7 Things You Never Knew About Men's Bodies

By Oprah.com | Love + Sex

Photo: ThinkstockBy Corrie Pikul

They Can Get It Up in the Womb

Fetuses as young as 16 weeks have been spotted with teensy protuberances that rise and fall throughout gestation, according to studies in the Journal of Ultrasound Medicine Scientists aren't sure why this happens, but one theory, reported in the Los Angeles Times, is that these periodic movements help the penile tissue stay oxygenated and healthy.

Even the Most Masculine of Them Aren't Exactly Surging with Testosterone

Heating Up the Bedroom at Any Age

by Alicia Potee

Lots of things get better with age—and these days, metaphors drawing on everything from wine to classic cars are so commonplace as to be cliché. But sex is one thing you won’t usually see topping that list.

It’s a bit of a myth, really—the idea that good sex is reserved for the young. Yet the notion is so pervasive that many older people have given up on a healthy sex life after 50. But the truth is that there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying emotional and physical intimacy long after you’ve reached retirement.

And yes, it can be better than ever. It just might require a little more “maintenance.”

Bringing Balance Back to the Bedroom

For The Men: Increasing a Woman’s Sex Drive

The best way to help a woman have a high sex drive is just to have lots of sex with her. Get her in the habit of having sex often, and she will come to expect it when she crawls into bed with you. Develop the habit of sex. Get your relationship to be where sex is the norm at bedtime instead of the exception. Sex Frequency Statistics say that most people have sex 1.3 times per week, and if I’m guessing correctly, this isn’t enough for most red-blooded men.

For some reason, it takes women some warming up after there has been a dry spell (and I would call once a week a dry spell). So you have sex once and it’s not that great. Don’t miss the opportunity to have sex again the following night, this is very important! 

Five tests to determine if your partner will cheat

Predict your man's tendencies

by Paul J. Zak in The Moral Molecule

In my last post I discussed how the interaction of three hormones, oxytocin, arginine vasopressin, and testosterone create a chemical soup that can lead men to stray. I presented evidence that though the male brain is made to bond with a mate and raise children, the male genitalia suggest a high degree of sexual infidelity in our lineage. Many social, religious and philosophical traditional prohibit adultery because they seem to have implicitly understood that having sex, which releases the bonding hormone oxytocin, can cause us want to be with a sexual partner more and more, leading to family disharmony.

Infertility - Understanding Male Infertility : Sex Ed 101

Infertility has traditionally been thought of as a woman's problem. But as it turns out, we men don't get off that easily. About one out of every three cases of infertility is due to the man alone, and we're somehow involved in infertility about half the time.

A diagnosis of male infertility can be one of the hardest challenges a man can face. For some, it can be devastating. After all, the necessity of reproduction is one of the few things on which both Darwin and the Bible agree. Not being able to father a child can make a guy feel like he’s failing at one of his most primal responsibilities.

The 4 Dangers Destroying Men Today

And 1 Surprising Way To Increase Your Confidence, Boost Your Career & Have Women Drooling Over You 

Dear Friend, I have some bad news for you today... 

I'm not sure if there's a conspiracy behind it but these dangerous trends have been robbing you of the vitality, zest and success that you truly deserve... 

The “MAGIC BULLET” for Getting Back the MOJO You Thought Was Gone for Good!

By David Blyweiss, M.D.

Great News for every man who feels burned out and beaten up by the hassles of aging!
If you’re sick of gaining weight and growing softer with every passing year…

If you feel too burned out by the end of the day to do much more than plop on the couch and watch TV…

If you’re embarrassed by your declining sexual performance and desire…

Vitamin T for Sex

Hot, hot hormones.

Reviewed by Craig H. Kliger, MD

Testosterone has been the subject of controversy recently, fueled partly by an April cover story in The New York Times Magazine. Author Andrew Sullivan extolled the effects of the hormone as treatment for his HIV-induced deficiency. Citing bursts in libido, confidence, and energy as a result, he refers to his testosterone injections as "a biweekly encounter with a syringe full of manhood."

Does Low Testosterone = Diabetes?

By Julian Whitaker, M.D., Lifecript Alternative Medicine Expert

Reviewed by Edward C. Geehr, M.D.

Diabetes and low testosterone go hand-in-hand: One in three diabetic men have low testosterone. But one potential cause of diabetes is low testosterone. So which came first, testosterone deficiency or diabetes?

A study published in Diabetes Care may answer that question. Finnish researchers measured levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and testosterone in 702 middle-aged men who had no blood sugar problems, and then reexamined them after 11 years. 

At the time of follow-up, 147 had developed metabolic syndrome (a combination of conditions that increases risk for heart disease) and 57 had diabetes. Most important, the men with the lowest testosterone levels were nearly two and a half times more likely to have developed diabetes or metabolic syndrome.

Sniffing Saffron

Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO

A particularly curious paper was published in the June 2011 issue of Phytomedicine.  In it, H. Fukui and colleagues tell us that sniffing at saffron is stimulus enough to trigger hormonal changes in young women. 

This was a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study involving just a short period of exposure ( 20 minutes) to the saffron.

Forty-seven female college students took part in the study.  Of these, 36 were randomly assigned to a saffron group and 11 assigned to a control group. Each sniffed at either a dilute solution of saffron or a for 20 minutes. 

The experimental solutions of saffron were diluted in to such a degree that the smell of saffron could not be sensed. The control was 76% ethanol only.

Sex After Menopause - The Difficulties And The Delights

So what is sex after menopause really all about? The following report includes some fascinating information about sex after menopause--info you can use, not just the old stuff they used to tell you.


The information about sex after menopause presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about sex after menopause or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.


Whatever your sex life was like before the onset of menopause, you can guarantee that the physical and emotional changes you go through at this time will have some sort of impact. While some women find that menopause causes their libido to drop so that they can't bear the thought of having sex, some find their new situation sexually liberating.

How To Be a Better Kisser

Kissing prowess is probably more important to the ladies than it is to you — so knowing how to be a better kisser will give you more cred than you think.

By Chloe Anderson


If there was a scale from 1 to 10 of things that are important to you, with 1 being “decorative pillows” and 10 being “not getting ball cancer,” I’m guessing kissing would clock in at about a 4. But for most women, including me? At least an 8 or a 9. Which means if you want to hook a new girl, or keep your current one happy, figuring out how to be a better kisser is a must.

There are five basic smooches every man should be intimately familiar with, and I’ve taken the liberty of breaking each one down for you. Want to kiss me?

Clue for Baldness in Mice and Men

By Carrie Gann

In the ongoing search for a cure for baldness, scientists have found yet another biological clue in studying both mice and men.

Male pattern baldness comes from a combination of testosterone and genetics, a duo that leads hair follicles to shrink over time.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied men with male pattern baldness and found that bald areas of their scalps had higher levels of  a protein called  prostaglandin D2 than the hairier parts. When they applied the protein to human hair follicles in a lab dish, they found that the hair stopped growing.

Dr. George Cotsarelis, chairman of dermatology at the Perelman School of Medicine at U of Penn, said those findings may lead researchers to a treatment that could suppress prostaglandin D2 and the genes that make it to stop or even reverse hair loss.

The study wasn’t the first to hint at a possible treatment for those who are shiny on top. Scores of researchers have identified factors linked to baldness, such as stem cells and stress, and potential hair-raising therapies.

But Cotsarelis said this studywas the first to study human scalps along with mice, meaning the findings apply directly to people, not just rodents.

“This is a much more targeted approach and much more likely to yield a treatment,” Cotsarelis said.

Human and mouse hair follicles typically go through cycles of growth and regression. By studying mice, the researchers also found that the levels of the protein were highest right before the hair follicle entered its regression phase. Cotsarelis said a particularly high level of prostaglandin D2 might keep the follicle in the regressed phase, preventing hair from growing.

In a report published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the authors noted that there were several drugs currently being developed to combat male pattern baldness, and a number of these drugs targeted the prostaglandin pathway. Cotsarelis said assuming the drugs pass muster regarding safety and other regulatory hurdles, they could lead to a cream or medication for male pattern baldness.

Cotsarelis said he also hoped to research what the findings mean for women who lose their hair.

“We don’t know whether women with hair loss have elevated levels of the protein in their scalp. That’s something I’d like to find out as well,” he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/22/clue-for-baldness-in-mice-and-men/

Why Can’t Women Dunk?

By Dean Schabner



Well, as Baylor University’s Brittney Griner so demonstratively proved twice this week, they can dunk, but they sure don’t do it very often.

When Griner, a 6-foot-8 junior, dunked Tuesday in Baylor’s 76-57 victory over Florida, she became just the second woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game — and the first since 2006. When she dunked again Saturday in an 83-68 victory over Georgia Tech, she tied the record for most dunks by a woman in the tournament.

Griner, who has recorded double-doubles in 100 of her 102 college games and is the first player to score 2000 points and block 500 shots in her career, hardly needs to dunk to be imposing, but her coach says it wouldn’t hurt.

“I think she’s gotten away from trying to be monstrous with her going to the rim,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said after the game Tuesday. “I told her about two weeks ago — I said: ‘Even if you miss it, it sends a message.’”

The last woman to dunk in the tournament was Candace Parker of Tennessee, who threw it down twice in a game in 2006 against Army.

Griner’s dunk Tuesday was her first of the season, and with the one Saturday, she has seven in her career, tying Parker for the record for a woman’s college player.

But a dominant 6-foot-8 male player might dunk seven times in a game. So what’s the difference?

According to Dr. Linn Goldberg, a professor of medicine and head of the Division of Health Promotion and Sports Medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University, it likely has to do with differences in height, muscle types and attitude.

Goldberg pointed out that it is not only on the basketball court where we see the difference: In the high jump, the men’s record is almost 17 percent higher than the women’s.

The key to strength, speed and power are activated fast twitch or Type II muscle fibers, especially type IIb, Goldberg said. Men have more muscle mass, in part due to the amount of testosterone, which is a naturally produced anabolic steroid, and thus they have more Type IIb muscle mass.

“Although women do produce some androgen, it is a small amount compared to males, and thus they have less muscle strength and power to jump,” Goldberg said. “Testosterone not only increases muscle mass, it also increases the size of motor neurons, which induces more power, which is needed for jumping ability.”

Size matters too — since women are not generally as tall as men — but there is obviously still a difference between men and women of the same height, and Goldberg said another factor could be the female mind-set vs. the male.

“I imagine many more women would be able to dunk, but either don’t take the opportunity or know full well that a dunk is worth no more points than a layup, a jump shot from within the 3-point perimeter, and less points than a 3-point shot,” Goldberg said.

“I may be off the mark, but in general, women are less ‘sensation-seeking’ than men, and thus may understand that they will not get more points for a dunk, makes them less likely to do something that in the end achieves nothing else but entertainment for the crowd,” he said.

gotquestions  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/25/why-cant-women-dunk/

Baldness drug Propecia 'risking men's sexual health'

By Simon Mundie
             Newsbeat reporter 

Young men could be risking their sexual health by taking a commonly used anti-baldness drug, claim some doctors.

They say finasteride, sold in the UK as Propecia, can cause serious side effects and isn't adequately labelled.

A quarter of men in their 20s show signs of male pattern baldness, with six and a half million males in the UK affected.

Propecia manufacturer Merck says it continually monitors the drug's safety and has updated the label.

James, 26, from Edinburgh suffered side effects after using the drug.

"I noticed hair loss, hair coming out in the shower and on the pillow, and I freaked out basically.

"I went onto the internet and researched it. I found out there was a drug called Propecia, and soon enough I started buying that and it worked a treat."

The prescription pill is extremely effective at stopping hair loss and in clinical trials nine out of 10 men didn't lose any more hair over a five year period.

Drugs' company Merck, which manufactures Propecia, claims on its website that less than 2% of men could suffer sexual side effects.

'Completely impotent'

It mentions things like difficulty achieving an erection, but says the problems will go away for men who stop taking the drug.

For James, that was when the problems started. He'd stopped taking the drug after noticing he had less interest in sex - but he says things soon got worse.

"After about three weeks all hell broke loose. I more or less became completely impotent."

He went to see a specialist a few months later.

Continue reading the main story

After about three weeks all hell broke loose... It did work well for my hair, but the cost is ridiculous - losing my sex-life

James, 26

"He put me on testosterone therapy, which is a lifelong commitment", says James.

"Unfortunately that didn't work either. I went back to him six months later and he offered me the chance of a penile implant."

There are doctors in Ireland and the US who claim cases like James's aren't unusual and that the drug's labelling is inadequate.

Merck say they continually monitor its safety and have recently changed the labelling after reports of sexual side effects continuing after people had stopped taking the drug.

They also claim those cases are extremely rare and could be caused by something other than Propecia itself.

But James is convinced it was his decision to take the drug that caused his problem.

"Every day I wish could turn back the clock.

"It did work well for my hair, but the cost is ridiculous - losing my sex-life.

"It's happening to lots and lots of men- and it's about time people woke up to it."

Follow Simon Mundie on Twitter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/12040303

Clue to male baldness discovered

By Helen BriggsHealth editor, BBC News website 
Half of men have thinning hair by 50 
A biological clue to male baldness has been discovered, raising the prospect of a treatment to stop or even reverse thinning hair.

In studies of bald men and laboratory mice, US scientists pinpointed a protein that triggers hair loss.

Drugs that target the pathway are already in development, they report in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The research could lead to a cream to treat baldness.

Most men start to go bald in middle age, with about 80% of men having some hair loss by the age of 70.

The male sex hormone testosterone plays a key role, as do genetic factors. They cause the hair follicles to shrink, eventually becoming so small that they are invisible, leading to the appearance of baldness. Reverse balding?

Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have analysed which genes are switched on when men start to go bald.

They found levels of a key protein called prostaglandin D synthase are elevated in the cells of hair follicles located in bald patches on the scalp, but not in hairy areas.

Mice bred to have high levels of the protein went completely bald, while transplanted human hairs stopped growing when given the protein.

Prof George Cotsarelis, of the department of dermatology, who led the research, said: "Essentially we showed that prostaglandin protein was elevated in the bald scalp of men and that it inhibited hair growth. So we identified a target for treating male-pattern baldness.

"The next step would be to screen for compounds that affect this receptor and to also find out whether blocking that receptor would reverse balding or just prevent balding - a question that would take a while to figure out."

The inhibition of hair growth is triggered when the protein binds to a receptor on the cells of hair follicles, said Prof Cotsarelis.

Several known drugs that target this pathway have already been identified, he added, including some that are in clinical trials.

The researchers say there is potential for developing a treatment that can be applied to the scalp to prevent baldness and possibly help hair regrow.

gotquestions  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17457098

Why do humans still have body hair?

Hairs serve as motion detectors for alerting us to insects, like bedbugs, before they can bite us.

By Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience 

 

Human body hair might seem to be useless on today's modern man, but it could help us detect parasites, researchers suggest, adding there's a chance our female ancestors preferred a bug-free mate, and so opted for hairier guys.

 

Humans appear relatively hairless compared with our ape relatives, but the density of hair follicles on our skin is actually the same as would be expected of an ape our size. The fine hairs that cover our bodies, which have replaced the thicker ones seen on our close relatives, are thought to be an evolutionary leftover from our hairy ancestors.

 

Now scientists find these fine hairs are useful after all — people with more of them are better at detecting bedbugs.

 

"I run a research group that seeks to understand the biology of bloodsucking insects," said researcher Michael Siva-Jothy, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Sheffield in England. "Our aim is to find ways of controlling these insects effectively and thereby preventing the transmission of insect-vectored disease."

 

Investigators recruited 29 university student volunteers through Facebook and shaved a patch of hair from one of their arms. The scientists then tested how long it took the volunteers to detect bedbugs placed on each arm and how long it took the parasites to find a good place to feed on. (The bugs were removed before they started feeding.)

 

The researchers found that body hair significantly enhanced how well people detected the bedbugs, with participants noticing the bugs on the hairy arm quicker than they did when tested on the "hairless" arm, with the hairs serving as motion detectors. The hair also prolonged how long it took the parasites to find places to feed, presumably because they hindered movement, Siva-Jothy told LiveScience.

 

Men seemed better at detecting parasites — they are generally hairier than women because of higher testosterone levels. This does not necessarily mean that women are more likely to be bitten — blood-sucking insects likely prefer to bite hosts in relatively hairless areas such as ankles.

 

Although the researchers stress they are not saying that the differences in male and female body hair are due to parasites, they do speculate that in our evolutionary past women might have preferred men with fewer parasites on them — hairier men.

 http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/stories/why-do-humans-still-have-body-hair

Dietary Fat Linked to Low Sperm Count

By KIM CAROLLO (@kimcarollo) and DR. JESSICA ROSE

Diets high in saturated fat are bad for waistlines, but they can also have a negative impact below the waist. They may lower sperm count and sperm concentration, according to a new study published in the journal Human Reproduction.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School collected semen samples from 99 mostly overweight or obese men and assessed their diets by asking them how often over the previous year they had certain foods and beverages.

They found that eating a lot of saturated fat was associated with a lower total sperm count and concentration. Diets high in omega-3 polyunsaturated fats -- the fats commonly found in fish and plant oils -- were associated with better-quality semen, meaning the sperm cells were of a better size and shape. The study did not determine what particular kinds of saturated fats were linked to sperm count.

The study's lead author, Dr. Jill Attaman, now a reproductive endocrinologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said the study could lead to a better understanding of how lifestyle factors affect male fertility.

"There are few clearly identifiable lifestyle modifications that can be made to optimize natural fertility, especially for males," Attaman told ABC News in an email. "This is the first report of a relation between specific dietary fats and semen quality."

The Effect of a Poor Diet on Male Fertility Watch Video

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Can Stress Affect Fertility Treatment? Watch Video

Experts not involved with the study have different opinions on the role diet plays in male fertility. Some say the research opens up an important door to future studies, while others say there are factors that play a much bigger role in fertility.

"The study explores an inadequately studied field in andrology and suggests associations between dietary habits and sperm parameters among subfertile, mostly overweight men," said Dr. Tamer Yalcinkaya, associate professor and section head of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Diet is an important fertility-related variable, other doctors told ABC News.

"Maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet will be the key to optimizing sperm parameters," said Dr. John Petrozza, director of the MGH Fertility Center, a center involved in the study. "The concept of omega-3 fatty acids will be the key, since it has been well established as an important cell membrane stabilizer."

"We have been discussing diet with our female patients for quite a while," said Dr. Alan Penzias, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. Researchers at Harvard Medical School were also involved with the study, though Penzias was not. "This evidence is entirely plausible and affords us the opportunity to expand the discussion to the male partners of our female patients."

Research has also implicated diet as a factor in the production of healthy eggs by women's reproductive systems. A Canadian study found that nutrients such as coenzyme Q10, a substance used by the body to produce energy, contributed to egg production.

It's also entirely possible, said Dr. Lawrence Ross, professor of urology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, that since many of the men in the study were obese, their weight was what adversely affected their semen.

"Many of them may have elevated levels of estradiol, a 'female' hormone, that can lower endogenous testosterone and decrease sperm production. Some of them may also have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes which can affect ejaculation as well as erectile function and hence total sperm count," he said. Obesity may also cause other medical problems that can affect sperm count.

But Dr. Sherman Silber of the Infertility Center of St. Louis said that higher estrogen levels in obese men play only a minor role in sperm levels.

"We cannot expect to correct male infertility with a low fat diet, but of course, Americans are obese, and any weight reduction and fat reduction program would be welcome for health in general," he said. Silber said that the shape and size of sperm -- known as sperm morphology -- are largely determined by genetics.

The Effect of a Poor Diet on Male Fertility Watch Video

The Baby Bust is Over! Watch Video

Can Stress Affect Fertility Treatment? Watch Video

Another doctor, Jamie Grifo of the NYU Fertility Center, argued that sperm count also does not necessarily affect a woman's ability to become pregnant, so the study conclusions have little relevance to fertility.

Grifo said patients with abnormal sperm morphology can "usually always get pregnant using intrauterine insemination [IUI] if you take the time." IUI is the placement of sperm directly into the uterus to facilitate fertilization. "The outcome is not changed by sperm count."

Attaman added that if future studies can replicate these findings, they can have a substantial impact on overall health.

"Although these findings need to be reproduced, adapting these nutritional modifications may not only be beneficial for reproductive health but for global general health as well," she said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/sperm-count-diet-high-saturated-fat-harvard-study/story?id=15912533&page=2