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					  <title><![CDATA[Medical Mysteries, She Wrote]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/985/1/Medical-Mysteries-She-Wrote/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
Why is hitting your funny bone anything but funny? Does sneezing really make your eyes pop out of your head? And why, no matter how hard you try, can't you stop from yawning when the person next to you yawns? Here are some of life's little medical mysteries -- solved.
Hitting Your Funny Bone
The funny thing is, the funny bone isn't a bone at all, but a nerve, and hitting it is anything but funny -- in fact, it's painful.
The nerve that is referred to as the funny bone is the ulnar nerve, which extends down the arm, across the elbow, and into the hand. It provides sensation to the little and ring fingers and activates many of the muscles in the hand, according to the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons web site.
&#34;The ulnar nerve happens to be very superficially placed in the back of your elbow,&#34; says Ed Toriello, MD, a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.&#160; &#34;At this spot, it lies directly under the skin and runs in a hard, bony groove on its way to your hand.&#34;
Why is hitting it guaranteed to make you cringe with pain, rather than laugh, as its nickname suggests?
&#34;Nerves are very temperamental and sensitive structures,&#34; says Toriello, who is an orthopaedic surgeon in private practice in New York. &#160;&#34;For this reason, nerves generally course deep in muscles, where they are protected from direct contact with the things we bump into&#160;during our normal course of living.&#160; The ulnar nerve at the elbow is an exception, because it lies in a spot that is very vulnerable and protected only by a thin layer of skin.&#34;
When you bump the back of your elbow directly over the ulnar nerve, it's caught between what you hit and the bony groove, explains Toriello. A painful electrical impulse is discharged from the nerve, which runs through the arm and into the little and ring fingers.
So shouldn't it be called the painful nerve, instead of the funny bone? One theory is that the name funny bone is a pun on the Latin word humerus, which describes the part of the arm between the shoulder and the elbow, according to the Indiana University School of Medicine web site, Sound Medicine.
Another theory is that the &#34;funny&#34; in funny bone means strange rather than ha-ha.
&#34;My suspicion is that the first person who experienced this sensation when he or she struck their elbow did not find it fun, but rather found it an odd sensation since it didn't seem to happen when they bumped other parts of their body,&#34; says Toriello.&#160; &#34;So I think 'funny' in this context really means 'odd or 'strange.'&#34;
Mystery solved.
Eye-Popping Information
Let's get one thing straight: &#34;It is very unlikely our eyes will extrude or 'pop out' if we sneeze too forcefully,&#34; says Brian Smart, MD, chairman of the Asthma and Allergy Center of the DuPage Medical Group in Illinois.
Well, if the reason we close our eyes when we sneeze isn't to keep them from popping out of our heads, then why bother?
&#34;Similar to the reflex that occurs when your knee kicks after it's hit with a medical hammer, or the way your hand pulls away from something hot when you burn it, closing your eyes when you sneeze is a powerful reflex,&#34; says Smart, who is also a spokesman for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. &#34;You can try and force yourself to keep your eyes open when you sneeze, but it's hard to do.&#34;
Another piece of folklore: We sneeze with our eyes closed to keep the stuff we sneeze out from getting in our eyes. Survey says?
&#34;It is also unlikely that the substances we sneeze will get into our eyes, since the substances we sneeze travel some distance,&#34; says Smart. &#34;Incidentally, the fact that we sneeze a considerable distance leads me to remind people to always cover their mouths when they sneeze. This will help slow the spread of respiratory disease, and is simply good manners.&#34;
Don't forget to say gesundheit.
Reading This Will Make You Yawn
Sometimes, even thinking about yawning will make you yawn. And when the person next to you does it, forget about it -- you'll yawn, too. With all this talk about yawning, in fact, you've probably already yawned.
&#34;A yawn is an instinctive behavior: You don't have to learn to do it, and yawns are even present before birth,&#34; says Robert Provine, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Is the myth that yawns are actually contagious true?
&#34;When one person in a group yawns, over half of the people in the group will yawn within five minutes, and the rest will at least be tempted to yawn,&#34; says Provine, who has been researching yawning for more than 20 years. &#34;What is surprising is that virtually anything having to do with yawning triggers a contagious reaction.&#34;
Provine explains that while yawning is highly contagious, so are other human behaviors, like laughter, and this reaction is actually very normal -- and ancient.
&#34;When you see someone else yawn, you don't think to yourself, 'Well, I'll yawn, too,&#34; says Provine. &#34;It just happens -- it's instinctive, and it's a very primal aspect of human behavior that goes back to ancient herd mentality.&#34;
Mysteries, Solved
Now that you know why yawns are contagious and why your funny bone should actually be called a painful nerve, here are other medical mysteries, unraveled:
Why do you lose your sense of taste when your nose is stuffy? According to the American Academy of Family Physicians web site, the flavor of food involves both taste and smell. If your nose is stuffy, you are left to rely on only half of the flavor equation: just your taste buds, and those buds can only differentiate between four or five different molecules, while the nose can distinguish between about 10,000. In short, your nose knows.
Is brain freeze really your brain gone cold? In an editorial in the British Medical Journal, author Joseph Hulihan describes ice cream headache, commonly known as brain freeze, as a pain that begins a few seconds after eating cold foods or beverages, peaks in 30-60 seconds, and is located in the mid frontal area of the brain. Why does it occur? It's been studied as an example of referred pain, or pain that starts in one part of the body, but is felt in another. In the case of brain freeze, the pain originates in the mouth and is referred through the tongue to the brain. The good news is that brain freeze isn't deadly, and no treatment is usually required. In fact, writes Hulihan, &#34;Ice cream abstinence is not indicated.&#34;
Why can't you get the Disney ditty &#34;It's a Small World&#34; out of your head? According to a University of Cincinnati news release, marketing professor James J. Kellaris, PhD, explains that this song is a leading earworm -- a tune that gets stuck in your head and won't let go. Earworms are experienced by more than 97% of the population, according to the release, and drive a person crazy from a few hours to over a week.&#160; Why do earworms strike? Overexposure to music can play a role, as can stress, fatigue, or pressure. So relax, and let earworms find someone else to feed on.
Sleep Tight
Now that you know the answers to some of life's medical mysteries, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite.
(One last mystery solved: Bed bugs aren't only the stuff of childhood rhymes: they're real, and they do bite. Think you have bed bugs? They're 1/4 inch long, reddish-brown, and are usually detected by welts and irritations on the skin that aren't there when you go to bed but are when you wake up, according to the University of Kentucky Entomology web site. Solution? Call pest control.)Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>peter78b@gmail.com (Peter Hill)</author>
					  <pubDate>Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
					 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/985/1/Medical-Mysteries-She-Wrote/Page1.html</guid>
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					  <title><![CDATA[Cancers and Black Women]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/982/1/Cancers-and-Black-Women/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
While cancer takes a heavy toll on all Americans, research shows that black women are at greater risk than white women of developing or dying from a handful of cancers, including those of the breast, colon/rectum, lungs, and cervix.
On the other hand, data from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) also show that black women are less likely than white women to be diagnosed with other cancers that can be harder to detect, grow more rapidly and defy treatment, such as ovarian cancer, melanoma, and leukemia.
Black women's health advocates say the single best thing you can do to lower your risk of cancer is to sit down with your elders and get a sense of your family's medical history. Knowing your family tree can help you decide what kinds of screening tests to ask for and lifestyle changes to make.
&#34;I happened to know that my grandmother had breast cancer because she showed me the scar,&#34; says Faith Fancher, a breast cancer survivor whose mother was among the first black family practitioners in the state of Tennessee. &#34;But that is something that I think most (black) women don't know.&#34;
Here are four of the most common cancers among black women, along with what you can do to protect yourself:
&#160;


Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer death among black women and by far the most common cancer among all women, black or white. The incidence of breast cancer is lower among African-American women, yet this group has a higher rate of breast cancer deaths -- possibly because cancers tend to be detected at a later stage in blacks than whites. 
Consequently, black women are less likely to survive when cancer strikes: Their 5-year survival rate is 71%, compared with 87% for white women. The survival rate for black women jumps to 89% if the cancer is diagnosed before it has spread. Yet 44% of newly diagnosed breast cancers found in African-American women have spread to areas beyond the breast compared with 35% for white women.
What to do: Breast self-exam and mammography are vital; early diagnosis is critical. Charles J. McDonald, MD, past president of the American Cancer Society (ACS), says black women should undergo their first mammograms at age 30, a full 10 years before the recommended age for white women. The National Medical Association, a national organization for African-American physicians, also supports early screening. Breast self-exam should begin as soon as a girl menstruates, McDonald says. Black women might also consider a low-fat diet and regular exercise, both of which have been shown in studies to lower a woman's risk of breast cancer, decrease heart disease, and improve overall well-being.
&#160;

Colorectal cancer is a case of good news, bad news: The drop in deaths from colorectal cancers since the early 1990s is the second-biggest reason for the overall decline in cancer deaths among women. Yet black women continue to be at greater risk for this disease, with a reported 46.7 cases per 100,000 women for the period from 1987 to 1991, compared with a rate of 39.9 among white women. 
As in any other type of cancer, it's important to be tested early, and here, African-Americans have more reason to be vigilant: One reason that colorectal cancer deaths are higher among black Americans is that they are not being screened for the disease as often as other populations, says Deborah Kirkland, manager of the colorectal cancer division for the ACS. A recent study by researchers at Wake Forest University found that the main reason that many low-income, African-American women do not have sigmoidoscopies is that their doctors don't recommend the exam, possibly because they believe that the patient will not be able to pay the cost.
What to do: Talk to your doctor about the three standard screening options for colorectal cancer: a yearly fecal occult blood test plus a flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years, a colonoscopy every 10 years, or a barium enema every 5 to 10 years.
Currently, the ACS recommends that testing begin at age 50, but screening can start as early as age 21 for those with a family history of the disease. If you're African-American and you have even one first-generation family member who has been diagnosed with this cancer (a mother, an aunt, and male relatives, too), that's all the reason you need to learn about the tests and ask your doctor when you should begin getting them.
&#160;

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer among black females. It is also one of the most preventable; tobacco smoking is the principal culprit. Unfortunately, lung cancer deaths among black women may grow, given that smoking rates among African-American teenagers have increased over the past 10 years, according to McDonald. 
What to do: Don't smoke. If you do, quit. And if your partner or your teenagers smoke, consider asking them to stop, for your benefit as well as their own. Unfortunately, there is no screening test for lung cancer before symptoms develop, so proactive steps are the only option.
&#160;

Cervical cancer is one cancer that &#34;we're well on the way, in this country, of conquering,&#34; says McDonald. Why? Yearly pelvic exams and Pap smears are effective screening techniques, and thanks to a massive public service campaign during the 1990s, more and more women -- black and white -- are beginning to get the message that these simple tests save lives. 
Nevertheless, the incidence and mortality rates for cervical cancer are higher among black women than for white women. This is likely because black women tend to have fewer Pap smears and not because of genetics. Two studies presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists in February 2000 found that there was no difference in survival rates among black and white women after controlling for factors such as sexual history and access to appropriate medical care.
The incidence of invasive cervical cancer among black women also increases rapidly with age. So older women need to be just as vigilant as young women about getting screened.
What to do: Get your Pap smear regularly -- be religious about it. Don't put it off for any reason. And while you're at it, take your mother with you.
Beatrice Motamedi is a health and medical writer based in Oakland, Calif., who has written for Hippocrates, Newsweek, Wired, and many other national publications. Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>peter68b@gmail.com (Rogger Miller)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
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					  <title><![CDATA[Battling Breast Cancer]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/981/1/Battling-Breast-Cancer/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
&#160;In Faith Fancher's house, high in the hills above San Francisco Bay, her cat Lazarus tiptoes around the living room. Here and there, framed photographs testify to Faith's 27 years as an award-winning TV news reporter.
As in television, each picture tells a story: There's Faith, smiling as she wins a journalism award. There's Faith, tanned and glowing during a trip to Mexico. There's Faith in a black halter dress, looking just like Whitney Houston with her tousled hair and red lipstick.
But look at Faith Fancher herself today, and you see a different woman. 
The woman in the photographs is bald now, curled up on the sofa with Lazarus and wearing an old pair of blue sweatpants. Her hair is gone, all of it, even her eyebrows. &#34;I haven't shaved in eight months,&#34; says Fancher, laughing ruefully. &#34;I look like a peeled egg.&#34;
Like her tousled hair in the photo (actually a wig), Fancher's slinky halter was also an illusion, carefully fitted to hide her port, a plastic tube surgically inserted into her chest through which chemotherapy drugs drip into her bloodstream. Only the red lipstick remains, a vivid reminder that Fancher, 49, is very much alive despite two bouts with breast cancer. 
Diagnosed in 1997, Fancher had a mastectomy. Then last June, she found &#34;a little pimple&#34; in her reconstructed breast, in which a small amount of tissue had been allowed to remain. It was cancerous; Fancher had a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation, which left her too weak to work or even putter in her garden.
Yet she continues to make the rounds of luncheons and fund-raisers, fired by a simple fact that she repeats again and again: While black women are less likely than white women to get breast cancer, they are much more likely to die from it. 
&#34;It knocked me for a loop,&#34; says Fancher, who spends much of her time now lobbying for more money for early-detection programs, including mammography and breast self-exam. &#34;I mean, my first thought was, why are we dying?&#34;
Why, indeed. A study by National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers, published in the journal Archives of Family Medicine in November 1999, revealed an alarming increase in the already troubling gap between black and white mortality rates due to breast cancer, from 16% in 1990 to 29% in 1995. And the NCI data show that the five-year survival rate for black women with breast cancer is 71%, compared with 87% for white women.
Experts have traditionally explained the discrepancy between black and white survival rates by noting that black women tend not to seek help until their cancers are already at an advanced stage. But the authors of the NCI report found that mortality among black women during the 1960s and 1970s was actually lower compared with that of whites until 1981, when mortality for whites began to drop sharply in response to more aggressive screening programs and better chemotherapy protocols. 
And that leads to a disturbing conclusion, says Otis Brawley, MD, one of the study's authors: That black women have somehow been cheated out of the advances that have taken place over the past 20 years in mammography, chemotherapy, and powerhouse drugs such as tamoxifen.
Brawley blames poor access to health care and lower standards of care for black women. &#34;While we have evidence that equal treatment yields equal outcomes, we also have evidence that in breast cancer there is not equal treatment,&#34; says Brawley, who is also head of the NCI's Office of Special Populations. &#34;A lot of black women do not get nearly as good treatment for breast cancer as do white women.&#34; 
One problem is screening: Despite steady increases in mammography use by black women during the 1980s and 1990s, an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in March 2000 said that black women are still less likely than white women to have access to low-cost screening programs where they live.
But others point to a possible genetic cause. &#34;When you look at the biology of the tumors that are often found in African-American women, the tumors are a little bit more aggressive, and the cell types are much more atypical than (those of) the average white woman,&#34; says Charles J. McDonald, MD, a cancer specialist and immediate past president of the American Cancer Society (ACS). Heredity also appears to play a role in why black women get cancer at a younger age, he says. 
According to NCI data, black women are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer before they are 40, when cancers are most aggressive; more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage; and less likely to survive five years after diagnosis. Clinical studies report that black women also are up to twice as likely to be diagnosed with breast cancers that are estrogen-receptor (ER) negative, meaning they resist popular estrogen-blocking drugs, such as tamoxifen, which work by starving ER-positive tumors of the hormone they need to grow.
It all adds up to a puzzling scenario that contrasts sharply with the overall decline in cancer deaths since 1991. Among black women from 1986 to 1997, cancer incidence rose and mortality fell only slightly, whereas among white women incidence has remained relatively steady and mortality has dropped.
While unequal access to health care and poor quality of care are often cited as the reasons behind these numbers, it is tumor biology -- the idea that there may actually be a &#34;black&#34; breast cancer that strikes earlier and grows faster -- that prompts the most fear among black women. Studies have yet to prove it exists, though anecdotal reports suggest a genetic link. 
Zora Brown was just 21 when she sought out a doctor and told a tale so devastating it could have been a Greek myth: Breast cancer in four generations, including her great-grandmother, her grandmother, her mother, and three sisters. 
&#34;My doctor threw her papers up in the air and said, 'Good Lord,' &#34; says Brown, 51, founder of the Breast Cancer Resource Committee, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. Brown's doctor then got on the phone, calling an oncologist, a surgeon, and an internist, who agreed to serve as Brown's medical team.
That team was ready in 1981, when Brown was diagnosed with cancer in her right breast, and again in 1997 when cancer was detected in the left. After two mastectomies, Brown says she is &#34;fit and healthy.&#34; But a niece, Lea, died of breast cancer last year at the age of 29, and Brown says most of the women in her family have tested positively for BRCA-1, the gene linked to breast cancer. 
Brawley says that Brown's case illustrates an uncomfortable truth: While she may be genetically predisposed to breast cancer, it's certain she would have died without good care. &#34;And there's a bunch of black women who don't get optimal therapy,&#34; he says.
The fact that black mortality rates have stubbornly refused to drop in recent years, Brawley says, could be due to higher rates of poverty and obesity among black women, which make them more likely to develop cancers as well as less likely to get good care.
Meanwhile, he worries that talk of a &#34;black&#34; cancer could hurt women on the other end of the income scale. &#34;I meet a whole lot of educated black women (with ER-positive tumors) who won't take tamoxifen because they hear that it hasn't been proven in African-Americans,&#34; Brawley says. 
For Faith Fancher, the answer is to push early detection, a strategy that helps all women of all colors, particularly those at high risk. &#34;I believe in mammography -- that's how I found my first cancer,&#34; says Fancher. &#34;And I believe in breast self-exam -- that's how I found the second one.&#34; 
She also pushes practical help: Her nonprofit group, Friends of Faith, pays for cab fare and child care so that women with cancer can get the treatment they need. Such &#34;micro-grants,&#34; she hopes, will make a difference. &#34;If we are worried that black women are dying at a high rate,&#34; Fancher says, &#34;we ought to do something about it.&#34;
Beatrice Motamedi is a health and medical writer based in Oakland, Calif., who has written for Hippocrates, Newsweek, Wired, and many other national publications. Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>enlargepenisguide.com@gmail.com (Richard Luong)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
					 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/981/1/Battling-Breast-Cancer/Page1.html</guid>
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					  <title><![CDATA[Gynecology for Guys]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/980/1/Gynecology-for-Guys/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
Donald Smith hesitates outside the door of a basement classroom at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Diego, Calif. He's 56, with gray hair, but the anxious expression on his face makes him look like a school kid who forgot his homework.
Before Smith has time to fake a stomach ache, Bruce Bekkar, MD, a Kaiser obstetrician-gynecologist, persuades him to come on in. &#34;You're in the right place,&#34; says Bekkar, who teaches the class called &#34;PMS, the Menopause, and You.&#34;
This three-hour crash course for men about women's anatomy and health concerns is believed to be the only one of its kind in the United States, although Bekkar hopes it will become a trend. His premise is straightforward: Teach men to understand why their wives or girlfriends may sometimes feel crabby, bloated, or on fire. By doing so, relationships are saved, and often grow stronger. Trouble brews, he says, when guys don't understand what their wives or girlfriends are going through.
Soon, Smith is sitting in the classroom, surrounded by 13 other men, most of whom look as uncomfortable as he does. They busy themselves reading handouts, eyes glued to the printed materials. Bekkar, who has taught the classes monthly for two years and always has a full house, warms them up quickly with his easy lecture style, punctuated by jokes, jazzy slides, and a wit honed by his stand-up stint at a San Diego comedy club. As he teaches the men, women attend a similar class next door to discuss their own concerns about PMS and menopause. Some of them are the girlfriends and wives of the guys in the class.
While most of the men are here because their partners asked them to come, about a third came to the class even though their wives didn't. James, 50, became concerned a few months ago when his wife Jan showed signs of unusual behavior. Three times in six months she forgot to mail the credit card bill. &#34;Never in her life has this happened,&#34; he says. She was feeling stressed-out and out of control. When his wife's friend suggested it could be menopause, James decided to come and get educated.
Ignorance Is Widespread
As his class settles in, Bekkar assures them that they're not the only ones in the dark about women's anatomy. As proof, he displays the drawings he collected at a focus group conducted while the class was in the discussion phase. He asked several men, ranging in age from 25 to 55, to draw and label the female reproductive system as accurately as they could.
He shows three of the winning drawings, which he also includes in his book, Your Guy's Guide to Gynecology, written with his colleague, Udo Wahn, MD. &#34;This is one of the better ones,&#34; says Bekkar, grinning. The &#34;first prize&#34; drawing Bekkar refers to is a childish picture that resembles a faceless rabbit with ears (the ears are actually meant to be the fallopian tubes). Another winning drawing looks like a close-up of the same rabbit, and the third, charitably speaking, could be compared to a flower. And these were drawn, Bekkar points out, by educated men: a banker, a computer consultant, and an administrator.
Undoing the Ignorance
Using a blitz of slides, background music, and nonstop patter, Bekkar plunges in. He shows the men accurate pictures of the female anatomy, drawn simply on a slide with crucial parts labeled. Another slide shows the complicated ebb and flow of hormones during a typical monthly cycle.
Then he introduces premenstrual syndrome, or PMS. PMS is defined as physical or emotional symptoms, or both, that precede menstruation and that are severe enough to disrupt work or other activities.
Most women experience some symptoms, such as breast tenderness, bloating, crying spells, or anxiety, but some women are affected more severely. Women who have PMS, he says, may feel &#34;powerless and guilty. It's not like they wake up and say, 'I'm going to be hard on my partner.' &#34;
Just when stuff begins to get heavy, Bekkar turns comic and shows a slide entitled &#34;The Top Ten List of Things We Don't Recommend You Say to a Woman With PMS&#34; while he plays David Letterman's background music. Among the no-nos: &#34;Hey, those jeans used to be real loose on you, didn't they?&#34; and &#34;Aw, c'mon -- that PMS stuff is all in your head!&#34;
Next, Bekkar turns to menopause. First he defines it (the cessation of monthly periods, occurring on average around age 51), then discusses symptoms (fatigue, hot flashes, forgetfulness, decreased sex drive, heavier periods before they cease entirely), and finally, treatments (synthetic hormones, natural [plant-based] hormone substitutes, and other remedies).
Squashing That Fix-It Mentality
Knowledge is power, but is only part of the equation, says Bekkar. Men must also overcome their urge to fix, fix, fix -- and, instead, &#34;shut up and listen.&#34; He calls these the &#34;four magic words.&#34; The 14 guys in class smirk when they hear this.
To illustrate, Bekkar cites an example of a woman with PMS who has had a hard day at work. She flew off the handle with a co-worker and now feels terrible. At home, she wants to talk to her partner about it. If he's like most men, Bekkar says, her partner quickly suggests how to fix the situation.
Instead, guys should listen, give their partner time to vent, and then ask a question pertaining to what she just said -- showing they really thought about her words.
After Bekkar gave his &#34;shut-up-and-listen&#34; drill at one class, one man approached him during the break and said, &#34;My girlfriend has been telling me this for eight years.&#34; Somehow, hearing it from Bekkar made it ring true.
Helping Out More
Besides listening, a guy whose partner has PMS can help out more around the house when symptoms flare up, be understanding of her moods, and encourage her to exercise. &#34;That does not mean pointing to the door while munching a big bag of Doritos and saying, 'Honey, take a lap around the block,' &#34; Bekkar says. Instead, he suggests, offer to watch young children while she works out or suggest going for a walk together.
Men with partners going through menopause might help by being patient about sex, encouraging their partner to stay on hormones or other medications, if prescribed, and to keep doctor's appointments, Bekkar says. Most women appreciate their partner's help in trying to decide on the best options.
Report Cards
At the end of the class, Bekkar gives each guy a &#34;supportive guy&#34; diploma. At the bottom is a cartoon-like supportive guy, looking muscular in a Superman costume.
Smith, the originally hesitant student, was glad he came. He hoped to gain an understanding of what his girlfriend, 52 and menopausal, was going through -- and he did. He had already mastered some of Bekkar's suggestions: &#34;I try to keep things as mellow as possible,&#34; he says. He also listens -- and reassures. His girlfriend was concerned that her symptoms, particularly her heavy menstrual flow, were getting in the way of the relationship. In true supportive-guy style, he reminded her that relationships aren't all about sex.
As for James, when his wife, Jan, learned he had sought out the class and enrolled, she says, &#34;My first reaction was shock -- that they would have this class and that he would go. It kind of shocked me out of my denial [about menopause]. His going persuaded me to go to the doctor. And I was touched that he cared enough to go.&#34;Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>peter78b@gmail.com (Peter Hill)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
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					  <title><![CDATA[Do I Keep My Breasts]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/979/1/Do-I-Keep-My-Breasts/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
Breast cancer runs in Vicki Small's family. Her mother died of the disease; her sister has battled it. So three years ago the 40-year-old New Jersey woman got tested for the breast cancer gene. Doctors searched for mutations in her DNA, which -- if present -- could give her up to an 80% chance of inheriting the disease.
Although Small was healthy with no hint of cancer, her tests came back positive. She agonized for weeks, then chose a drastic measure that many women in good health would find unthinkable: She decided to have her breasts and ovaries surgically removed. &#34;Although I wanted to have more children, I figured it would be better to be alive for the two I already had,&#34; she says. 
Now that tests are available to identify mutations of the breast cancer gene, known as BRCA, women can find out whether they are at greatly increased risk of developing the disease -- even if they're cancer-free so far. The question is: What should they do with that knowledge? According to a study published in the June 10, 2000 issue of the Lancet, 50% are choosing preventive double mastectomies, meaning that both of their breasts are removed.
That decision comes with a lot of sleepless nights and troubling questions these women must grapple with. It's one that will radically change their lives. &#34;You're taking away a part of the female body,&#34; says Small. &#34;But I saw what my mother and sister went through, and I didn't want to repeat that.&#34;
Women at High Risk
Indeed, a woman makes the decision to have her breasts removed in the face of horrifying odds. Although mutations of the BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 genes do not guarantee that a woman will develop breast cancer, they substantially raise her risk. Women with BRCA mutations run a lifetime risk as high as 4 in 5 of developing the disease, says Victor Vogel, MD, director of the Comprehensive Breast Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute/Magee Women's Hospital. Their lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer is also elevated to 2 in 5. In comparison, about 1 in 8 women in the general population will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes, many in old age, and only 1 in 100 will have ovarian cancer, says Vogel.
Once a woman finds she carries one of the mutations, she is left with a difficult choice, he says. She can hope for the best and get frequent mammograms. She can take the cancer-preventive drug, tamoxifen, which has been shown to reduce a woman's risk of developing breast cancer by about 50%. She can have only her ovaries removed, which also reduces the risk of breast cancer by about 50%. Or she can opt to have her breasts, and often also her ovaries, removed.
A study published in the January 14, 1999 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine found that women with a strong family history of breast cancer (not specifically those who tested positive for the breast cancer gene) reduced their risk of developing the disease by 90% if they had both breasts removed. Though having a double mastectomy is not an absolute guarantee that a woman will stay cancer-free, the 10% who did develop tumors after the surgery may have had undetected cancers at the time of the operation, Vogel says.
Not the Only Option
While slightly more than 50% of women who learned that they carried one of the BRCA mutations opted for a double mastectomy in the Lancet study, it's clearly not the only option. Even when breast cancer does occur, tumors in women with BRCA mutations aren't any more virulent than cancers in other women, says Anne Blackwood, MD, an assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology in the division of hematology and oncology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia. If the cancer is caught early, a simple lumpectomy -- where doctors remove the cancerous mass but leave the rest of the breast intact -- may suffice.
If other choices exist, then, why have so many women opted to have their breasts removed? Often the decision comes down to whether a woman can live with the knowledge that she has a good chance of developing breast cancer, says Linda Vahdat, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. &#34;What matters is your level of fear,&#34; she says. &#34;If you have a high level of fear, you probably should have a prophylactic [preventive] mastectomy. If you can put it behind you and go on with your life, you may want to do something else.&#34;
Women have to do what will give them the least amount of stress, says Vogel. Once they know about their elevated risk, some simply can't escape the gnawing fear. &#34;Women have told me, 'I want them gone. Every day I wake up and wonder if today is the day I will develop breast cancer,' &#34; he says. 
But other women are loath to part with their breasts because their physical appearance and sexuality are so tied to their identity, Vogel says. For these women, breast reconstruction -- no matter how good the rebuilt breasts look -- may not be enough. &#34;It's not the same as having a normal breast,&#34; he says. &#34;You lose all sensation.&#34;
After the Surgery
While women who undergo preventive mastectomies greatly reduce their odds of breast cancer, there are other risks associated with the procedure itself, Vahdat says. General anesthesia can cause various complications, the most serious of which, in extremely rare cases, is death. There are also risks of blood clots and infection, especially with the longer surgeries needed to remove the breasts and reconstruct them with a woman's own fat tissue.
Since the breast cancer gene also increases the risk that a woman will develop ovarian cancer, she may choose to have her ovaries removed as well -- which sends her into immediate menopause. This means her risk of heart disease and osteoporosis will rise unless she begins hormone replacement therapy. The good news in that circumstance, Vogel says, is that these women don't have to worry about the potentially increased risk of breast or ovarian cancer that goes along with such therapy.
Breast reconstruction is another option to consider. There are two main choices: breasts filled out with fat taken from elsewhere on the woman's body or those shaped with saline implants. Those fashioned from a woman's own fat have the advantage of feeling more like a real breast, Vahdat says. But for some women, implants are the only viable option. Small says she would have preferred to have breasts formed from her own fat, but she was too thin. 
Still, Small says she's happy with the results. &#34;I had the most wonderful reconstructive surgeon,&#34; she says. &#34;It took a long time. They had to reconstruct the nipples and stretch the skin. But they look very good.&#34;
Making the Decision
With all of these factors to consider, Vogel suggests that women who learn they are positive for one of the BRCA mutations take some time -- perhaps three to six months -- before making a final decision. &#34;We tell women not to do anything in a hurry,&#34; Vogel says. &#34;We tell them to talk to people. And we remind them that once their ovaries and breasts are gone, they're gone forever -- we can't reverse this procedure.&#34;
Indeed, one of the major impacts of removing the ovaries is sterility, meaning women can no longer bear children. Perhaps for this reason, the Lancet study found that most of those who opted for gene testing and ovarian removal were young women who already had children. 
Even with all of the drawbacks, for many women removal of their breasts and sometimes their ovaries is well worth it. It reduces their fear of getting breast cancer. A recent study from the Mayo Clinic, published in the July 19, 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that of 572 women who'd had double preventive mastectomies between 1960 and 1993, nearly 70% felt good about their decisions. And nearly 75% said they worried less about breast cancer. 
Small, for one, says she's still happy with the choice she made three years ago. &#34;When you get cancer, you have to go through a period where you don't feel good and don't know what is wrong with you. And then you have radiation and chemotherapy,&#34; she says. &#34;It's better to have the surgery and to avoid having cancer.&#34;
Linda Carroll is the women's health columnist for MSNBC. Her health stories have also appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Newsday, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Sun Times, and The Detroit Free Press. Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>peter68b@gmail.com (Michelle Ryan)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
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					  <title><![CDATA[When Pain Is All You Have]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/978/1/When-Pain-Is-All-You-Have/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
Lauren McEntire was 17 the first time she intentionally cut herself. She was sitting in a darkened movie theater next to a boy who was her best friend. On the other side of him sat his new girlfriend. &#34;I was jealous. I was scared he wouldn't be my friend anymore,&#34; she says, two years later from her home in Austin, Texas. &#34;But I didn't know how to tell him how I felt.&#34;
Instead, fidgeting nervously in the quiet theater, she yanked the tab off her soda can. Without much thought, she pressed its sharp edge deep into the flesh of her thumb. The pain and blood that followed made her feel, for the first time, as if she were in control. But with the blood came something more: anger. &#34;A lifetime's worth exploded in that one minute,&#34; says McEntire. Within a month, she was a full-fledged self-injurer, graduating to a single-edged razor blade and using it to carve deep grooves into the skin of her arms and legs.
Long misunderstood by outsiders, self-injury (also known as self-mutilation and self-abuse) is finally being taken seriously, and a growing crop of books, television programs, and even a recent made-for-TV movie are spotlighting this surprisingly common phenomenon. The audience is certainly out there: Although few firm statistics are available, those who have treated self-injurers estimate that about 2 million people in the United States engage in some form of this behavior. Cutting is the most common expression of this disorder, but burning, self-hitting, hair-pulling, bone-breaking, and not allowing wounds to heal are other variations.
While more than 70% of self-injurers are women, mostly between the ages of 11 and 26, they come from all races and social classes, says Steven Levenkron, MS, a psychotherapist in New York and author of Cutting. What self-injurers have in common, says Levenkron, is that they are often children of divorce, and as many as 90% grew up in homes where communication between parents and child was lacking and where messy problems were ignored, avoided, and ultimately left in silence.
Cuts Run Deep: Understanding Why
About 50% of self-injurers have a history of sexual or physical abuse, says Wendy Lader, PhD, a psychologist who co-founded and is co-director of SAFE (Self-Abuse Finally Ends) Alternatives, the nation's only in-patient center for self-injurers, in Berwyn, Ill.
Heather Collins, a 26-year-old from Oregon, says the physical pain she inflicted with her own hand for nearly a decade -- using razor blades to cut herself and smoldering cigarettes to burn her flesh -- helped her forget the emotional pain of a childhood marred by sexual abuse. &#34;After I [cut or burned myself,] I felt better,&#34; says Collins. This kind of nonverbal expression of anger and frustration is common, says Levenkron. &#34;Many cutters simply lack the language skills to express their emotions.&#34; Instead, they feel only self-loathing, alienation, and an intense desire to do themselves harm.
Self-injurers turn to cutting as a way to avoid feelings of worthlessness, numbness, and detachment. They come to appreciate the raw pain of injury; finally, they can feel something. &#34;Self-injurers would rather feel the physical pain than the emotional pain,&#34; says Lader.
At the heart of self-injury is control, says Lader. As with eating disorders, self-abuse is a way to take charge of your body. That's one reason many people who self-injure -- an estimated one-half to two-thirds, according to Lader -- also suffer from conditions like anorexia or bulimia. &#34;Self-injury has a hostage-taking effect,&#34; says Lader. &#34;It's a way to control parents and friends whose attention you want, or who are worried about you.&#34; Whereas the cutter may have previously felt invisible and insignificant, she (or he) is now getting noticed like never before. Self-injury makes others pay attention.
Healing the Wounds
Just as those with eating disorders tend to shroud their activities in secrecy -- anorexics who wear baggy clothes, bulimics who purge in private -- self-injurers often injure places that can be easily hidden by clothing, such as the arms, upper chest, and upper thighs.
Yet, Levenkron says, &#34;Self-injurers are not suicidal. They're pretty careful. They don't intend to destroy themselves, so they quickly figure out how deep, how long, they can safely cut.&#34; The wounds are usually quite short (only an inch or so, usually on the non-dominant forearm) and very controlled. Nevertheless, tragedies -- including serious medical complications or death -- can and do occur.
Until recently, self-mutilators like Lauren and Heather were bounced from emergency rooms to mental hospitals with little hope for complete recovery. Mental health professionals simply didn't know what to do with them. Even today, says Levenkron, emergency room doctors sometimes dismiss them, suggesting that they'd rather treat &#34;real&#34; patients, or they simply treat the surface wound and send them on their way. But thanks to increased media attention (the teen drama Beverly Hills 90210 featured a self-mutilation story line), the disorder is finally coming out of the shadows. Now a combination of techniques, including psychotherapy, antidepressant medication, and stress-tolerance and stress-management therapies, are being tried and found to help.
Helping Those Who Are Hurting
At Lader's program, she and her colleagues take a &#34;tough love&#34; approach with their patients, refusing to treat them like potential suicide cases, and ignoring the scars (they don't want the focus to be a show-and-tell of the patients' wounds). Instead, they use talk therapy to help them learn to take responsibility for, and control of, their actions.
The program is a last stop of sorts: SAFE patients have been hospitalized an average of 21 times before they get to Lader; one recent patient had been in and out of hospitals 200 times for treatment of self-inflicted wounds. Despite the odds, Lader says the intensive program has a 75% success rate two years after treatment. &#34;Cutting is a way to be temporarily distracted from real feelings,&#34; says Lader, &#34;and we help [cutters] learn to put a thought between the impulse and the action, to learn to deal with their feelings without 'self-medicating.' &#34; The program seeks to uncover the motives behind the self-injury; one technique the program uses is having patients reach for a pen instead of a blade and write about their feelings.
As treatment for self-injurers becomes easier to find, friends and family can play a more active role. If you suspect someone you know is a self-injurer -- say you notice a series of similar scars in various stages of healing -- don't just ignore it. &#34;Be direct but empathic,&#34; says Lader. &#34;React in a caring way by saying something like, 'I've noticed scratches (or scars) on your body. Did you make them? I'm worried about you and want to help you get help.' &#34; Don't minimize their seriousness, thinking the whole thing is just a harmless fad and that the wounds will heal with time. &#34;Self-injury was my way of telling people that something was wrong,&#34; says McEntire, herself a &#34;graduate&#34; of the SAFE program, &#34;but now I use my voice.&#34;Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>peter78b@gmail.com (Linda Lewis)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
					 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/978/1/When-Pain-Is-All-You-Have/Page1.html</guid>
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					  <title><![CDATA[See How Natural Methods Can Help]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/977/1/See-How-Natural-Methods-Can-Help/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
The statistics are in: A report from the U.S. Department of Justice found that one in three women who visit emergency rooms do so because of the effects of domestic abuse. So it's more important than ever to catch abuse before it starts. Protect yourself and those you love by knowing the warning signs and some common traits of a potential abuser. According to Stacey Kabat, executive director and founder of the advocacy group Peace at Home, abusers often follow a pattern of behavior and may exhibit some of these common warning signs: 


Abusers try to rush the relationship: Abusers often get attached to the relationship very quickly and rush through the getting-to-know-you phases of a courtship so that you know little about their past or family. &#34;They may disguise this hurried behavior as romantic by saying, 'I can't live without you' or 'I've never felt loved like this by anyone,' &#34; says Kabat. They may want to marry you or move in together right away. They are extremely emotionally dependent or needy early in the relationship. If you try to slow things down, they will make you feel like you are being over-reactive. Suicide threats are also common. 

Abusers try to isolate you: Abusers want to wear away at your support network. To do this, they may discourage you from being with family and friends or may even initiate conflict with them, causing them to avoid both of you. Abusers will often try to control your access to phones and transportation or will attempt to tell you where you can and cannot go, even going so far as tracking the mileage on your car or asking others to watch you for them. Frequent moves are another way to keep you isolated. 

Abusers are very jealous: Your relationships with other people such as friends, co-workers, and even family are threatening to them. They may accuse you of being unfaithful with co-workers or friends or forbid you to see them. Often mistaken for romantic or protective behavior in the initial stages of a relationship, jealousy can later be the justification used for violence. 

Abusers try to control your money: Abusers seek to limit your options, including your financial ability to leave. They may encourage you to not work at all, or try to cause trouble for you at work. They may even show up at your job on payday to collect your paycheck. If you are on welfare or other financial assistance, they may threaten to report you to the welfare services or other authorities if you don't do what they want. 

Abusers are verbally or emotionally abusive: Verbal abuse often starts long before any physical battering and is intended to wear away at your self-esteem, says Kabat. Public humiliation (such as calling you stupid or commenting negatively on your appearance in front of others), name-calling, mockery, yelling, blaming, swearing, or making insulting gestures either alone or in front of others are all warning signs of imminent physical abuse. They may use verbal abuse to wear you down in arguments or to make you feel at fault. They may twist your words to put the blame on you. They withhold affection when they don't get their way. 

Abusers will mistreat your property or animals: They may throw or break objects when upset. They may shove, kick, or hit animals out of anger or in order to get them to do what they want. Hurting your pets or destroying your property is a way of hurting you. 

Abusers don't respect your privacy: They may call at odd hours &#34;just to check in.&#34; They may &#34;just show up&#34; at work or other places unannounced to check up on you or refuse to leave when asked. If you continue to ask them to leave, they may embarrass you publicly or make a scene. This behavior is often mistaken as romantic initially, perhaps justified by saying, &#34;I can't be away from you&#34; or &#34;I had to hear your voice.&#34; 

Abusers are often addicted to drugs or alcohol: Drug and alcohol abuse, while not a direct cause of domestic violence, often goes hand in hand with it, says Kabat. They may blame their violent or abusive behavior on the drug or alcohol use, saying, &#34;I didn't know what I was doing. I was drunk,&#34; or &#34;I was high. I don't remember.&#34; 

Abusers may have a past history of violence: People who commit domestic violence are often violent in general, says Kabat. A past record or history of assault, fighting, or abuse is a sign that they think violence is a way to solve problems. They may have elaborate excuses for these incidents or blame the person they attacked by saying they &#34;had to&#34; or that they &#34;were provoked.&#34; 
Michele Bloomquist is a freelance writer in Portland, Ore. Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>peter68b@gmail.com (Rogger Miller)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
					 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/977/1/See-How-Natural-Methods-Can-Help/Page1.html</guid>
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					  <title><![CDATA[Violence at Home]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/976/1/Violence-at-Home/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
&#160;Carey Draeger was 19 when she met her future husband. After only two months of dating, the two decided to get married. Not long after their honeymoon, Draeger was introduced to a side of her new husband she never saw before. &#34;It started with emotional and verbal abuse, with him saying things like I was lucky he stayed with me or that nobody else would want me,&#34; she says. Soon, it wasn't unusual for him to be breaking and throwing things during their arguments.
For two years this behavior continued until their daughter was born, and then the emotional abuse and fighting intensified. Over the next three years, the abuse turned physical when Draeger's husband punched her during an argument. That was the final straw: She convinced her husband to move out and leave her alone. &#34;I still don't know how I was able to get him to leave peacefully. I was very lucky.&#34;
The Latest Statistics Tell the Grim Truth
If only every woman in an abusive relationship were as lucky as Draeger. Many attempt to ride out these disastrous relationships, enduring years of abuse. In fact, a 1997 report from the U.S. Department of Justice found that more than one in three women who sought treatment in the emergency room were there as a result of injuries caused by domestic violence. All those dislocated shoulders, bruised jaws, and broken fingers are not the result of a slippery stairwell or a particularly vigorous roughhousing session with the kids.
And many more women probably suffer in silence. Bruises aren't the only signs of abuse: The Family Violence Prevention Fund defines domestic abuse as any pattern of assaultive or coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks as well as economic coercion that adults or adolescents use against their intimate partners -- male or female. While most abusers are male, they can also be female. The bottom line is that anyone can be a victim of domestic violence, regardless of gender.
The report found that a woman is more likely to be injured from a domestic violence incident than from car accidents, rapes, or muggings combined. A woman is much more likely to be killed by a current or former romantic partner than by a stranger.
Mistaken Beliefs Allow It to Continue
Shocking as this report is, shock isn't enough to halt the prevalence of abuse in America, says Stacey Kabat, executive director and founder of the advocacy group Peace at Home. &#34;There are still deeply entrenched myths surrounding domestic violence that allow it to persist. Breaking down these myths is critical to ending the acceptance of violence in our society.&#34; Particularly destructive are beliefs that abuse is a private family matter or that the abuser behaves abusively because he (or she) loses control, or that the victim provokes the violence. &#34;Violence is not about a loss of control,&#34; says Kabat. &#34;Instead, it's about power and control.&#34; People do not abuse in a fit of rage -- they know very well what they are doing, she says. And to say that someone provoked any sort of abuse is to lay blame on the victim, which only serves to increase a sense of isolation and powerlessness.
Linda Marshall, PhD, director of the program in social work at Texas Women's University in Houston, agrees that debunking these beliefs is critical, but does think we're making progress. &#34;At least now these myths aren't automatically accepted as truth like they were 20 or even 10 years ago,&#34; she said. &#34;Now we question them, we discuss them as a society. That's progress. But we need to do more.&#34;
More Programs Reaching Out to Women
In the last 20 years, more has been done to help women in violent relationships. Outreach programs have sprung up in most cities, and increasing numbers of people are being trained to recognize and help stop abuse when they see it.
Because so many women who have been abused show up at hospitals, it makes sense to have specialized care in place there. Parkland Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, is doing just that. Parkland is one of the first hospitals in the United States to have an on-site center that provides women living in violent situations with support and resources. The center pairs each woman with a social worker who helps her to negotiate the legal system, document the abuse through eyewitness testimony and photographs, develop safety plans for those who decide to leave their relationships, provide emergency shelter, and help get protective orders against abusers. The center also trains staff at other hospitals to implement their own domestic violence programs. &#34;The center is a one-stop, one-shop place where victims of domestic violence can come,&#34; says Ellen Taliaferro, founder and medical director of the Violence Intervention and Prevention clinic at Parkland Hospital.
Employers, too, are realizing that they can help, because domestic violence is not isolated to the home. It can spill over into the workplace in the form of violence, threatening phone calls, absenteeism related to injuries, or loss of productivity due to extreme stress. This is especially difficult because when the home is violent, a woman's workplace is often one of the few places where she can be safe and away from her abuser. Many organizations, including Blue Shield of California, are recognizing this and providing workplace training to help educate human resource professionals, managers, and co-workers about what to do if a worker is in a violent relationship.
You Can Help: What to Do if You Suspect Someone Is Being Abused
If you ever hear or see domestic violence in action, call the police to report it immediately, says Kabat. If you suspect a woman is being abused, speak up, but do so gently. Say something like, &#34;Look, I know something is going on. If you ever need to talk, I'm here.&#34; Putting intense pressure on the victim to talk before she's ready may only make her withdraw. Make it clear that you're available for her and that you're non-judgmental; provide her with the information and resources she will need. Because she may need to leave her home quickly, help her in advance to devise a well-thought-out safety plan that includes what she should take with her and where she should go. And remember that the help should be ongoing: A 1993 study at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, found that a woman is often at the greatest risk of injury or death after she leaves the abusive relationship.
Don't let lack of personal experience stop you from reaching out, says Draeger, who now works for a domestic violence advocacy group in her area. &#34;You don't have to be a survivor to help,&#34; she says. &#34;You just have to care.&#34;Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>enlargepenisguide.com@gmail.com (Richard Luong)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
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					  <title><![CDATA[Cryosurgery Often Produces Healing Headaches for Women]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/975/1/Cryosurgery-Often-Produces-Healing-Headaches-for-Women/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
The doctor may say &#34;You may experience some mild discomfort,&#34; but sometimes the healing process after a medical procedure can be more than you bargained for. Now a group of researchers conclude that for cryosurgery to treat abnormal cells on the cervix, this is often the case.
Cryosurgery is one of only a handful of ways to treat and remove abnormal cells on the cervix -- called dysplasia -- which, if left untreated, can turn into cancer. During cryosurgery, the abnormal tissue on the cervix is frozen with liquid nitrogen -- the freezing kills the questionable cells. 
The procedure, which lasts less than 15 minutes, is not used if cancer is suspected. The side effects include heavy watery discharge, a bad smell, and some cramping and pain.
Diane M. Harper, MD, MPH, and colleagues followed more than 80 women who had the procedure to see just how they were impacted by the effects of the surgery. The results of their study appear in the Aug. issue of The Journal of Family Practice.
&#34;We did the study because in doing the consent form for women prior to a cryosurgical procedure, [physicians] need to be able to describe what the procedure is,&#34; Harper tells WebMD. In doing so, women will know what to expect from the procedure and its possible side effects. Harper is an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Dartmouth College Medical School in Lebanon, N.H. 
Of the potential side effects, the researchers found that body odor was reported by almost three-quarters of the women and lasted for about eight days. 
&#34;Often, women would come back three to four days later saying that they smelled something like death. What it was, was the dead tissue sloughing off, and until it sloughs off, it has this very bad odor associated with it. And truly only the woman can smell it, but for her it is a huge thing,&#34; Harper says.
Another important side effect is the amount of watery discharge a woman expels, requiring in many cases the use of sanitary pads. In the study, researchers found that women required sanitary pads for about 12 days. &#34;We knew that there would be discharge, but we didn't know the quantity of it, so we couldn't give women an accurate idea beforehand of what to expect,&#34; says Harper, who also is associate professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth. &#34;Discharge is part of the healing process.&#34;
Some women in the study experienced pain and cramping lasting about five days. &#34;Cramping is something we were surprised at how often it happens,&#34; Harper says. &#34;A common misconception that physicians have is that women have no nerve ending in the cervix, so they can't feel anything.&#34; 
Overall, when the researchers surveyed the women, they found the experience with cryosurgery was unpleasant for almost 80% due to the pain and cramping, the discharge, the necessity of wearing pads for protection, and the odor. Compared to the inconvenience of a normal period, the aftereffects of cryosurgery were judged to be more severe, causing almost 40% to restrict their activities. 
Of special note, obese women, women who had had children, and older women fared the worst: These groups reported they were more bothered by their symptoms. 
Charles Dunton, MD, tells WebMD. &#34;If women know the things they are experiencing are not unusual, their anxiety level goes down and they are able to tolerate the side effects of the treatment. They know it is not a complication, that they are not unusual, and it is easier for them to say 'OK, this is what I am supposed to expect.'&#34; Dunton, a professor in the department of ob-gyn at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, wrote an accompanying editorial.
Harper agrees and says that physicians need to do a better job of letting women know what to expect from cryosurgery. &#34;Making this very clear to [patients] will lead to a much better relationship with the doctor as well as to potentially better outcomes for future health care.&#34; Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>peter78b@gmail.com (Peter Hill)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
					 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/975/1/Cryosurgery-Often-Produces-Healing-Headaches-for-Women/Page1.html</guid>
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					  <title><![CDATA[Getting Tough About Breast Cancer]]></title>
					  <link>http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/articles/articles/974/1/Getting-Tough-About-Breast-Cancer/Page1.html</link>
					  <description><![CDATA[
It's mid-morning on a sunny San Francisco day, and a small band of demonstrators gathers in front of a grocery store to stage a protest against genetically engineered food.
The scene is earnest but surreal: There's a guy dressed as a can of Campbell's &#34;Experimental Vegetable Soup&#34; and another wearing a Frankenstein mask, a reference to the so-called &#34;frankenfoods&#34; produced by biotechnology companies. Young women dressed in white biohazard suits pass out flyers while a homeless person sits on a garbage can and waits for the speeches to begin.
Standing to one side, Barbara Brenner, 48, smiles patiently. With her close-cropped hair, black leather jacket, and paper cup of coffee in her hand, she might be just another working woman on her way to the office. Yet when she takes the microphone, this petite woman unleashes a righteous anger that jolts the group awake.
&#34;What do genetically engineered foods have to do with breast cancer?&#34; Brenner asks, calling out over the din of nearby buses and cars. &#34;The answer is, We don't know.&#34;
As the protesters listen, Brenner methodically ticks off a list of potential problems. Compared with organic soybeans, it turns out, genetically engineered soybeans contain 40% fewer isoflavones, she says -- plant-based estrogens that studies show may be protective against breast cancer.
&#34;The burden of proving that genetically engineered foods are safe should fall squarely on the companies that are marketing these foods. It should not be up to consumers,&#34; Brenner says, her voice rising. &#34;To allow these foods to be marketed makes us, once again, guinea pigs in a vast, uncontrolled experiment.
&#34;On behalf of women with and at risk for breast cancer -- which is, after all, all women -- we say no! We will be guinea pigs no longer. The interests of the public's health must be put before profits!&#34;
The speech is typical Brenner: Equal parts science and sound bites, fueled by passion as well as intellect. It's a call to action.
Challenging the Norm
Action is certainly Brenner's credo. The executive director of a small, San Francisco-based group fittingly called Breast Cancer Action (BCA), she is making a name for herself by taking on some of breast cancer's most sacred cows, including the National Cancer Institute (&#34;we're very concerned that [it] gets too much money&#34;), mammography (&#34;it's not what it's cracked up to be&#34;), and even the breast cancer stamp (the money it raises should fund research into environmental causes, Brenner says, not only treatments).
A passionate, intelligent woman, Brenner has a wit that can be biting. She calls Breast Cancer Awareness Month &#34;Breast Cancer Industry Month,&#34; saying that it amounts to nothing more than an advertising blitz every October by drug companies. (She's proud to point out that BCA doesn't take corporate contributions.) Ask Brenner what makes her group different from other breast cancer groups, and she's likely to respond, &#34;They get money. We give them hell.&#34;
A good example is Brenner's battle with Avon: Recently, she made headlines by criticizing the cosmetic giant's annual breast cancer walk, calling it a corporate &#34;exercise-a-thon&#34; that raises far less money than walkers are led to believe.
According to Brenner, 36 cents of every dollar raised by Avon's walk goes to overhead, including marketing and organizational costs. Palotta TeamWorks, the company Avon hired to stage the event, doesn't dispute Brenner's figures. But Brenner says Avon, a Fortune 500 company, could easily underwrite those administrative costs itself. She has also taken on the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO), which has traditionally taken a cut of the proceeds in exchange for helping Avon to distribute race funds to worthy community groups. Brenner criticized NABCO for channeling money to organizations that only encourage women to get cancer screening, instead of providing mammography themselves.
Brenner's broadside hit home: Recently, Avon announced that it would change its funding policy and donate money from the walk directly to five leading academic centers through its own foundation, eliminating NABCO's fee. NABCO executive director Amy Langner declined comment on Brenner's criticisms, except to say that changes in the Avon program were well underway by the time Brenner took aim.
Not Your Usual Breast Cancer Group
While Brenner's sharp attacks can cause consternation among her targets, she takes pride in posing a different point of view. Breast Cancer Action's motto, emblazoned on purple lapel pins, is &#34;Cancer Sucks&#34; -- an uncompromising expression of rage at a disease that strikes more often today than 20 years ago, despite remarkable advances in screening and treatment.
&#34;We make people nervous. This is not the breast cancer organization for everyone,&#34; says Brenner. &#34;Our name implies that we'll do more than hand out pink ribbons and hold a 5-K run.&#34;
Behind Brenner's in-your-face approach is a resume that would make a yuppie proud, including a law degree from the Boalt School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley and a prestigious clerkship for a federal judge. A self-styled progressive, she attended Smith College in Massachusetts, where she demonstrated against the Vietnam War. When she moved to San Francisco, she became part of the city's gay and lesbian rights movement and served two stints on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union.
In 1993, at the age of 41, however, she was diagnosed with stage 1 invasive ductal carcinoma of her left breast. She had a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. Three years later, she had a recurrence in the same breast, necessitating a mastectomy.
Brenner, who remembers her mother taking her as a child to hear Martin Luther King speak at a civil rights rally in Baltimore, says it wasn't long before her disease crossed the line from personal to political. &#34;A diagnosis of breast cancer is personally devastating, but it can be converted to something positive,&#34; says Brenner.
Too Radical?
Yet some criticize Brenner as too confrontational. &#34;BCA has been very negative toward the National Cancer Institute [NCI] with regard to breast cancer research studies that we fund,&#34; said Susan Siebel, MD, director of the office of communications at the NCI and its nationwide liaison to breast cancer advocacy groups. &#34;The tendency for them is to overlook or ignore what we're doing.&#34;
Siebel is still irked by a recent fundraising appeal sent out by BCA that claimed credit for forcing the NCI to release results from a series of studies last year on bone marrow transplants and high-dose chemotherapy earlier than planned.
Brenner says that the NCI tried to withhold the results for three months until they could be presented at a meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology in May, but that intervention by BCA -- including an appearance by Brenner on the NBC Nightly News -- forced the NCI to release the results in March, two months earlier. In this effort, BCA also used one of its favorite tools: the &#34;zap.&#34; Activists clog up fax and phone lines and generally make life miserable for a high-ranking official, corporate executive, or other target whose number has &#34;leaked&#34; out. &#34;We sent letters, we alerted our activists, we sent people the NCI director's phone line, and his address,&#34; says Brenner.
But Siebel, who works closely with NCI director Richard Klausner, says she's unaware that any &#34;zap&#34; occurred and adds that the NCI, along with other breast cancer organizations including NABCO, the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and Y-Me, had already been working for weeks to publicize the study results on the Web by the time BCA spoke out.
&#34;She's absolutely delightful as a person, and I really like her,&#34; says Siebel of Brenner, whom she knows personally. But the efforts by BCA, she insists, &#34;did not play into the NCI's decisions by any means.&#34;
Activism at Work
Though she may face opposition and doubt over her techniques, Brenner continues her quest to do things a little differently. While the Susan B. Komen Foundation has its &#34;Race for the Cure,&#34; BCA has the Audre Lorde Action Brigade, a feisty group that stages an annual &#34;Cancer Industry Tour&#34; that includes protests at companies like Bechtel, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Chevron, drawing attention to what BCA says are practices that may pollute the environment and could be causing higher cancer rates.
Founder Eleanor Pred consciously modeled BCA on Act-Up, another San Francisco-based group that has made confrontation synonymous with AIDS advocacy. And sometimes confrontation works: In 1997, Brenner and BCA successfully worked with Genentech to create a landmark &#34;compassionate use&#34; policy under which women with metastatic breast cancer could enter a lottery to receive Herceptin -- a genetically engineered breast cancer drug -- even if they had not been accepted into clinical trials.
Ultimately, however, Brenner is fighting for more than a new drug or another research study. A day after the frankenfoods rally, she's back on stage at BCA's 10-year anniversary fundraiser, held at a chic downtown art gallery. Fresh flowers are everywhere, and bartenders in bow ties pour white wine. &#34;See,&#34; Brenner grins, greeting a visitor as a friend envelops her in a bear hug. &#34;Even radicals can do elegance.&#34;
Yet the small talk doesn't last long. Addressing the crowd, Brenner remarks that it's customary at such events to observe a moment of silence for friends who have died.
&#34;But those of you who know me know that I don't think silence accomplishes anything,&#34; she says. The audience begins to chuckle. &#34;So I invite you to shout and clap and whistle and make as much noise as possible.&#34;
The room erupts: a cacophony of anger, sadness, and hope. Brenner looks around, and smiles.Thanks to : Penis Pills]]></description>
					  <author>peter68b@gmail.com (Michelle Ryan)</author>
					  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
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