6 all-natural sex tips for men
If you believe those upbeat, seductive advertisements, men only need to pop a pill to awaken their dormant sex life. Whether the problem is erectile dysfunction (ED) — the inability to maintain an erection for sex — or low libido, ED medications appear to be the quickest and easiest solution.
While these drugs work for most men, they are not right for everyone. ED drugs are relatively safe, but can cause possible side effects such as headaches, indigestion, and back pain. Plus, some men may not want their sex life dependent on regular medication, or simply can’t take them because of high or low blood pressure, or...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 15, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Matthew Solan Tags: Dental Health Diet and Weight Loss Exercise and Fitness Men's Health Source Type: blogs
Learning to live well with a persistent illness
When we get an acute illness like the flu or a cold, we feel sick for a week or two and then get back to our usual lives. This is how illness is “supposed” to go. But what happens when illness doesn’t fit this bill? What do patients with chronic conditions like diabetes or multiple sclerosis, or with persistent symptoms of Lyme disease or long-haul COVID-19, do when they can’t go back to their normal lives? Having suffered from the latter two — tick-borne illnesses that have plagued me for two decades, and a case of COVID-19 that took four months to shake — I’ve learned a few lessons about living with persist...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 14, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jennifer Crystal, MFA Tags: Fatigue Source Type: blogs
5 takeaways for returning to school
School districts in the United States are in a period of profound uncertainty, which will likely persist throughout the 2020–2021 school year. Many agree that remote teaching in spring 2020 was piecemeal and sub-optimal. Now, despite a stated universal commitment to full-time, in-person, high-caliber education, many states have rising rates of COVID-19, and teachers and parents share deep health concerns. Already we have witnessed a rapid and seismic transition from the beginning of this summer — in June, many schools planned to open full-time for in-person learning — to near-universal adoption of hybrid or remote te...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 11, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alan Geller, MPH, RN Tags: Adolescent health Children's Health Coronavirus and COVID-19 Parenting Source Type: blogs
Getting the best treatment for your fibromyalgia
Imagine being in pain and having your doctor tell you it’s all in your head. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon experience for many of the six million Americans living with fibromyalgia, a chronic, painful condition.
People with fibromyalgia experience widespread pain, aches, and stiffness in muscles and joints throughout the body, as well as unusual tiredness. No one knows what causes this condition, and no apparent physical cause has been identified thus far. The most likely culprit is a brain malfunction that amplifies normal nerve responses, causing people with fibromyalgia to experience pain or other symptoms wh...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kelly Bilodeau Tags: Bones and joints Fatigue Health Pain Management Source Type: blogs
Hormonal treatments for prostate cancer may prevent or limit COVID-19 symptoms
Men have roughly twice the risk of developing severe disease and dying from COVID-19 than women. Scientists say this is in part because women mount stronger immune reactions to the disease’s microbial cause: the infamous coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2.
Now research with prostate cancer patients points to another possible explanation, which is that the male sex hormone testosterone helps SARS-Cov-2 get into and infect human cells.
SARS-CoV-2 initiates infections by first latching onto its human cell receptor. But it can only pass into a cell with the aid of a second protein called TMPRSS2. Testosterone regulates TMPRSS...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Living With Prostate Cancer Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs
Proposed guidelines likely to identify more early lung cancers
Lung cancer is the second most prevalent cancer in the US, and the deadliest cancer killer. In 2020, an estimated 135,720 people will die from the disease — more than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined.
I’ll never forget meeting new, advanced-stage lung cancer patients who ask if their diagnosis could have somehow been made earlier, when treatment would have been more likely to succeed. In 2009, when I began practicing thoracic oncology, there were no approved screening tests for lung cancer.
A brief history of lung cancer screening
Hope for early detection and death prevention came in 2011 with the publicati...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 9, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Inga Lennes, MD, MPH, MBA Tags: Cancer Lung disease Screening Source Type: blogs
Limiting COVID chaos during the school year
Child: “Will I go back to school this fall?
Parent: “I’m not sure yet.”
Child: “Do you know when we’ll find out?”
Parent: “I also don’t know that yet.”
Child: “Will school be the same for the whole year?”
Parent: “I don’t know that either.”
Sound familiar? If the only thing you do know is that plans are in flux, you’re not alone. School plans seem to be changing frequently — before the school year even has started in some places! With so much uncertainty, how can families limit the potential chaos that may unfold from last-minute decisions and changes? Below are four tips that may help.
De...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 8, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jacqueline Sperling, PhD Tags: Children's Health Mental Health Parenting Source Type: blogs
How can you help a loved one suffering from loneliness?
You are worried about your mother. Before the pandemic, you would visit her every week with your young children. They loved playing in her garden and eating homemade cookies together. You would take your mother to medical appointments and on small excursions. However, due to her chronic lung disease, you made the difficult decision in March not to continue in-person family visits. You call her daily, but she sounds increasingly sad and worried. What can you do?
What is loneliness and how does it affect health?
Loneliness is a subjective mental state of feeling disconnected from others. It is different from social isolati...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 4, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Stephanie Collier, MD, MPH Tags: Anxiety and Depression Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health Healthy Aging Mental Health Source Type: blogs
Triple therapy helps control severe asthma
Asthma affects approximately 20 million adults in the US. It is a common cause of workplace and school absenteeism, and is one of the leading causes of hospitalizations in the US. Between 5% and 10% of asthmatics have frequent, persistent symptoms despite treatment with multiple medications, and are categorized as “difficult to treat” and “severe” asthmatics. In these patients, asthma can be life-threatening.
Identifying ways to control symptoms and asthma exacerbations in these patients is an important goal of asthma researchers.
Proper technique and particle size impact effectiveness of inhalers
Asthma symptoms r...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 2, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kathleen Haley, MD Tags: Asthma Drugs and Supplements Source Type: blogs
How to help your child get the sleep they need
This year, back-to-school plans are still a work in progress, and some (perhaps many) children will be learning from home because of the pandemic. As tempting as it might be to let the summer sleep schedules stay in place, it’s important that children have a regular routine — and that they are sleeping during the dark hours and awake during the light ones, as our bodies do best that way. So while a child whose trip to school is just a walk to the kitchen table might be able to sleep a bit later than one who has to catch an early bus, no child should be spending all morning in bed.
Sleep is crucial for all of us, and th...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 31, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Adolescent health Children's Health Parenting Sleep Source Type: blogs
Blown up in smoke: Young adults who vape at greater risk of COVID symptoms
COVID-19 has swept across the globe, infecting millions and resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. Substantial resources have been invested into understanding individual vulnerability in order to protect those at greatest risk. Age is the most often cited risk factor; 75% of US deaths have been in people over the age of 65, while younger people generally have milder symptoms. In addition to age, the Centers for Disease Control has delineated a list of health factors that increase vulnerability, most of which are chronic disorders that generally alter health status. The single most modifiable risk factor for severe C...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 28, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Sharon Levy, MD, MPH Tags: Addiction Adolescent health Children's Health Cold and Flu Coronavirus and COVID-19 Lung disease Smoking cessation Source Type: blogs
Is it safe to reduce blood pressure medications for older adults?
“Doctor, can you take away any of my medications? I am taking too many pills.”
As physicians, we hear this request frequently. The population most affected by the issue of being prescribed multiple medications, known as polypharmacy, is the elderly. Trying to organize long lists of medications, and remembering to take them exactly as prescribed, can become a full-time job. In addition to the physical and emotional burden of organizing medications, older adults are at increased risk for certain types of side effects and potential worse outcomes due to polypharmacy.
A common source of prescriptions is high blood pressure...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 26, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Hanna Gaggin, MD, MPH Tags: Drugs and Supplements Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs
5 ways to ease pain using the mind-body connection
I smashed my elbow a few weeks ago. There was no bone break — just a bad bruise after slipping in the kitchen and landing on my arm — but at times the pain has been excruciating. So I’ve been following doctor’s orders: babying my elbow, icing it, and taking an occasional over-the-counter painkiller. (PS: I wear sneakers in the kitchen now.)
Something else has helped, too: mind-body therapies. These approaches aim to change our awareness of pain and retrain the way we respond to it. The therapies can help us control pain — such as long-lasting back pain — or live with it better. While these techniques won’t er...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 24, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Heidi Godman Tags: Back Pain Complementary and alternative medicine Health Pain Management Source Type: blogs
Worried about sleep apnea? Home-based testing is now the norm
If your bed partner complains about your loud snoring, it might be a disruptive nuisance — or something more serious. High-volume snoring punctuated by snorts, gasps, and brief pauses in breathing is the hallmark of obstructive sleep apnea.
Although this condition occurs most often in men over 40 who are overweight or obese, it can affect people of all ages and sizes. The resulting daytime sleepiness — a direct result of not getting enough high-quality sleep — can leave people moody and forgetful. Even more worrisome: car accidents are two to three times more common in people with sleep apnea. Sleep apnea also can bo...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 21, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Health Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Sleep Tests and procedures Source Type: blogs
Hormonal treatments for prostate cancer are often given late
Men with advanced prostate cancer are typically treated with drugs that cause testosterone levels to plummet. Testosterone is a hormone that fuels growing prostate tumors, so ideally this type of treatment, which is called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), or hormonal therapy, will stall the disease in its tracks.
For that to happen, ADT has to be administered correctly. But according to a new study, men frequently don’t get ADT at the proper dosing intervals. Too many of them get the treatments later then they should, causing testosterone levels to rise unacceptably. “Rapid increases in testosterone followin...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 20, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Health Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs
