus of attention is now shifting to high risk groups such as gay men and sex workers.

-AFP-

To some psychiatric patients, life seems like TV

NEW YORK – One man showed up at a federal building, asking for release from the reality show he was sure was being made of his life. Another was convinced his every move was secretly being filmed for a TV contest. A third believed everything — the news, his psychiatrists, the drugs they prescribed — was part of a phony, stage-set world with him as the involuntary star, like the 1998 movie "The Truman Show."

Researchers have begun documenting what they dub the "Truman syndrome," a delusion afflicting people who are convinced that their lives are secretly playing out on a reality TV show. Scientists say the disorder underscores the influence pop culture can have on mental conditions.

"The question is really: Is this just a new twist on an old paranoid or grandiose delusion ... or is there sort of a perfect storm of the culture we're in, in which fame holds such high value?" said Dr. Joel Gold, a psychiatrist affiliated with New York's Bellevue Hospital.

Within a two-year period, Gold said he encountered five patients with delusions related to reality TV. Several of them specifically mentioned "The Truman Show."

Gold and his brother, a psychologist, started presenting their observations at medical schools in 2006. After word spread beyond medical circles this summer, they learned of about 50 more people with similar symptoms. The brothers are now working on a scholarly paper.

Meanwhile, researchers in London described a "Truman syndrome" patient in the British Journal of Psychiatry in August. The 26-year-old postman "had a sense the world was slightly unreal, as if he was the eponymous hero in the film," the researchers wrote.

The Oscar-nominated movie stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank. He leads a merrily uneventful life until he realizes his friends and family are actors, his seaside town is a TV soundstage and every moment of his life has been broadcast.

His struggle to sort out reality and illusion is heartwarming, but researchers say it's often horrifying for "Truman syndrome" patients.

A few take pride in their imagined celebrity, but many are deeply upset at what feels like an Orwellian invasion of privacy. The man profiled in the British journal was diagnosed with schizophrenia and is unable to work. One of Gold's patients planned to commit suicide if he couldn't leave his supposed reality show.

Delusions can be a symptom of various psychiatric illnesses, as well as neurological conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Some drugs also can make people delusional.

It's not unusual for psychiatrists to see delusional patients who believe their relatives have been replaced by impostors or who think figures in their lives are taking on multiple disguises.

But "Truman" delusions are more sweeping, involving not just some associates but society at large, Gold said.

Delusions tend to be classified by broad categories, such as the belief that one is being persecuted, but research has shown culture and technology can also affect them. Several recent studies have chronicled delusions entwined with the Internet such as a patient in Austria who believed she had become a walking webcam.

Reality television may help such patients convince themselves their experiences are plausible, according to the Austrian woman's psychiatrists, writing in the journal Psychopathology in 2004.

Ian Gold, a philosophy and psychology professor at McGill University in Montreal who has researched the matter with his brother, suggests reality TV and the Web, with their ability to make strangers into intimates, may compound psychological pressure on people who have underlying problems dealing with others.

That's not to say reality shows make healthy people delusional, "but, at the very least, it seems possible to me that people who would become ill are becoming ill quicker or in a different way," Ian Gold said.

Other researchers aren't convinced, but still find the "Truman syndrome" an interesting example of the connection between culture and mental health.

Vaughan Bell, a psychologist who has researched Internet-related delusions, said one of his own former patients believed he was in the virtual-reality universe portrayed in the 1999 blockbuster "The Matrix."

"I don't think that popular culture causes delusions," said Bell, who is affiliated with King's College London and the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia. "But I do think that it is only possible to fully understand delusions and psychosis in light of our wider culture."

-AP-

Nap without guilt: It boosts sophisticated memory

WASHINGTON – Just in time for the holidays, some medical advice most people will like: Take a nap. Interrupting sleep seriously disrupts memory-making, compelling new research suggests. But on the flip side, taking a nap may boost a sophisticated kind of memory that helps us see the big picture and get creative.

"Not only do we need to remember to sleep, but most certainly we sleep to remember," is how Dr. William Fishbein, a cognitive neuroscientist at the City University of New York, put it at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience last week.

Good sleep is a casualty of our 24/7 world. Surveys suggest few adults attain the recommended seven to eight hours a night.

Way too little clearly is dangerous: Sleep deprivation causes not just car crashes but all sorts of other accidents. Over time, a chronic lack of sleep can erode the body in ways that leave us more vulnerable to heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.

But perhaps more common than insomnia is fragmented sleep — the easy awakening that comes with aging, or, worse, the sleep apnea that afflicts millions, who quit breathing for 30 seconds or so over and over throughout the night.

Indeed, scientists increasingly are focusing less on sleep duration and more on the quality of sleep, what's called sleep intensity, in studying how sleep helps the brain process memories so they stick. Particularly important is "slow-wave sleep," a period of very deep sleep that comes earlier than better-known REM sleep, or dreaming time.

Fishbein suspected a more active role for the slow-wave sleep that can emerge even in a power nap. Maybe our brains keep working during that time to solve problems and come up with new ideas. So he and graduate student Hiuyan Lau devised a simple test: documenting relational memory, where the brain puts together separately learned facts in new ways.

First, they taught 20 English-speaking college students lists of Chinese words spelled with two characters — such as sister, mother, maid. Then half the students took a nap, being monitored to be sure they didn't move from slow-wave sleep into the REM stage.

Upon awakening, they took a multiple-choice test of Chinese words they'd never seen before. The nappers did much better at automatically learning that the first of the two-pair characters in the words they'd memorized earlier always meant the same thing — female, for example. So they also were more likely than non-nappers to choose that a new word containing that character meant "princess" and not "ape."

"The nap group has essentially teased out what's going on," Fishbein concludes.

These students took a 90-minute nap, quite a luxury for most adults. But even a 12-minute nap can boost some forms of memory, adds Dr. Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School.

Conversely, Wisconsin researchers briefly interrupted nighttime slow-wave sleep by playing a beep — just loudly enough to disturb sleep but not awaken — and found those people couldn't remember a task they'd learned the day before as well as people whose slow-wave sleep wasn't disrupted.

That brings us back to fragmented sleep, whether from aging or apnea. It can suppress the birth of new brain cells in the hippocampus, where memory-making begins — enough to hinder learning weeks after sleep returns to normal, warns Dr. Dennis McGinty of the University of California, Los Angeles.

To prove a lasting effect, McGinty mimicked human sleep apnea in rats. He hooked them to brain monitors and made them sleep on a treadmill. Whenever the monitors detected 30 seconds of sleep, the treadmill briefly switched on. After 12 days of this sleep disturbance, McGinty let the rats sleep peacefully for as long as they wanted for the next two weeks.

The catch-up sleep didn't help: Rested rats used room cues to quickly learn the escape hole in a maze. Those with fragmented sleep two weeks earlier couldn't, only randomly stumbling upon the escape.

None of the new work is enough, yet, to pinpoint the minimum sleep needed for optimal memory. What's needed may vary considerably from person to person.

"A short sleeper may have a very efficient deep sleep even if they sleep only four hours," notes Dr. Chiara Cirellia of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

But altogether, the findings do suggest some practical advice: Get apnea treated. Avoid what Harvard's Stickgold calls "sleep bulimia," super-late nights followed by sleep-in weekends. And don't feel guilty for napping.

-AP-

Body & Spirit: The Art of Relaxation

Learn the art of unwinding

By Sarah Brewer

Relaxation is essential to good health and has beneficial effects on mind and spirit, as well on the physical body. A few relaxation exercises combined with a candlelit aromatherapy bath will help you to wind down the day towards a refreshing night’s sleep. A number of complementary therapies revolve around the importance of relaxation and meditation.

Sleep Well

First, a good night sleep is vital. When you wake up feeling refreshed, you are ready to tackle anything that comes your way. When sleep is non-refreshing, though, it can ruin your whole day. The following tips will help you enjoy a good night’s sleep:

• Take regular brisk exercise during the day, but not late in the evening, which can keep you awake.
  

• When following a detox program, try to bed earlier than normal to give your body extra refreshment.
  

• Take time to unwind from the stresses of the day before going to bed: read a book, listen to soothing music or have a candlelit aromatherapy bath.
  

• Get into the habit of going to bed at a regular time each night and getting up at the same time each morning.
  

• Make sure your bed is comfortable and that your bedroom is warm, dark and quiet.
  

• Put essential oils on a handkerchief and tuck it under your pillow.

Relaxing essential oils:

• Bergamot
• Chamomile
• Cedarwood
• Clary Sage
• Jasmine
• Neroli
• Orange
• Rose
• Vanilla
• Ylang-Ylang
• Lavender
• Marjoram
• Nutmeg
• Sandalwood

Relaxing Complimentary Therapies

A number of complimentary therapies are used to help induce relaxation. These include autogenic training, flotation, massage, meditation, qigong, tai chu’uan and yoga.

Autogenic Training

Autogenic training is a relaxation technique involving the use of passive concentration – when you empty your mind and listen to nothing – and mental exercises to reduce stress and restore physical equilibrium. Once learned, these techniques can be used to obtain almost instant calmness and relaxation. Exercises involve allowing different parts of the body to feel heavy and warm, followed by concentration on the heartbeat and breathing rhythms.

Flotation Therapy

As its name suggest, flotation therapy involves lying in lightproof, sound-insulated tank containing a shallow pool of saline kept at body temperature. The flotation tank screens out light and sound to remove virtually all external stimulation. This allows the floater to enter a profoundly relaxed state in which the brain generates theta waves, which are associated with meditation, creative thought and feelings of serenity. Studies show that brain continues to produce large amounts of theta waves for up to three weeks after a float.

You can obtain a similar deep relaxation in your own bath using mineral salts from the Dead Sea (available from larger health stores).

Massage

Massage forms the basis of many complimentary therapies, including acupressure, aromatherapy and shiatsu. It stimulates the soft tissues of the body and is useful in detox as it encourages the drainage and removal of toxins. Massage is also relaxing and can relieve anxiety, tension, aches and pains, as well as lifting mild depression and improving sleep.

Meditation

Meditation uses the power of the mind to empty itself of thoughts, calm the body and achieve a state of heightened mental or spiritual awareness. By focusing your mind on a particular object or vision, you can screen out distractions and induce a state of profound relaxation and serenity.

There are several types of meditation, each of which favors a different technique. This might involve focusing on your breathing rhythm, a universal sound, such as “om,” a word or phrase with personal meaning (mantra), a physical object, such as a flickering candle, or an image. Some techniques, such as t’ai chi chu’uan, involve repetitive movements, while others might involve feeling objects, such as pebbles or worry beads.

Transcendental medidation (TM) was developed to fit into the busy, modern way of life. Practiced for 15 – 20 minutes twice a day, TM uses a variety of Sanskrit mantras, which are repeated silently to still the thoughts and find a deeper level of consciousness. This helps to achieve deep relaxation, while maintaining full alertness. It leaves you feeling refreshed mentally and physically, with a mind that is calmer and able to think more clearly.

Qigong

Qigong and the related medical therapy buqi are forms of Chinese yoga that combine meditation and posture to achieve relaxation and breath control. Qigong also helps to channel energy and calm the mind. The basic postures are easy to learn and, unlike tai chi, can be performed in any order.

Tai Chi Chu’uan

Usually known simply as tai chi, this therapy is sometimes described as meditation in motion. It combines slow, graceful movements with meditation and breathing techniques to calm the mind and improve the flow of the life energy force, qi.

The short form of tai chi uses 24 slow movements and postures that flow effortlessly into each other and can be performed in 5 – 10 minutes. The long form, consisting of 108 movements, takes 20 – 40 minutes to complete.

Yoga

Although many types of yoga exist, all forms of it combine postural exercises, breathing techniques and meditation to achieve relaxation. Indeed, breath control is considered most important as it embodies the life force prana, to help achieve emotional and mental harmony. This is particularly important during detox.

Reference: The Total Detox Plan
By Dr. Sarah Brewer

Philippine family planning bill headed for defeat: Church

MANILA (AFP) – The Roman Catholic church on Thursday said it has sufficient support in the Philippine congress to defeat a controversial family planning bill promoting sex education and the use of contraceptives.

"The bishops are confident they have the numbers," said Maria Fenny Tatad, executive director of the church lobby group Bishops-Legislators Caucus of the Philippines.

Only 99 members of the 238-member House of Representatives have openly said they will support the Reproductive Health Care Act, while the rest are expected to side with the church, Tatad said.

Population control is a highly politicised issue in the Philippines, where more than 80 percent of the 90 million population are Catholics.

The church, which wields considerable public influence, frowns on any artificial form of birth control and has been waging a high-profile campaign to block the passage of the bill, which is now before congress.

International aid agencies and economists have backed the bill saying it is crucial if the Philippines is to curb its annual population growth rate of 2.04 percent, one of Asia's highest.

The bill seeks to establish a national family planning programme that would include sex education and advice on birth control, which the church considers "immoral."

Such provisions go against established church doctrine and puts the social fabric of the mainly Catholic Philippines in peril, said Father Melvin Castro, head of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life.

"We can't simply follow what the world wants us to do," he told reporters.

He said the church was now drafting a parallel bill with the support of some senior members of Congress, a majority of whom are Catholics.

The bill is still in its initial phase, but is expected to include provisions on regulating over-the-counter sales of contraceptives without prescription, as well as controlling the sale of condoms.

Teen lives 4 months with no heart, leaves hospital

MIAMI – D'Zhana Simmons says she felt like a "fake person" for 118 days when she had no heart beating in her chest. "But I know that I really was here," the 14-year-old said, "and I did live without a heart."

As she was being released Wednesday from a Miami hospital, the shy teen seemed in awe of what she's endured. Since July, she's had two heart transplants and survived with artificial heart pumps — but no heart — for four months between the transplants.

Last spring D'Zhana and her parents learned she had an enlarged heart that was too weak to sufficiently pump blood. They traveled from their home in Clinton, S.C. to Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami for a heart transplant.

But her new heart didn't work properly and could have ruptured so surgeons removed it two days later.

And they did something unusual, especially for a young patient: They replaced the heart with a pair of artificial pumping devices that kept blood flowing through her body until she could have a second transplant.

Dr. Peter Wearden, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh who works with the kind of pumps used in this case, said what the Miami medical team managed to do "is a big deal."

"For (more than) 100 days, there was no heart in this girl's body? That is pretty amazing," Wearden said.

The pumps, ventricular assist devices, are typically used with a heart still in place to help the chambers circulate blood. With D'Zhana's heart removed, doctors at Holtz Children's Hospital crafted substitute heart chambers using a fabric and connected these to the two pumps.

Although artificial hearts have been approved for adults, none has been federally approved for use in children. In general, there are fewer options for pediatric patients. That's because it's rarer for them to have these life-threatening conditions, so companies don't invest as much into technology that could help them, said Dr. Marco Ricci, director of pediatric cardiac surgery at the University of Miami.

He said this case demonstrates that doctors now have one more option.

"In the past, this situation could have been lethal," Ricci said.

And it nearly was. During the almost four months between her two transplants, D'Zhana wasn't able to breathe on her own half the time. She also had kidney and liver failure and gastrointestinal bleeding.

Taking a short stroll — when she felt up for it — required the help of four people, at least one of whom would steer the photocopier-sized machine that was the external part of the pumping devices.

When D'Zhana was stable enough for another operation, doctors did the second transplant on Oct. 29.

"I truly believe it's a miracle," said her mother, Twolla Anderson.

D'Zhana said now she's grateful for small things: She'll see her five siblings soon, and she can spend time outdoors.

"I'm glad I can walk without the machine," she said, her turquoise princess top covering most of the scars on her chest. After thanking the surgeons for helping her, D'Zhana began weeping.

Doctors say she'll be able to do most things that teens do, like attending school and going out with friends. She will be on lifelong medication to keep her body from rejecting the donated heart, and there's a 50-50 chance she'll need another transplant before she turns 30.

For now, though, D'Zhana is looking forward to celebrating another milestone. On Saturday, she turns 15 and plans to spend the day riding in a boat off Miami's coast.

Health Science News: Rewiring the Brain

Healing the nervous system’s fragile circuitry may require something more than mere drugs – like a shock to the system

By Robert Langreth

Lauri Sandoval tried more than a dozen drugs to treat a deep depression that darkened most of her adult life. None worked for long. Unable to hold a steady job, the 42 year old resident of New Mexico had to move in with her mother two years ago. Then she underwent surgery to implant an experimental device that treats her blues by transmitting tiny pulses of electricity to nerves in her neck.

Soon the mini shock therapy started to work. Today Lauri is back to working full time as personal assistant to a Hollywood star. “It’s incredible,” she says. “I am actually happy. I’ve never been able to say that before.”

The device that brought her back, made by the publicly held Cyberonics in Houston, Texas, is one of a new generation of pacemaker-style gadgets that use mild electrical jolts to treat myriad mental and neurological illness. While they aren’t cures, they may reduce or eliminate symptoms in severe cases, offering hope to millions of patients.

The brain uses electrical current to communicate within itself and with other parts of the body. When that fragile circuitry goes awry, it can play a role in disorders ranging from depression to epilepsy to Parkinson’s disease. Researchers are learning that precisely targeting barely noticeable pulses to affected areas of the brain can help restore some normal function to the cerebral circuitry.

Cyberonic’s poker-chip-size device, surgically implanted in the chest, is approved for treating drug-resistant epilepsy and has move into final-stage human tests for the far bigger market of drug-resistant depression. The medical device giant Medtronic is testing a related technique called deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes from a device in the chest are surgically threaded several centimeters into the brain to the site of damage. The method is approved in the U.S. for tremor and could win clearance for Parkinson’s disease later this year. A third method avoids surgery. At a doctor’s office, a patient wears a magnetic device on his head that generates gentle currents in parts of the brain hit by depression and schizophrenia.

Doctors have spent decades using drugs to tweak aberrant brain chemicals, with only limited success. For example, of 6 million Americans treated for depression, more than a million don’t respond to drugs. Of the 2.5 million epileptics in the U.S., about 10% can’t be helped by chemical therapy. Drugs for Parkinson’s disease often work initially, but their effectiveness fades.

Scientist have long thought that electricity might help, but until recently they have been unable precisely target particular regions of the brain. Electroshock therapy, the decades-old treatment of last resort for depression, indiscriminately blasts the entire head to induce seizures and jar patients out of their blues. While effective, it can cause severe short-term memory loss.

The techniques are better aimed with less collateral damage. Among the more promising ones are:

Electrical Healing
Brain stimulation is a relatively new way of treating severe mental and neurological illness with devices that deliver tiny pulses of electricity to the brain.

Deep-brain Stimulation
Medtronic’s Activa device is implanted in the chest like a pacemaker, with leads threaded deep into the brain during major surgery. It is approved for tremor, with approval expected soon for Parkinson’s disease.

Vagus Stimulation
Cyberonic’s nerve stimulator is similar, but wires are attached to he neck’s vagus nerve, a major conduit between the brain and other internal organs. It is approved for epilepsy and looks promising for depression.

Reference: Forbes Global

12 simple ways to supercharge your brain

Have you ever felt exasperated when you bumped into someone at the store but absolutely couldn't remember their name? Sure, it happens to all of us.

Despite being the strongest computer on the planet, our brains do lapse. It's hard to blame them really. As humans, we spend much of or existence stuffing our brains with stuff.

No matter how powerful our brains are, they need recuperation time to be kept in shape. Think of it as a tune up for your brain. Skipping brain maintenance is as silly as the person wandering the parking garage because they forgot where they parked. Is that you? Are you that person? If so, fear not; we are all that person at some point.

Now I am not a brain surgeon and I am not going to suggest you do anything surgical or dangerous. I am however an astute student of human behavior so I always look for simple ways to super charge my brain.

Here are some things you can begin doing as soon as today to begin the great brain tune up:

Eat Almonds
Almond is believed to improve memory. If a combination of almond oil and milk is taken together before going to bed or after getting up at morning, it strengthens our memory power. Almond milk is prepared by crushing the almonds without the outer cover and adding water and sugar to it.

Drink Apple Juice
Research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) indicates that apple juice increases the production of the essential neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain, resulting in an increased memory power.

Sleep well
Research indicates that the long-term memory is consolidated during sleep by replaying the images of the experiences of the day. These repeated playbacks program the subconscious mind to store these images and other related information.

Enjoy simple Pleasures
Stress drains our brainpower. A stress-ridden mind consumes much of our memory resources to leave us with a feeble mind. Make a habit to engage yourself in few simple pleasures everyday to dissolve stress from your mind. Some of these simple pleasures are good for your mind, body and soul.

• Enjoy music you love
• Play with your children
• Appreciate others
• Run few miles a day, bike or swim
• Start a blog
• Take a yoga class or Total Wellness routine

Exercise your mind
Just as physical exercise is essential for a strong body, mental exercise is equally essential for a sharp and agile mind. Have you noticed that children have far superior brainpower than an adult does? Children have playful minds. A playful mind exhibits superior memory power. Engage in some of the activities that require your mind to remain active and playful.

• Play scrabble or crossword puzzle
• Volunteer
• Interact with others
• Start a new hobby such as blogging, reading, painting, bird watching
• Learn new skill or a foreign language

Practice Yoga or Meditation
Yoga or Meditation relives stress. Stress is a known memory buster. With less stress, lower blood pressure, slower respiration, slower metabolism, and released muscle tension follows. All of these factors contribute significantly towards increases in our brainpower.

Reduce Sugar intake
Sugar is a non-food. It’s a form of carbohydrate that offers illusionary energy, only to cause a downhill slump once the initial burst has been worn off. Excess intake of sugar results in neurotic symptoms. Excess sugar is known to cause claustrophobia, memory loss and other neurotic disorders. Eat food without adding sugar. Stay away from sweet drinks or excess consumption of caffeine with sugar.

Eat whole wheat
The whole wheat germs contain lecithin. Lecithin helps ease the problem of the hardening of the arteries, which often impairs brain functioning.

Eat a light meal at night
A heavy meal at night causes tossing and turning and a prolonged emotional stress while at sleep. It’s wise to eat heavy meal during the day when our body is in motion to consume the heavy in-take. Eating a light meal with some fruits allows us to sleep well. A good night sleep strengthens our brainpower.

Develop imagination
Greeks mastered the principle of imagination and association to memorize everything. This technique requires one to develop a vivid and colorful imagination that can be linked to a known object. If you involve all your senses - touching, feeling, smelling, hearing and seeing in the imagination process, you can remember greater details of the event.

Control your temper
Bleached food, excess of starch or excess of white bread can lead to nerve grating effect. This results in a violent and some time depressive behavior. Eat fresh vegetables. Drink lots of water and meditate or practice yoga to relieve these toxic emotions of temper and stressful mood swings.

Take Vitamin B-complex
Vitamin B-complex strengthens memory power. Eat food and vegetables high in Vitamin B-complex. Stay away from the starch food or white bread, which depletes the Vitamin B-complex necessary for a healthy mind.

I don't believe these are that tough. If you find yourself increasing stumped, give a couple of these a try.

Written by Shilpan Patel of Success Soul and cross-posted from Dumb Little Man, a web site that provides tips for life that will save you money, increase your productivity, or simply keep you sane.

by Jay @ Dumb Little Man

Men’s Health: Impotence, Some Hard Facts

It is safe to say that every man experiences erectile dysfunction (ED) from time to time?

Who Becomes Impotent?

Medically speaking, impotence is defined as the inability to sustain an erection sufficient for at least 25% of attempts. Using this definition, experts have estimated that between 10 and 20 million men in the United States between ages 40 and 70 experiences erectile dysfunction. Some surveys report that 30% of all men experience at least temporary erectile dysfunction at some time.

Older Men. Aging is most often associated with impotence. About 5% of men at 40 report complete erectile dysfunction; by age 65, 15% to 25% of men are troubled by this problem, and over age 75, about 55% of men report being chronically impotent. Nevertheless, impotence is not inevitable with age. A recent survey of men of over 60 years old reported that 61% of them were sexually active, and nearly half derived as much if not more emotional benefit from their sex lives as they did in their 40s.

What Causes Impotence?

Over the past decades the medical perspective on the causes of impotence has shifted. Common wisdom used to attribute almost all cases of impotence to psychological factors. Now, investigators estimate that between 70% and 80% of impotence cases are caused by medical problems:

• Most often atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries);
• Complications of diabetes;
• Prostatectomy (surgical removal of the prostate);
• And medications.

Many experts believe that negative emotional states occurring with the condition are more likely to be a reaction to the experience of impotence than its causes. Psychological problems are more apt to be the causes of erectile dysfunction in younger men, however, while physical problems are usually the cause in older men.

So many physical and psychological situations can bring about erectile dysfunction, in fact, that a man should consider brief periods of impotence to be as normal as having a cold. (Even a cold can, in fact, cause temporary impotence.) Oxygen deprivation is the most common cause of impotence and can occur from numerous conditions that deprive the penis of the blood. Nerve damage in the penis or the pelvic area and deficient levels of important hormones can also be responsible for erectile dysfunction.

How Serious is Impotence?

Impotence is not life threatening, of course. It can be symptomatic, however, of other serious problems, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes and hypertension. Impotence can also be indicative of an injury, age related changes in tissue, or the possible long-term effects of risky behaviors such as smoking, heavy drinking, or an unhealthy diet.

Psychological factors related to impotence can be significant. Erectile dysfunction can have a devastating effect on a relationship and can cause extreme depression, which may become chronic if the erectile dysfunction is not treated.

Specific Medical Conditions Contributing to Erectile Dysfunction

Diabetes. Diabetes may contribute to as many as 40% of impotence cases. Between one third and one half of all diabetic men report some form of sexual difficulty. Diabetics often develop atherosclerosis and nerve damage; when the blood vessels or nerves of the penis are involved, erectile dysfunction can result. (It should be noted that women with diabetes also suffer from sexual dysfunction due to damaged circulation and can also be helped by some of the drugs given to men for impotence.)
High Blood Pressure. In one study, 17% of men with high blood pressure experienced erectile dysfunction even before being treated. Many of the drugs used to treat hypertension may cause impotence as the side effect, although it is reversible when the drugs are stopped.

One study, in fact, suggested that impotence in men with hypertension actually usually occurs if they also have coronary artery disease, and that it is this dangerous combination – not the drugs – that causes erectile dysfunction in such men. More recent drugs, such as ACE inhibitors, in nay case, appear to be less likely to cause erectile dysfunction.

Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which affects the central nervous system, also precipitates sexual dysfunction in as many as 78% of male patients. (Corticosteroids, which are common treatments for MS may improve sexual dysfunction.

Alternative Therapies and Remedies

Yohimbine. Yohimbine has been used as folk medicine for years; it appears to improve blood flow. Studies have been inclusive about its benefits, but a recent analysis of seven trials reported that between 34% and 75% of men achieved favorable results when taking 5 mg to 10 mg. Side effects include nausea, insomnia, nervousness, dizziness and high blood pressure.

Ginkgo improves blood flow in the brain and in one small study 78% of men who had impotence caused by impaired blood flow regained erections. More research is needed.

Ginseng root is a traditional Asian remedy for stimulating sexual function, although no studies have been conducted on its efficacy.

DHEAS. Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA) is a male hormone used in the production of testosterone; levels of this hormone falls as man ages. In one small study, those who took DHEA for 16weeks experienced some improvement in erectile dysfunction. It should be noted, however that the long-term effects of this potent hormone are unknown, particularly on the risks for prostate cancer.

Lifestyle Changes

Maintaining General Health. Because many cases of impotence are due to reduced blood flow from blocked arteries, it is important to maintain the same lifestyle habits as those who face an increased risk for heart disease. Such good habits include a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains and fiber and low in saturated fats and sodium. Men who drink alcohol should do so in moderation. A regular exercise program is extremely important. Quitting smoking is essential.

Frequent Erections. Staying sexually active can help prevent impotence. Frequent erections stimulate blood flow to the penis. It may be helpful to note that erections are firmest during deep sleep right before waking up. Autumn is the time of the year when male hormone levels are highest and sexual activity is most frequent.

Changing or Reducing Medications Causing Impotence. If medications are causing the problem, the patient and the physician should discuss alternatives or reduced dosages. In treating high blood pressure, for instance, ACE inhibitors are less likely to cause sexual dysfunction than any other medications.