Fatherhood decreases testosterone?

Posted September 21, 2011 at 8:51 pm

from Parenting.com

A new study sheds some interesting light on what being a father does to the human body, reports the New York Times (and, no, it has nothing to do with sympathy weight gain or getting covered in spit-up or pee).

Once a man becomes a dad, his testosterone levels take a significant dip, especially if he’s a hands-on dad, the study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  found.

Researchers say this big life change and the resulting biological change is hard scientific evidence that men are hormonally wired to be involved in their children’s lives.

Researchers first measured testosterone levels in a group of men in the Philippines at age 21, when they were single and childless, and then again five years later.

Though testosterone levels drop with [continue]…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

Do you listen to what your body is telling you?

Posted September 20, 2011 at 3:55 am

by Mark Sisson

Question: what does your body feel like right now? Go ahead. Take an inventory. From the toes to the head, what’s going on in there at the present moment? How’s your back? How’s your stomach? Your head? How about muscles? Your energy level and mood? Is your thinking clear this morning?

Good and bad, what signals are you getting? Beyond the here and now, what’s your body been trying to tell you lately? Any changes since beginning the Challenge? Most important of all perhaps – are you accustomed to listening to what your body has to say?

Everything about our culture, it seems, discourages us from doing just that. From the commercials insisting we don’t need to put up with that headache to the glorification of binge drinking, taking a body’s hint isn’t exactly at the top of most people’s list of talents or priorities.

Why live with that pesky fever when you can simply beat it back with 1000 milligrams of extra strength head-in-the-sand? Indigestion from eating that second Big Mac today? Try some Pepcid AC.

Think about it. People bring a kind of pride to pushing through the [continue]…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

On going gluten-free

Posted September 16, 2011 at 1:43 am

by Harry Newton

Gluten is found in all wheat, barley and rye products. Many people are allergic to it. They may become malnourished because the carbohydrate energy they would normally get  from gluten goes straight through their body without being absorbed.

That can damage the small intestine. It can also cause weird allergic reactions. By stripping gluten from your diet you can cure strange symptoms — not normally associated with what’s known now as celiac disease. Novak Djokovic was diagnozed with celiac, went off gluten and went on to become this year’s US Open champion.

I wrote about gluten yesterday. Many readers wrote in, commenting that by going gluten-free, they or their friends and relatives had achieved remarkable improvements in their health. The comments are worth reading. Click here…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

Prostate cancer can be beaten

Posted September 6, 2011 at 1:28 am

The Marietta Times

It’s a time of the year when we urge readers to be aware — a time to look for something before it occurs.

September annually is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and this campaign serves as an important reminder to be aware of what is truly a “silent disease” growing.

Prostate cancer, the most common form of cancer in the United States, also is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men.

This cancer can develop without obvious symptoms, hence the “silent killer” label, but it definitely doesn’t have to be.

Early detection is so important in slowing down the disease.

Statistics from the National Prostate Cancer Coalition show approximately 317,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and approximately 41,000 will die as a result of the disease.

In an effort to make area residents more aware of the seriousness of prostate cancer, health officials are marking Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.

Men should know that nearly 100 percent of those diagnosed with prostate cancer are [continue]…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

The best places to raise your kids

Posted August 30, 2011 at 3:59 am

by Venessa Wong and Joel Stonington

No matter how hard you try, raising a family is complicated, not to mention expensive. For parents juggling concerns about their children’s safety, schools, expenses, and after school activities—and who also need to go to work on top of all this—living in the right place won’t solve all problems, but it can offer their children more opportunities and enhance the family’s lifestyle.

In our fifth annual ranking of best places to raise kids, Bloomberg and Businessweek.com shifted our focus from large, urbanized places to smaller towns and cities.

Using 2010 data from Onboard Informatics, a real estate information and technology company in New York, we evaluated a total of 5,418 locations nationwide with populations larger than the state median but no larger than 50,000. We considered only locations where the median income is within 20 percent of the state’s median.

The rankings put the most weight on school performance and the number of schools, crime statistics, and cost of living. Other factors included job growth, air quality, ethnic diversity, and access to recreational amenities (within the county), such as parks, zoos, theaters, and museums.

The following places we selected are neither rich suburbs nor havens for luxury living—so don’t expect to find mansions and elite country clubs (although some areas will have them). Rather, these are communities inhabited mostly by middle-income earners that have good public schools, low crime, and resources to keep the family entertained on weekends.

Click here to see the best place in each state to raise a family…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

How to Live Forever (results may vary)

Posted July 15, 2011 at 3:55 am

Director Mark Wexler embarks on a worldwide trek to investigate just what it means to grow old and what it could mean to really live forever.

But whose advice on immortality should he take? Does a chain-smoking, beer-drinking centenarian marathoner have all the answers? What about an elder porn star or the world’s oldest person?

Wexler contrasts these unusual characters with the insights of health, fitness and life extension experts in his engaging new documentary, which challenges our notions of youth and aging with comic poignancy.

Begun as a boomer’s quest for the fountain of youth, How To Live Forever evolves into a thought-provoking examination of what truly gives life meaning.

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

Can Magnets Cure Depression?

Posted July 13, 2011 at 5:21 pm

by Clare Wilson

Anyone who remembers high-school physics knows that a fluctuating magnetic field can induce an electrical current. That’s the principle behind transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), where an electromagnet is held over the head and pulsed rapidly. Depending on the frequency of the pulses, this can either enhance or suppress activity in neurons a few centimetres under the skull.

TMS is seen as one of the safer forms of brain stimulation, as it requires no surgery. Yet it is not completely risk free: some people experience pain in the scalp, headaches or facial spasms. More concerning were the 10 cases of seizures triggered by TMS in the first few years of its use.

Fortunately these became very rare once those administering TMS learned to limit the intensity and frequency of the stimulation and give patients regular breaks in treatment. TMS was leapt on as the perfect research tool. Much knowledge of the brain has come from people who have had a stroke or head injury – the mental abilities they lack reveal the role of the damaged area. TMS allows researchers to disable parts of the brain at will in a way that is completely reversible.

The method has also been tried out in numerous medical conditions and forms of enhancement. But many of the studies are regarded sceptically, because it is hard to control for the placebo effect. Researchers have typically tried to give half the volunteers fake therapy with the TMS machine turned off, but people often know if they are getting real treatment or not by the presence or absence of the characteristic physical signs.

TMS has now been approved in the US for treating severe depression.

The downside is that patients need to go to a [continue]…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

Four Warning Signs of a Bad Heart

Posted July 13, 2011 at 12:23 pm

by Donna V. Scaglione

Our hearts are amazing little muscles. They are slightly larger than our fists, yet they are powerful enough to supply our organs, limbs, and complex inner systems with the blood and nutrients they need to keep our bodies functioning and healthy.

Most of the time our hearts go about their business of beating 100,000 times a day pumping about 2,000 gallons of blood, and we barely notice. But as we age, our hearts become more vulnerable to the wear and tear of our lifestyles.

Some 785,000 American have first-time heart attacks annually and one-third of all deaths in the United States are from cardiovascular disease, according to the journal Circulation.

Would you notice if something were wrong with your heart?

Consider these warning signs [continue]…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

Why Exercise Makes You Feel Good

Posted July 12, 2011 at 1:13 am

 by Gretchen Reynolds

Why does exercise make us happy and calm? Almost everyone agrees that it generally does, a conclusion supported by research. A survey by Norwegian researchers published this month, for instance, found that those who engaged in any exercise, even a small amount, reported improved mental health compared with Norwegians who, despite the tempting nearness of mountains and fjords, never got out and exercised.

A separate study, presented last month at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, showed that six weeks of bicycle riding or weight training eased symptoms in women who’d received a diagnosis of anxiety disorder.

The weight training was especially effective at reducing feelings of irritability, perhaps (and this is my own interpretation) because the women felt capable now of pounding whomever or whatever was irritating them.

But just how, at a deep, cellular level, exercise affects anxiety and other moods has been difficult to pin down.

The brain is physically inaccessible and [continue]…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments

3 Ounces of This a Day May Be Harming Your Brain

Posted July 10, 2011 at 11:32 am

by Dr. Mercola

Eating wheat may not be beneficial to your health. Among many other reasons, each grain contains about one microgram of Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA). Even in small quantities, WGA can have profoundly adverse effects. It may be pro-inflammatory, immunotoxic, cardiotoxic … and neurotoxic.

According to an article on Green Med Info:

    “WGA can pass through the blood brain barrier (BBB) through a process called ‘adsorptive endocytosis’ … WGA may attach to the protective coating on the nerves known as the myelin sheathand is capable of inhibiting nerve growth factor which is important for the growth, maintenance, and survival of certain target neurons. WGA binds to N-Acetylglucosamine which is believed to function as an atypical neurotransmitter functioning in nocioceptive (pain) pathways.”

Full story…

Add Your Comment | 0 Comments