Top 10 Health Threats for Men

These are the worst of the worst -- the 10 most dangerous diseases for men. Every man needs to know what he's up against. The good news? Many are preventable.

Heart Attack and Cardiac Arrest in Men

You've heard the terms a million times. But do you really know the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest? Here's what every guy needs to know.
Heart Attack and Cardiac Arrest in Men

'Queen of Disco' Donna Summer dies, aged 63

AFP Relax

Disco legend Donna Summer

Grammy-winning disco legend Donna Summer, who steamed up the charts in the 1970s and 80s with raunchy hits like "Love to Love You Baby" and "Hot Stuff," died Thursday aged 63, her family said.

Known as the Queen of Disco, the singer whose hits also included "I Feel Love" and "She Works Hard for the Money," died in Florida from lung cancer, the TMZ celebrity news website said.

"Early this morning, we lost Donna Summer Sudano, a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith," said a family statement.

Lung Cancer and Sexuality

How Will Lung Cancer Affect My Sex Life?

By Lynne Eldridge MD, About.com Guide

Updated March 27, 2012

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

Sexuality is an important part of what makes us human, but with lung cancer, the rigors of treatment can push physical intimacy to the back burner. You may be tired from treatments, or your loved one may feel uncomfortable broaching the subject as she focuses on concerns about your health. Despite its importance, healthcare professionals are often hesitant to bring up the subject of sex due to time constraints, consideration of privacy, and even their own comfort level in discussing sexuality. But we know that sexuality affects quality of life and psychological well-being for those living with cancer. What are the issues that affect sexuality with lung cancer, and what can you do to foster sexual (and subsequently emotional) intimacy during cancer treatment?

Issues That Can Affect Sexuality If You Have Lung Cancer
Lung cancer can affect sexuality in many ways, both due to the disease itself and the side effects of treatment. Understanding some of the issues can help you address those that you have some control over, and help your loved one know how he or she can best support you. Some of these include:

Physical issues: 

Changes in physical appearance – Your physical appearance (for example hair loss or weight changes) during treatment may make you feel less attractive or desirable as an intimate partner.

Symptoms of lung cancer – Common symptoms of lung cancer, such as a cough or shortness of breath, may worsen during sexual activity.

Fatigue – Fatigue is an almost universal concern with lung cancer. This can stem not only from the cancer itself and side effects of treatments, but from the demands of doctors visits and traveling for treatment.

The presence of visitors – Time spent with family and friends is very important, but they may forget that you need time to be alone with your partner.

Psychological issues: 

Anxiety about your condition, your treatments or more.

Depression and grief – Studies show that mood has a significant effect on physical function.

Loneliness – You may feel emotionally separated from your loved one as you now face different challenges.

Role changes – Taking on the role of caregiver changes the dynamics of intimate relationships. A spouse may view a cancer patient more as a child than as a sexual partner, and feel uncomfortable with physical intimacy. You, the patient, can also be affected by assuming a role of accepting care more than giving it.

Guilt – Guilt due to the stigma of lung cancer, feeling that somehow an individual caused their disease and somehow deserves it, is common with lung cancer and can interfere with sexuality.

Tips For Enjoying Your Sexuality During Lung Cancer Treatment

Talk openly with your loved one
Share your needs and acknowledge one another's concerns. Anticipate that physical intimacy may need to be expressed in a different way as time goes on. Talk about how you can express your love if you are too fatigued for intercourse, or if coughing requires you to engage in quieter activities.

• How to Talk to Your Partner About Sexual Issues or Concerns

Share intimate physical moments that don’t involve intercourse
Be generous with touch. Hold hands during doctor’s visits. Sneak a kiss while the lab tech draws blood. Look back to the days when you first fell in love, and the special “little things” you did that drew you closer.

• Sexual Activities That Don't Involve Intercourse

Adapt according to your limitations
Positions such as side-by-side may require less energy. Have the partner without cancer take the more active role. Plan to have sex when you are well-rested and not directly following a heavy meal.

Give yourselves a special treat
Think of things that make you feel good and attractive to each other. A new outfit, a pampering massage, a special cologne, even a new hair color (assuming you have hair) may add a little spice. This is important for both of you, as caregivers often feel guilty pampering themselves while caring for a loved one with cancer.

Skip the booze
Alcohol can interfere with a healthy sex life even if you don't have lung cancer. That said, a glass of red wine might add a sparkle to the moment.

• Sexual Effects of Alcohol

Set “visiting hours”
One lung cancer survivor told me that trying to find time alone with her husband reminded her of when they had young children. Now they ask friends not to call or visit during “nap time.”

Nurture your spiritual life
An active spiritual life is associated with a healthier mood and greater emotional well-being, which in turn are linked with a more satisfying sex life with cancer. Spirituality means different things to different people -- organized religion, communing with nature, meditation, or the like.

Most importantly, express your love daily in as many ways as you can. A relationship that is based on love and respect and that is continually nurtured is the best foundation for sexual intimacy during cancer treatment.

Sources:
Gilbert, E. et al. Renegotiating Sexuality and Intimacy in the Context of Cancer: The Experiences of Carers. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2008. Dec 9. (Epub ahead of Print).

Goodell, T. Sexuality in chronic lung disease. The Nursing Clinics of North America. 2007. 42(4):631-8; viii.

Kotronoulas, G. et al. Nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding provision of sexual health care in patients with cancer: critical review of the evidence. Supportive Care in Cancer. 2009. Jan 9. (Epub ahead of print).

Lindau, S. et al. Communication about sexuality and intimacy in couples affected by lung cancer and their clinical-care providers. Psychooncology. 2011. 20(2):179-85.

Shell, J. et al. The longitudinal effects of cancer treatment and sexuality in individuals with lung cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum. 2008. 35(1):73-9

Shwartz, S. and J. Plawecki. Consequences of chemotherapy on the sexuality of patients with lung cancer. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing. 2002. 6(4):212-6.

gotquestions  http://lungcancer.about.com/od/livingwithlungcancer/a/sexuality.htm

Living With COPD

With ongoing care and preventive strategies, you can manage your COPD symptoms and keep them under control.

By the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

COPD has no cure yet. However, you can take steps to manage your symptoms and slow the progress of the disease. You can:

• Avoid lung irritants
• Get ongoing care
• Manage the disease and its symptoms
• Prepare for emergencies

Avoid Lung Irritants

If you smoke, quit. Smoking is the leading cause of COPD. Talk to your doctor about programs and products that can help you quit. Many hospitals have programs that help people quit smoking, or hospital staff can refer you to a program.

Try to avoid secondhand smoke and other lung irritants that can contribute to COPD, such as air pollution, chemical fumes, and dust. Keep these irritants out of your home. If your home is painted or sprayed for insects, have it done when you can stay away for awhile.

Keep your windows closed and stay at home (if possible) when there's a lot of air pollution or dust outside.

Get Ongoing Care

If you have COPD, it's important to get ongoing medical care. Take all of your medicines as your doctor prescribes. Make sure to refill your prescriptions before they run out. Bring all of the medicines you're taking when you have medical checkups.

Talk with your doctor about whether and when you should get flu and pneumonia vaccines. Also, ask him or her about other diseases for which COPD may increase your risk, such as heart disease, lung cancer, and pneumonia.

Manage COPD and Its Symptoms

You can do things to help manage your disease and its symptoms. Depending on how severe your disease is, you may ask your family and friends for help with daily tasks. Do activities slowly. Put items that you need often in one place that's easy to reach.

Find very simple ways to cook, clean, and do other chores. Some people find it helpful to use a small table or cart with wheels to move things around and a pole or tongs with long handles to reach things. Ask for help moving things around in your house so that you will not need to climb stairs as often.

Keep your clothes loose, and wear clothes and shoes that are easy to put on and take off.

Prepare for Emergencies

If you have COPD, knowing when and where to seek help for your symptoms is important. You should seek emergency care if you have severe symptoms, such as trouble catching your breath or talking.

Call your doctor if you notice that your symptoms are worsening or if you have signs of an infection, such as a fever. Your doctor may change or adjust your treatments to relieve and treat symptoms.

Keep phone numbers handy for your doctor, hospital, and someone who can take you for medical care. You also should have on hand directions to the doctor's office and hospital and a list of all the medicines you're taking.

Source: The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The NHLBI does not recommend or endorse any company advertised on this site.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/health-report/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease/living-with-copd.aspx

Smoking deaths triple over decade - tobacco report

A man lights a 'bidi' at a wood logging mill on the outskirts of Jammu


By Kate Kelland | Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Tobacco-related deaths have nearly tripled in the past decade and big tobacco firms are undermining public efforts that could save millions, a report led by the health campaign group the World Lung Foundation (WLF) said on Wednesday.

In the report, marking the tenth anniversary of its first Tobacco Atlas, the WLF and the American Cancer Society said if current trends continue, a billion people will die from tobacco use and exposure this century - one person every six seconds.

Tobacco has killed 50 million people in the last 10 years, and tobacco is responsible for more than 15 percent of all male deaths and 7 percent of female deaths, the new Tobacco Atlas report found. (www.tobaccoatlas.org)

In China, tobacco is already the number one killer - causing 1.2 million deaths a year - and that number is expected to rise to 3.5 million a year by 2030, the report said.

That is part of a broader shift, with smoking rates in the developed world declining but numbers growing in poorer regions, said Michael Eriksen, one of the report's authors and director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University.

"If we don't act, the projections for the future are even more morbid. And the burden of death caused by tobacco is increasingly one of the developing world, particularly Asia, the Middle East and Africa," he said in an interview.

Almost 80 percent of people who die from tobacco-related illnesses now come from low- and middle-income countries. In Turkey, 38 percent of male deaths are from smoking-related illnesses, though smoking also remains the biggest killer of American women too.

WLF's chief executive Peter Baldini accused the tobacco industry of thriving on ignorance about the true effect of smoking and "misinformation to subvert health policies that could save millions".

The report said the industry had stepped up its fight against anti-tobacco policies, launching legal challenges and seeking to delay or stop the introduction of plain packaging, legislation banning smoking in public places, advertising bans and health warnings on packets.

The world's six biggest tobacco firms made $35.1 billion in profits in 2010 - equal to the combined earnings of Coca-Cola, Microsoft and McDonald's, the report said.

Smoking causes lung cancer as well as several other chronic pulmonary diseases and is a major risk factor in heart disease, the world's number one killer.

More than 170 countries have signed up to a World Health Organisation-led convention committing them to cut smoking rates, limiting exposure to second-hand smoke, and curbing tobacco advertising and promotion.

WHO director general Margaret Chan said thanks in part to that convention, 1.1 billion people have in the past two years become covered by at least one measure designed to curb tobacco use. She added, however, that the battle was far from over and urged more countries to fight the industry.

"We must never allow the tobacco industry to get the upper hand," she said in a foreword to the report. "Tobacco is a killer. It should not be advertised, subsidised or glamorised."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Ben Harding)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/smoking-deaths-triple-over-decade-tobacco-report-075004760.html

Arsenic Found in Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Foods, Baby Formulas

By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Healthy Living 

A sweetener used in powdered baby formulaand some organic and gluten-free foods may contain dangerously high levels of arsenic,researchers reported today. 

Environmental chemist Brian P. Jackson, who is the director of the Trace Element Analysis Core Facility at Dartmouth University, said that his team found organic baby formula whose main ingredient was brown rice syrup had arsenic levels six times higher than what the EPA considers safe for drinking water. According to the study, which was published Thursday in the journal "Environmental Health Perspectives," the researchers also found high arsenic levels in some organic foods sweetened with brown rice syrup, including cereal bars, energy bars, and gel energy "shots" that athletes slurp down after working out. 

"The baby formula findings are concerning," Jackson said. The risk of arsenic poisoning from eating a cereal bar or an energy shot once in a while are low, he pointed out, but for babies and for people who are on gluten-free diets, arsenic poisoning could be a concern. 

"All we can fall back on is what we know about exposure through drinking water," Jackson said. "Moms should know that these rice-based formulas may contain arsenic and should limit exposure. Look at the ingredients when you purchase formula." 

Samples for the study -- 17 kinds of baby formula, 29 cereal bars, and three energy shots -- had been purchased from grocery stores in the Hanover, N.H., area. The report did not say which brands were tested. 

Organic arsenic is found naturally in the soil, but a more dangerous kind of the chemical, known as inorganic arsenic, was widely used in pesticides for years before the EPA banned it in 2009. Inorganic arsenic has been linked to lung, bladder, and liver cancer, and exposure to arsenic can affect brain function over time. 

Certain crops absorb more arsenic than others. Rice "takes up more arsenic than all the other grains," Jackson says, and brown rice is higher in arsenic than white rice. (When white rice is processed, the outer hull of the grain is removed; though arsenic is found inside the grain itself, inorganic arsenic is usually contained in the outer layer.) 

Baby formulas made with rice starch had very low levels of arsenic, but ones made with brown rice syrup were high. The U.S. currently does not regulate the amount of arsenic in food, though after arsenic was found in some brands of apple juice the FDA set a "level of concern" of 23 parts per billion for fruit juices. The EPA standard for arsenic in drinking water is 10 parts per billion. 

Brown rice syrup is frequently used as a "healthy" alternative to high-fructose corn syrup and can be found in foods that consumers don't think of as rice-based and in products that are touted as "healthy," "all natural," and "organic." 

"Even if you were an educated consumer, some products might just creep under the radar," Jackson told ABC News. 

Still, some dietitians warned consumers to take Jackson's study with a grain of salt. 

"I would encourage consumers to not worry about this study, but to use it as a reminder that foods that grow in soil are growing with a wide variety of chemicals, both those found naturally in the soil and those that may be there from use of chemicals to foster growth," Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, told HealthDay News. "Whether organic foods contain more arsenic, or other minerals, than conventional foods is hard to estimate, but this study does remind us that organic is not necessarily equal with healthier/better for you/safe from harm." 

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