Well, in a page from other recreational use drugs like the modern day painkillers, it seems that there is another use for the beloved male erectile dysfunction and male sexual enhancement drug extraordinaire, Viagra.  It seems that athletes have taken it upon themselves to take the drug Viagra, and maybe even some other viagra alternatives, to help increase their stamina and capacity for performance in sports.

While there is no direct evidence that Viagra can help enhance performance in athletes, there has been a study done on bikers, and they appaerntly could bike a lot further when they were on the male erectile drug Viagra.  We know that the way Viagra works is that it increases the blood flow in the body, which means that it also increases the blood flow the male penis, and actually is even being tested as a female sexual enhancement drug as well since it is thought to also increase the blood flow and sensation to the feminine sexual areas which increases the pleasure perception and response.

It would make sense that it could also enhance athletic performance, or at least be perceived to do so, because it is essentially enhancing the body’s ability to pump out more blood, which means more oxygen, which means that the capacity for oxygen and using it up becomes greater.  That’s all theoretical though, and of course experts are disagreeing that there is even any real, tangible benefit for athletes. 

In fact, Viagra and similar drugs are being looked at for a possible ban in the sports world, if they can in fact boost performance and give competitors an unfair advantage similar to those that “dope” and those that are all natural. 

Well, it was only a matter of time before this happened and most states realized that abstinence education falls on (mostly) deaf ears, and that this type of education and self respect coaching really occurs as it should, at a child’s home.  At least that’s my belief and you can refute it if you’d like.  Many states now are refusing to shell out grant money for abstinence education. 

Abstinenece education is really just programs that are designed to educate kids in their early years of the virtues of not getting into bed with anyone, aka not having sex until you’re ready and it means something, as in marriage for example.  Sure, this sort of education has moral and even religious undertones, but most parents would definitely like their kids to be on board with this sort of moral and self respectful value since there are so many risks of sex including pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and not to mention the psychological effects sex can have on people who are not yet mature enough to handle the repercussions and emotion strings. 

The Bush administration was fairly big at offering federal grant money for these abstinence programs, but many states are pushing these offerings aside, because of the increasing skepticism that abstinence education even makes any difference at all in an adolescent’s decision making process and paradigms about premarital and early sexual activity.

Around 50 million bucks was actually budgeted for these programs this year alone, and you’d expect US states to be chomping at the bit to get their part of this, but most are convinced it does not do much good.  And most statistics do back this up.  Also, states, when they accept this grant money, have to also chip in a little of their own, reducing it’s appeal even further.

Some also feel that the teachings of abstaining are just too strict and are not realistic for today’s world, and instead should focus on first, choice, and second, on how to go about having the safest sex possible if you choose to do so in your teens.  Many states complained that the curriculum for these programs was just too strict and there wasn’t enough room for interpretation or state specific teachings to be worth it.  The whole abstinence program was started as part of a bid for welfare reform by the federal government and is now looking like it soon may be extinct.

A banned aphrodisiac that is sold quietly in head shops and sex shops, has caused a death in a 35 year old man, and it may be that the hunt for this natural aphrodisiac is on again by the FDA since it is obviously still being used or may still be available in certain spots for men to use.  However, one issue that is making it harder for enforcers to identify to take it off the shelves is that fact that the product is sold under several different names, including Piedra, Love Stone, Black Stone and Chinese Rock and Jamaican Stone.

The “natural” male enhancement product, which is sold in a solid form and purports to act as a natural aphrodisiac by being rubbed on the skin, is a  solidified mass which contains toad venom, the culprit in the health problems most likely.  It was outlawed when the FDA discovered it was linked with other males deaths and severe health complications. 

The most recent man who died from the toad venom aprhodisiac, it is said, had ingested the product, rather than rubbed it on his skin as indicated, however officials are careful to note that this product was banned for a reason, and it is not safe to use in any way, shape or form, whether taken by mouth or rubbed on the skin. 

A chemical byproduct of the toad venom derived aphrodisiac apparently interrupts the heart rhythm.  The 35 year old man who died was complaining of abdominal pain as well as chest pain when admitted to a hospital, however nothing could be done to save him, and it sounds as though he died of heart complications. 

Although the warning against this dangerous male enhancement product was issued for New York City, where the latest problem occurred, the FDA wants all men to know that if they have a product that is in solid form that is in any way suspect of being this one, do not take it.  It could literally mean the difference between life and death. 

It’s something that I guess a lot of women watch, but to be honest I had never heard of it, except for maybe a reference to a woman’s sex talk show on the Oxygen network, which is a network especially for women, which most men tend to avoid because it is very female directed, kind of how women might avoid the “Spike TV” channel, ya know.

The sex talk show called Talk Sex is ending, and the show’s host, who looks like she could be anyone’s grandmother - a new age Dr. Ruth sort of, says that she’s sad it’s ending, but all good things do come to an end after all.  The show talks frankly about sexual issues, and takes callers much like many other sex talk shows has, including the infamous Dr. Ruth’s talks shows in the past.

Johanson has been on the air in one form or another for 32 years, and is 77 years old, and she said that since the show is a taped one because of the callers they take, it was difficult for her to stay up late, which ended up being about one o’clock when taping was done.  This would mean, I guess that she wasn’t getting home for a while after that! 

The talk show supposedly was garnering it’s best ratings ever over the recent few years, so it’s a shame she’s hanging up her sex talk shoes, but she does say that she will still give lectures because she loves large audiences and loves the spotlight, and of course she enjoys talking about sex!  Who says you have to be a certain age to still want to talk about it?

Boy, I smelled this one coming when the news broke that the girl who calls herself Ashley Alexander Dupre (what a horrible name by the way, her real name is better), was supposedly bargaining with the creator of Girls Gone Wild’s Joe Francis, or at least with his people, to make an appearance for them as an obvious boost for their business since her name has been flashed allover the news now for a while. 

Since things have died down for the call girl after news of her being the prostitute who former governor Elliot Spitzer had trysts with every so often, she may be seeing a huge decline in her offers and opportunities, so it makes perfect sense that she is now suing Girls Gone Wild for ten million dollars. 

What happened is they originally offered her one million dollars to use her likeness to promote the videos they are so well known for, but when they were going through old video, they hit the jackpot so to speak and found that Dupre, then seventeen years old back in 2003, had already been filmed by the film crew partially nude and had signed a release. 

So the million bucks was off the table.  Maybe they should have been smart and just given her the million since technically now she could get ten million if she proves her case that her release was not a valid or equitable one and that she didn’t know what she was doing when she signed the release.  I even remember reading Joe Francis said that he just “saved himself a million” bucks or something to that affect and thought, wow, Ms. Dupre’s not gonna like that one bit, so this lawsuit doesn’t really shock me, needless to say!   

The front man of now defunct band (well, none of the original members are intact except for him), Guns ‘n Roses, Axl Rose, seems to have done something awful and inexcusable to his face, as more and more men are doing under bad judgement in an effort to stay younger looking.  It looks like Axl has gotten a facelift, which is almost never a good idea whether you’re a guy or girl in my opinion.

Recent pictures show Axl, who looks almost like his face has been scarred in a fire or something - it looks as if he got a seriously botched face
lift.  Other celebrity men who appear to have gone under the knife in a serious, and not undoable way are Mickey Rourke and possibly Michael
Douglas, although I will say that Michael’s work looks better on him now that it’s had time to “settle”.

Axl’s been well known to be somewhat of a diva, and he is usually the one blamed in the demise of the trend setting group Guns ‘n Roses, who were just hitting their high peak when I was almost ready to graduate high school.  Axl and his band were kind of like the anti hair band, but also didn’t represent the alternative crew either, so they were almost like a new breed of hard rock meets metal.

It’s a shame the guys couldn’t work it out.  With Slash as one of the best guitarists of our time, and talented guys on bass and drums as well,
they were truly a band to be reckoned with, and their original sound and lyrics made them even more revolutionary.  Stories of Axl’s temper made news a lot, and then he made an appearance a few years ago that was critically smashed at an awards show, where he also showed off his “new face” to horrified fans.

Did you know that men love liposuction just about as much as women?  Well, let me back up a bit here, what I mean to say is that for men specifically, this type of elective cosmetic surgery happens to enjoy a prestigious spot in the top five elective surgeries that men choose to get.  Yes, men are insecure about their extra belly fat and flanks too!  Among other top men’s cosmetic surgeries reported are also eyelid work, to fix drooping eyelids, which is a common problem men have as they age.

There really isn’t anything different about the way liposuction is performed on men between how it’s performed on women though.  The surgeons are still board certified by the plastic surgery board (they better be!), they use a vaccuum type suction to pull the fat out, and under regular liposuction, as opposed to the less invasive smartlipo, they go under general anesthesia, which is probably the riskiest part about full on liposuction, and the reason I’d recommend trying something like smartlipo instead unless you’re looking for a more drastic fat reduction.

The difference between smartlipo and liposuction is that the patient does not need to go under for smartlipo, and a small canula is used rather than a larger tube that sucks more fat out.  A local anesthetic is used in smartlipo, and there is minimal downtime and supposedly not as much bruising, however what smartlipo can do is a bit more limited as far as fat removal, so it is recommended only for spot reduction - say if you have a double chin or something like that you want minimized. 

Liposuction is not anything to be taken lightly, whether you’re a man or a women though.  It has a high incident of infection and a lot of pain, swelling and downtime compared to other less invasive fat removal techniques, but if you need more fat gone it might be the way to go.  Also, going under anesthesia is never preferable since people may have a bad response to it.  Just look at the story about the cheerleader in her teens that died from a reaction to anesthesia.  It’s always best to just try to lose the weight from the belly or wherever else you’re having problems first. 

Men’s health is pretty much the same as women’s health concerns, except when it comes for a few things that women simply don’t have or men simply don’t have, like a prostate or breasts for example.  One of the ways that men and women no longer differ though, when it comes to men’s health screenings and testing now, is bone health. 

It used to be the primary concern in bone health was for women to get screenings for bone density, since due to higher levels of the hormone estrogen in women, women are more susceptible to osteoporosis, which is a condition where the bones becomes porous and are more easily damaged and broken.  I know that the women in my family have not been succeptible to this, so for example, I might be one of the safer ones when it comes to the likelihood of whether I will get osteoporosis.

Not only is there just a bone screening test now, for both men and women (by the way, it’s men over seventy years old who are going to want to be most concerned with having their bone density checked), but they also factor in other variables which may help predict how likely a man or woman is to break a bone in the near future, such as whether or not a parent had ever broken a hip, which would put them in a higher risk category, since genetics is looked at in osteoporosis. 

While post menopausal women are still at the highest risk for osteoporosis, and will be the group most targeted for getting in to get bone mineral density xrays and other tests of the like, men over seventy will still be encouraged to participate as a precaution as well, and also be given men’s health supplements with calcium and other minerals and nutrients which help to fortify bone strength and naturally encourage a denser bone that is less likely to break under pressure from a fall or other similar trauma. 

Boy, do I love my omelets on the weekends.  There’s nothing better than an omelet - made with real eggs, instead of that egg substitute, which is ok but just doesn’t have the same flavor and texture as real eggs sometimes.  Add in some cheese, onions and another big diet no no, bacon, and you’ve got yourself a little slice of heaven on earth for breakfast.  Of course, there’s a load of sodium fat and cholesterol, especially if you used the whole egg yolk, but who’s counting? 

Well, you should be, especially if you’re a middle aged male.  Apparently studies have shown a link between the consumption of seven or more eggs per week in men and a higher death rate.  Now, seven eggs may not seem like much, but that means you’d be eating two eggs at least for 3 days or more a week, and it should be easy to cut this way back if this is your current practice.  You may need to find a substitute for your breakfasts, or other foods that you may cook with eggs in them, if you want to comply with this new one.

While the study found a definite correlation between high egg consumption in middle aged men and earlier death rates, especially in men who were diabetic who should be able to eat eggs safely, it did not address at all why the eggs may cause earlier death, in other words, why nutritionally they have been labeled as “ok” for consumption.

For some reason they cut off at the odd number of seven, but if you were to eat up to six eggs per week you supposedly, as a man, did not have this higher chance of an early death.  Wow - comforting, right?  Not really.  Hopefully the next step in this study will be to determine what exactly is it in eggs that causes this strange correlation, and why is it just going over six eggs that causes them to suddenly become a danger to your longevity? 

When I first read the headline, and then also saw a sensational teaser on a local news station, I thought wow, a man has truly conceived?  This must be the most amazing thing in human history that’s recently happened.  A medical and anatomical impossibility, right?  Wrong.  What they didn’t disclose in the sensationalistic title of the news story was that the “man” was actually a former female who went through a sex change.

And, further, what makes this story even less interesting is that the former female “man” also didn’t undergo a full sex change, which means all of her female sexual parts were still intact so that she could still become pregnant, even if she were taking hormones, etc.  Not so exceptional a story anymore, huh? 

I have to rant a bit here.  I get really tired of the “news” making headlines that are sensationalistic so much so that they almost lie to the reader, to get them to read what is ultimately a really lame and boring story that is nothing less than un-extraordinary.  This news story I’m sure got clicked on a lot on all the news sites it was on, and also got watched a lot on the news shows that were clever enough to disguise the fact that it was in fact a former female that was pregnant and not a biologically born man, to get you to watch the story in hopes of seeing some new medical anomale.  No, it was really just a farce! 

In the pictures you see the man’s obviously “manly” belly protruding with what looks like an obvious pregnancy, so it does appear the pregnancy is real.  It does make you look twice at the pictures when you see a hairy belly with a protruding pregnant look to it, I have to admit, but that hope that its’ a new medical mystery is dashed as soon as you read further. 

Enough with the sensationalist headlines!  And while we’re at it, can we stop making celebirty’s lives newsworthy?  The obsession with celebrity is really disgusting these days, especially when you see it as the second headline down on major journalistic, supposedly respected news leaders like CNN and MSNBC.