A Health Adventure

Approximately 40 per cent of Thai men aged 40 up suffer erectile dysfunction, a condition in which a man is unable to achieve or maintain an erection, said a Thai expert on sexual impotence.


Sexual health specialist Dr. Wanchai Nairakseri said that according to the recent study, some 40 per cent of Thai men aged between 40-70 years experience some degree of erectile dysfunction (ED).


The major causes are a decline in the male hormone, testosterone, as well as cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Other factors that contribute to ED include alcohol consumption, smoking, a lack of exercise, as well as stress and anxiety, the doctor said.


The study found that two-fifths of Thai men with ED do not seek medical treatment from doctors for the condition, due to their feelings of embarrassment, according to Dr. Wanchai.


The doctor encouraged those experiencing sexual impotence to consult physicians in order to receive a correct diagnosis and treatment. Patients should not neglect their own health or take medicines on their own without a physician's prescription because improper medications might cause serious harm and even death.


Erectile dysfunction can be a major threat to personal and family well-being.


To prevent such a consequence, patients should seek proper treatment as the condition is treatable if it is diagnosed early and the right drug is prescribed, Dr. Wanchai said.


Source:http://www.bangkokpost.com

The prevalence and outcome of ED therapy among long-term prostate cancer (CaP) survivors is reported by Dr. Miller and colleagues at the University of Michigan in the July 2006 issue of Urology.


A cohort of 896 men was studied. Of these, 665 had undergone radical prostatectomy (RP), 147 had conformal radiotherapy (RT), 84 had brachytherapy (BT) and 112 men were controls without CaP. Patients completed surveys and the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite to measure sexual HRQOL.


The overall response rate to the survey was 72.5%. Of the RP treated men, bilateral nerve sparing was performed in 66%. Patients treated with RT were on average 8 years older than the RP cohort. Hormonal therapy was used twice as commonly in the BT patients compared to RP or RT patients. More than 80% of patients were married or involved in a relationship.


CaP patients used ED therapy more often than did controls (30% vs. 13%). Overall, 61% had used at least one ED treatment, but over 50% of RT and BT men reported never receiving treatment of ED compared with 30% of RP patients. RP patients were more likely to be using ED therapy (38%) compared to RT men (17%) and BT patients (19%). Interestingly, sexual bother was rated as small to none in 38% of BT, 51% of RP and 57% of RT patients who concurrently reported poor quality or no erections. In fact, CaP patients who had adequate erections for unaided intercourse still reported greater use of ED therapy. More favorable sexual function was found associated with marital status, household income and use of at least one ED medication therapy.


URL:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

Viagra has improved sex for millions of men and has generated $12 billion in sales for Pfizer Inc. Now the erection pill is providing the world's biggest drugmaker clues to a new way to fight schizophrenia.


Researchers at Pfizer are using insights into Viagra to design experimental drugs that may improve on Zyprexa, the best- selling schizophrenia remedy from Eli Lilly & Co., with $4.2 billion in sales last year. Viagra causes an erection by turning off an enzyme in the body. Blocking similar chemicals in the brain may silence the hallucinations typical of schizophrenia, the researchers say.


A better schizophrenia drug would be a boon for New York- based Pfizer and the 2.5 million Americans who suffer the debilitating mental disorder. Pfizer's current schizophrenia medicine, Geodon, had only 4 percent of the $15 billion spent worldwide in 2005 for anti-psychotic drugs. Researchers say the new Viagra-like compounds will be developed only if shown in human tests to be safer and more effective than existing drugs.


``We believe this drug is going to be different,'' says Frank Menniti, a scientist at Pfizer's Groton, Connecticut, labs. ``Our job isn't just to make another anti-psychotic. We need to make a better anti-psychotic than what is out there.''


Starting in 1998, company researchers began probing the role that a family of enzymes called phosphodiesterases play in the human body, says Martin Jefson, a Pfizer scientist. Viagra works by inhibiting one of the enzymes in the group. The scientists figured drugs similar to Viagra that block other forms of the enzyme might be useful in other diseases, according to Jefson.


Source:http://www.bloomberg.com

Researchers found evidence that suggests Crohn's disease is caused by a weak immune response.
The study, published in The Lancet, also suggest that Sildenafil ( Viagra ) might help in the treatment of the disease.


Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder that causes ulcerations in the small and large intestines. Many researchers consider Crohn's to be an autoimmune disease -- an illness that occurs when the body tissues are attacked by its own immune system. However, Anthony Segal, at University College London, UK, and colleagues found that the inflammation in Crohn's arises due to a weak immune response.


The investigators looked at the quantities of neutrophils that patients with Crohn's disease produce in response to trauma at sites in the bowel and on the skin surface. They found that in response to trauma, Crohn's disease patients produced much lower quantities of neutrophils and inflammatory mediators when compared with healthy individuals. Cultured blood cells were also abnormal in the patients. To test the inflammatory response to bacteria, the team also measured local inflammatory and blood flow changes in participants after injecting a harmless form of Escherichia Coli under their skin. In the healthy controls, blood flow in the area of inflammation increased approximately ten-fold by 24 hours. Crohn's disease patients, however, had much lower blood flow than controls. The researchers found that the abnormally low blood flow in Crohn's patients could be corrected by treatment with Sildenafil, indicating a possible role for the drug in the treatment of the disease.


The authors believe that in Crohn's disease, reduced or delayed recruitment of neutrophils to sites at which bacteria penetrate the intestinal wall might lead to the persistence of bacteria and other organic debris in the tissue. The body may respond to this build up of bacteria by secreting inflammatory molecules, which accumulate and lead to the development of chronic inflammation typical of Crohn's.


Source:http://www.xagena.it

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