The news about testosterone changes so quickly that just reading about it could give you whiplash. On one hand, testosterone increases sex drive and muscle growth. That’s good. On the other hand, it’s associated with hair loss and increased risk of prostate cancer. That’s bad. Now new research is looking at testosterone as a way...Continue reading
Category: Lifestyle
Why Does U.S. Expectancy Lag Behind Other Countries?
If you look at the raw data on life expectancy at birth in industrialized countries, you’ll notice right away that Americans are pretty close to the bottom of the pile. And while life expectancy in the US has increased over time, we haven’t kept pace with other high-income countries. The fact that Americans live shorter...Continue reading
Keeping Your Distance: American Men Deal With Intimacy
Intimacy is a scarcity for American men –if by “intimacy” we mean revealing and sharing what is innermost about us. Few men live by this creed. Intimate connection becomes an abstraction, a nice idea, a frustrated lack. The typical American male can’t grasp intimacy, having precious little real experience of it. Just mentioning the word...Continue reading
Be Fulfilled: Sexually And Sensually
Most of us assign a high priority to sexual/sensual fulfillment, but few of us attain it. From my personal and professional vantage points, it seems the most important keys are self acceptance, compassion for our partners, free expression, and good communication skills. If we give to ourselves, and extend to our partners from this presence...Continue reading
American Men (and Women) Have Shorter Lives Than Counterparts in Other Rich Nations
On average, Americans die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than people in other high-income countries, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. The report finds that this health disadvantage exists at all ages from birth to age 75 and that even advantaged Americans — those...
Drug News: If You’re Taking Statins for Cholesterol or Beta Blockers for Hypertension, Read This.
Statin drugs are remarkably successful in reducing cholesterol for millions of men. They’ve also helped lower the risk of other cardiovascular events (such as heart attack and stroke). But, as with just about everything else in life, there’s the Law of Unintended Consequences. One of those consequences is severe muscle pain and weakness. And a...Continue reading
Literary Convention and the Slaughter of Innocent Children
As we try to absorb the tragic events at the school shooting in New Town, Connecticut, various sages have come out of the background to tell us what it all means, and what we can do about it. Gun control advocates – long ignored by our political leaders – have told us, reasonably enough, that...
Male Obesity is a Really Big Deal
Unless you’ve been trapped on another planet for the past few years, you probably know that obesity is a big, big problem in this country. And you also (hopefully) know that obesity increases one’s risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. But what you may not know is that obesity is an especially...Continue reading
Smoking: There’s Bad News, Really Bad News, and some Good News
When we talk about the many dangers of cigarettes, we tend to think of a grizzled, three-pack-a-day smoker who’s been puffing for a few decades. Time to throw out those old stereotypes. The bad news: A new analysis of data from the famous Nurse’s Health Study (which tracked 101,000 American nurses for more than 30...Continue reading
Want to Live Long and Prosper? Start Pumping Iron When You’re Young
If you were weak as a teenager, you’re at increased risk of becoming ill and/or dying from a number of factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden studied more than 1 million Swedish 16-19-year old males and gave them strength tests at the beginning of the...Continue reading