Older men enjoying frequent sex have increased risk of heart problems
Good news for women, however: older women with robust sex lives show
no ill-effects, and those having enjoyable sex tend to have lower blood
pressure
Older men who indulged in sexual activity once a week or more had twice
the risk of heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular conditions
compared with men who went without.
Photograph: Tim Macpherson/Getty Images
As if to demonstrate that every silver lining has a cloud,
researchers in the US have shown that older men who enjoy frequent sex
raise their chances of developing heart problems.
But the same was not seen for older women, who appeared to suffer no
ill-effects from a robust sex life, and tended to have lower blood
pressure when they found sex highly enjoyable.
Men in their late 50s to mid-80s who indulged in sexual activity once
a week or more had twice the risk of heart attack, stroke or other
cardiovascular conditions over the next five years, compared with men
who went without, the researchers found.
To make matters worse, the men who enjoyed sex the most were more
likely to suffer heart conditions than those who were not so bothered.
The findings emerge from one of the first large scale studies into
the impact of sex on the health of older people. More than 2,200 people
who enrolled in the US National Social Life, Health and Ageing project took part in the study at Michigan State University.
Hui Liu, a sociologist who led the study, said that older men may
come off badly because they exhaust themselves more than younger men in
an effort to reach an orgasm. She said that would “create more stress on
their cardiovascular system in order to achieve climax”.
Medicines designed to boost sexual function might contribute to the
damaging effects on men’s hearts, Liu added. High testosterone levels
may also play a role, by increasing men’s motivation to have sex while
predisposing them to hypertension.
In the study, the US team pored over medical records from 2,204
people who were aged 57 to 85 when the first wave of data was gathered
in 2005 and 2006. The records contained information on heart rate,
hypertension, and cases of heart attacks, heart failure and stroke.
Measurements were also taken of biomarkers that are used to predict a
person’s risk of stroke and heart attack.
“We found that having sex once a week or more puts older men at a
risk for experiencing cardiovascular events that is almost two times
greater than older men who are sexually inactive,” Liu said. Those who
found sex with their partners “extremely pleasurable” or even merely
“satisfying” had a higher risk than others.
While an active sex life appeared to harm the physical - if not
mental - health of older men, it had no such impact on women. Instead,
the study revealed the better news that enjoying sex in old age
protected women from developing high blood pressure and so likely
reduced their risk of future heart problems. “Good sexual quality may
protect older women from cardiovascular risk in later life,” Liu said.
The findings, Liu believes, challenge the conventional wisdom that
sex is good for health whatever a person’s age. In light of the latest
findings, reported in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour,
Liu said GPs should talk with their older male patients about the
potential risks that come with an active sex life. Those who have sex
once a week or more might even do well to be screened for heart problems
later in life, she said.
Older women who enjoy an active sex life may fare better than older
men because of the beneficial effects of the female sex hormone released
during orgasm, and the stress-busting effects of a close relationship,
the researchers say. Liu believes that men in all relationships, even
bad ones, are more likely to receive support from their partners than
women are. “Only women in good quality relationships may acquire such
benefits from their partner,” she said.
“Although some studies suggest that women’s health is especially
vulnerable to poor relationships, our results reveal an optimistic
finding: women’s cardiovascular health can benefit from a rewarding
sexual relationship,” the researchers add.
comment:- this report by Liu ;better flush it down theLOO
Taking selfies regularly: You might be a narcissist, says MGM study
TNN | Aug 27, 2016, 09.23 AM IST
Indore: Taking selfies regularly might induce personality disorder. A
study conducted by Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College has
associated taking selfies to narcissism (excessive interest in or
admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance).
The
students surveyed 100 young adults from two different professional
colleges in city to assess prevalence of the 'selfie syndrome'.
Through
observational study for assessment of behaviour and traits associated
with taking and posting selfies among students, researchers used a
semi-structured questionnaire result in detection of Selfie Syndrome in
significant percentage of people. The research found that narcissists
more frequently update their status and selfies, which was motivated by
their need for attention and validation from Facebook community. People
with low self-esteem more frequently posted selfies with their romantic
partners.
When
asked about where youth most often take selfies, 30% youths said that
they prefer taking selfies at home alone. 59% said they prefer to take
them in public, 3% said at work, 1% at school/college while 7% preferred
selfies in bathroom.
The
other important findings of the study included 15% taking selfies just
to send them to a friend, 14% to put on social media, 13% because they
were bored, 3% to show people they have friends, 21% take selfies to
share their current lifestyle with their family. 3% said they take
selfies for attention while 31% said they had other reasons for taking
selfies. Overall 34% of people under study agreed to the point that they
get some sort of satisfaction from posting selfies on social network.
However 66% of people disagreed.
"24%
said they get satisfaction after posting selfies - this may indicate
narcissism among people. Other data shows tendency of
self-objectification and validation from others. For people taking 7-10
selfies, it may indicate the road towards body dysmorphic disorder. 31%
people said they feel the pressure to look good all the time in their
selfies. This indicates the pressure of society's approval and deep
seated insecurities about one's appearance," community medicine
department head Dr Sanjay Dixit said.
Five
students of the college have completed the research "An assessment of
Selfie Syndrome among the students in the Indore city". The students
including Aayushi Parashar, Ankur Nayan, Ali Zainul Abedin Hussaini and
Ashish Dhurway under guidance of faculty of department of community
medicine executed the research.
Narcissism
is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of
one's own attributes. The term originated from Greek mythology, where
the young ...
Narcissistic
personality disorder (NPD) is a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior
characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive
need ...
The Truth About Narcissism.
... At one end of the self-loving spectrum is the charismatic leader
with an excess of charm, whose only vice may be his or her inflated
amour-propre. At the far end of the spectrum reside individuals with narcissistic personality disorder, whose grandiosity ...
A new study outlines how protein engineering techniques
may help to image not just anatomy of the baby in ultrasound but also
show specific cells and molecules deeper in the body such as those
associated with tumor or bacteria in our gut.
The researchers
engineered protein-shelled nanostructures called gas vesicles- which
reflect sound waves- to exhibit new properties useful for ultrasound
technologies.
In the future, these gas vesicles could be administered to a patient
to visualize tissues of interest. The modified gas vesicles give more
distinct signals, making them easier to image or target specific cell
types and help create color ultrasound images.
"It's somewhat like engineering with molecular Legos," said senior author Mikhail Shapiro.
"We
can swap different protein 'pieces' on the surface of gas vesicles to
alter their targeting properties and to visualize multiple molecules in
different colors," he added.
Anupama Lakshmanan, lead author of
the study, said: "Today, ultrasound is mostly anatomical. We want to
bring it down to the molecular and cellular level."
In 2014,
Shapiro first discovered the potential use of gas vesicles in ultrasound
imaging. These gas-filled structures naturally occur in water-dwelling
single-celled organisms such as Anabaena flos-aquae, a species of
cyanobacteria that forms filamentous clumps of multicell chains.
Shapiro
realized that the vesicles would readily reflect sound waves during
ultrasound imaging and ultimately demonstrated this using mouse.
In
the latest research, Shapiro and his team set out to give the gas
vesicles new properties by engineering gas vesicle protein C, or GvpC, a
protein naturally found on the surface of vesicles that gives them
mechanical strength and prevents them from collapsing.
The protein
can be engineered to have different sizes with longer versions of the
protein producing stronger and stiffer nanostructures. "The
proteins are like the framing rods of an airplane fuselage. You use them
to determine the mechanics of the structure," Shapiro said.
In
another experiment, the scientists removed the strengthening protein
from gas vesicles and then administered the engineered vesicles to mice
and performed ultrasound imaging. Compared to normal vesicles, the
modified vesicles vibrated more in response to sound waves and thus
resonated with harmonic frequencies.
Harmonics are created when
sound waves bounce around, for instance in a violin, and form new waves
with doubled and tripled frequencies. Harmonics are not readily created
in natural tissues, making the vesicles stand out in ultrasound images.
In
the other set of experiments, the researchers demonstrated how gas
vesicles could be made to target certain tissues in the body. They
genetically engineered the vesicles to display variouscellular targets
such as an amino acid sequence that recognizes proteins called integrins
that are overproduced intumor cells.
"Adding these functionalities to the gas vesicles is like snapping on a new Lego piece; it's a modular system," said Shapiro.
The
team also showed how multicolor ultrasound images might be created.
Shapiro's group created an approach for imaging three different types of
gas vesicles as separate 'colors' based on their differential ability
to resist collapse under pressure.
The vesicles themselves do not appear in different colors, but they can be assigned colors based on their different properties.
To
demonstrate this, the team made three different versions of the
vesicles with varying strengths of the GvpC protein. They then increased
the ultrasound pressures, causing the variant populations to
successively collapse one by one.
As each population collapsed,
the overall ultrasound signal decreased in proportion to the amount of
that variant in the sample, and this signal change was then mapped to a
specific color. In the future, if each variant population targeted a
specific cell type, researchers would be able to visualize the cells in
multiple colors.
"You might be able to see tumor cells versus the
immune cells attacking the tumor, and thus monitor the progress of a
medical treatment," said Shapiro.
The research is published in ACS Nano journal.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
How malaria supports spread of infectious cancer in Africa
New York: Infectious agents can cause a lot of cancer in Africa and researchers believe they now have a clue to how malaria during pregnancy creates the right conditions for a virus to cause cancer in children.
The researchers wanted to explore why the Epstein-Barr virus causes a
type of cancer called Burkitt's lymphoma only in some people and not in
all infected by the virus.
Rosemary Rochford from the University of Colorado Cancer Center in
the US and her colleagues centered their research in Kisumu, Kenya, a
port city of just over 400,000.
In addition to a near universal rate of
infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, Kisumu has an unusually high rate
of Burkitt's lymphoma and malaria.
"Because Burkitt's lymphoma is prevalent in areas with a lot of
malaria, we thought maybe it could be associated with malaria
infection," Rochford said.
Children born to women who have malaria during pregnancy are more
predisposed to develop Burkitt's lymphoma, the researchers noted.
"What we think happens is that the risk for these children begins
during pregnancy. Usually for most people, the virus is quiet. You never
even know you have it. But when you get malaria, the virus reactivates
and infects more cells,” Rochford said.
"When mothers get malaria during pregnancy, these malaria-infected
cells shed more virus and infants get infected earlier in life. Because
they're infected so early, their immune systems don't manage the virus
the way they should,” Rochford explained.
"It's not just the fact of exposure to Epstein-Barr virus, but the
timing of it that matters. These kids with prenatal exposure due to the
secondary pressure of malaria are the ones with increased risk,"
Rochford said.
One answer to the challenge of virus-associated cancers in Africa would be better and more prevalent use of vaccines.
Rochford pointed out that the story of Burkitt's lymphoma is similar
to the story of other virus-associated cancers, including cervical
cancer caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) and Kaposi's sarcoma
caused by the human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8).
In fact, in Kisumu, Kaposi's sarcoma is the most common cancer
in men and cervical cancer is the most common cancer in adult women.
Unlike in the US, where the cancer risk of viruses is far smaller
than the risks associated with tobacco and alcohol, "in some parts of
Africa, the majority of cancers are caused by infectious agents," said
the study published in the journal Current Opinions in Virology.
By Anil Raina, Mumbai Mirror | Aug 24, 2016, 12.24 PM IST
Renowned
retina surgeon from Mumbai Dr S Natrajan is back in the Valley to
perform more vitrectomies (retina surgeries) on victims hit by pellets
in eyes.
After performing retinal surgeries on pellet victims
in Ophthalmology Department SMHS Hospital for free earlier this month,
Borderless World Foundation Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh is once again
organizing free retinal surgery camp for pellet victims in the Valley.
Hospital sources told Mumbai Mirror that
Dr Natarajan is planning around sixty surgeries in four days, and on
his second visit to SMHS Hospital in connection with the treatment of
pellet victims whose eyes needed specialized surgeries, which he has
earlier promised to come to Kashmir every month to treat and follow up
the pellet cases.
"The pellet injuries are extremely bad and
they are very young, so the surgeries are very tough. At this mass scale
I have never seen such type of injuries," Dr Natarajan told Mirror.
He said retina surgeries are required in most victims whose eyes are
perforated by pellets due to the damage that these cause to retina.
Retina is the inner tissue layer of eye which is sensitive to light.
"We are repairing the damaged eyes but the recovery will depend on the
extent of damage and the follow-up treatment. Eye surgeries for pellet
injuries are carried out in stages and each victim has to undergo a
number of surgeries over a period of time," he said
Dr
Natarajan said that I wish the situation improves and I don't have to
come back and I have given an offer to the Jammu and Kashmir Government
that I can be an advisor and make sure that department is running on its
own and make center of excellence for managing the injuries, and I can
teach here.
"I am here waiting for Dr Natarajan, last time he
had operated me, and now i had come for the treatment again. Natarajan
had given second life to me, and now I owe him a lot," a pellet victim
Atif said.
Borderlss World Foundation team has requested all
the voluntary organizations and other organizations across the Valley to
share this information within their localities so that maximum victims
are provided with the specialized treatment.
Around 500 people
with pellet injuries in eyes were received by the hospital over the
period of 46 days, after the protests broke out all over Kashmir Valley
following the killing Hizbul Mujahiddin Commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani
on 8th July.
Professor Dr. Sundaram Natarajan is the CMD of Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital which is one of Mumbai's ... From 1984 to 1988, he worked as a vitreo retinal surgeon, under Dr. S. S. Badrinath, at the Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai. In 1988, he joined ...
Prof.Dr.S.Natarajan Visiting Professor At Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital (THONEH) ... College on 26th Feb 2011 at 12noon on “Innovations in Vitreo Retinal Surgery”. .... Indian Eye Injury Registry, under Bombay Ophthalmologists Association.
The Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital was established in 1990 by Dr. S. Natarajan at Dadar, Mumbai. As part of its expansion the hospital shifted to a central location in ...
Dr. S.Natarajan is an Ophthalmologist in Wadala, Mumbai. Book appointments Online ... Ophthalmologist/ Eye Surgeon , 32 Years Experience. Give Feedback.