Rethinking HIV: After Five Years of Debate, a New Push for Prevention

2012-11-22

After decades of focusing almost exclusively on treating HIV, public health experts are now considering a new approach, moving to establish more effective prevention strategies to curb spread of the disease. Recent tests show that anti-HIV drugs that can hamper the growth of the virus responsible for AIDS may also prevent progression of the disease if given to infected individuals soon after their exposure to HIV. The same drugs can also prevent infections from taking hold among healthy people who are exposed to the virus; both approaches would be critical ways of controlling spread of the virus and keeping new cases of HIV to a minimum.

With this potential in mind, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a draft recommendation urging that all people between the ages of 15 and 65 be tested for the virus as part of routine health screening, even if they are not at high risk of exposure to HIV.

Continue reading Rethinking HIV: After Five Years of Debate, a New Push for Prevention →

Spotify study: Music more sexually arousing than touch

2012-10-30

Who would have guessed the most arousing music to play during sex is —

(Fair Warning: Reading any further will cause “Time of my Life” to become stuck your head for the rest of the day.)

That’s right — the soundtrack to the hit ’80s movie “Dirty Dancing.”

And the fact that the 25-year-old soundtrack still gets motors running wasn’t the only surprise finding of a recent study, “Science Behind The Song.”

The study was commissioned by digital music service Spotify to examine the relationship between music, romance and seduction.

“Dirty Dancing” was the top pick for both men and women, although the study’s author, music psychologist Daniel Mullensiefen, also pointed out that men are more willing to adjust their tastes in music in order to ensure “greater success in the bedroom.”

Continue reading Spotify study: Music more sexually arousing than touch →

Heavy Women May Be More Likely to See Breast Cancer Recur

2012-08-28

Overweight and obese women may have a tougher battle in store when it comes to breast cancer: a new study published in the journal Cancer finds that carrying extra pounds is linked with a higher risk of cancer recurrence and death.

Previous studies have linked obesity with breast cancer recurrence, but the new study is among the first to find the same trend even among women who are overweight but not obese. The researchers found that having higher body mass index increased women’s risk of breast cancer recurrence and death, even if they had state-of-the-art treatment like chemotherapy and hormonal therapy.

Continue reading Heavy Women May Be More Likely to See Breast Cancer Recur →

Are you too tired for sex? By Ian Kerner, Special to CNN

2012-08-23

According to a recent study by the National Sleep Foundation, about one in every four married or cohabitating Americans claim they’re so sleep-deprived that they’re often too tired to have sex.

It’s not surprising why sleep trumps sex: Between work, family and social obligations, our need for shuteye often suffers.

Add in problems such as financial stress, health issues and relationship woes, and you can see why sex tends to drop to the bottom of our “to do” list — if it’s on there at all.

And when we do finally hit the sheets, many of us are more apt to hold onto our smart phone, tablet or other gadget than our partner’s hand.

“Many of us are multitasking throughout the day for extended periods of time — constant stimulation that can allow for enriching experiences,” says Amy Levine, sex coach and founder of Ignite Your Pleasure. “However, that can also take its toll on our sex lives.”

In some cases, though, simple exhaustion isn’t the only reason why sex takes a backseat to sleep.

Unless you’ve been diagnosed with a health condition that saps energy, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, it’s possible that factors other than a busy lifestyle are at play.
Why some are prone to sleepwalking
Sleep deprivation and your health

Are men ‘sexually fluid?’

“Boredom could be to blame,” Levine says. “If you think or feel sex is going to be status quo, it will feel like a chore rather than something that’s satisfying.”

Also likely: a low sex drive. According to a 2008 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, between one-third and one-half of all women will find themselves coping with low sexual desire at some point in their lives. And while we’re lacking such strong statistics for men, I and many other experts believe that low libido is increasingly becoming a problem for guys, too.

Although any number of factors could be to blame for these dips in desire, many of the same triggers that make us exhausted — like stress, anxiety, worry — are also linked to decreased desire in both men and women. Some people may confuse a low libido with being too tired for sex; for others, exhaustion itself seems to trigger a lower sex drive.

“A lot of women are satisfied with their relationships and enjoy sex once it’s under way but are just too tired and stressed to feel sexual desire,” explains Laurie Mintz, a University of Florida professor of psychology and the author of “A Tired Woman’s Guide to Passionate Sex.”

The book was shown in a published study of 45 women to significantly increase sexual desire, arousal, satisfaction and overall sexual functioning in those who followed the book’s program.

Fortunately, there’s much you can do to create both the time and energy to make sex a regular part of your routine again. Try these steps to get back on track:

Get on a regular sleep schedule

It’s the end of a long day, the kids are finally in bed, and all you and your partner want to do is — well, veg out in front of the TV, or putter around on the Internet, or play a few rounds of Words with Friends.

Says Patty Brisben, educator and founder of PureRomance.com, “The average American spends 2.7 hours a day watching TV, according to the American Time Use Survey. So you have to ask yourself which is more important to you: your relationship or American Idol?”

Try to stick to a regular bedtime, and devote the last hour or so of your waking time to your partner. Even if you do nothing more than cuddle, you’re setting a schedule that allows time for more when you’re ready. Eventually, your mood will follow.

Stay-at-home dads are sexy

Think outside the box

It’s easy to say, “Let’s have sex tonight,” early in the day when your energy is still high. Yet most of us wait until nighttime to get intimate, and by then we’re often too tired to make a move.

“Some people are more aroused during the day than at night,” Levine says. “Make your arousal pattern work with your schedule and that of your partner so you can enjoy physical intimacy.” That might mean indulging in morning sex before work or a lunchtime quickie — whatever works for you.

Make a date

Think scheduled sex is boring? Not necessarily. There’s a common assumption that spontaneous sex is best, but “planned encounters help build anticipation and relieve tension within your relationship,” Mintz says.

Get a sitter and head out for date night, play hooky from work, or make time for sex when the kids are at a friend’s house, for example.

Adds Brisben, “Scheduling sex is great for someone who loves to make a ‘to-do’ list. You know you’re not going to sleep until that box is checked off. Plus, it’ll establish a pattern of healthy sexual behavior. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit. Once that habit is formed, you won’t want to go to sleep unless you’ve had sex.”

Just do it

It can be tough to feel aroused when all you want to do it sleep. But stick with it.

Like other forms of exercise, “sex can give you an energetic buzz,” Levine says. “You just have to be willing to push past the feeling of tiredness to experience the pleasure that will ultimately recharge you.

“If you shift your schedule so you get enough sleep and reprioritize your day to the essentials,” Levine says, “being tired doesn’t have to be a factor that influences your sex life.”

And remember, sex begets sex. Once you get back into the swing of things, you’re likely to start wanting to get — and stay — intimate more often. When you wake up and smell the coffee, it will smell all the better for having had sex the night before.

How a Squirt of Oxytocin Could Ease Marital Spats and Boost Social Sensitivity

2012-08-15

Oxytocin focuses our eyes — and our brains — on love. It could help troubled couples as well as autistic people
By Maia Szalavitz | @maiasz | August 14, 2012

Want to make those inevitable fights with your partner less troublesome? A spritz of the “love hormone” oxytocin could help, by encouraging cooperation in men and making women behave more approachably, a new study suggests.

The hormone may also help people read social cues more accurately, according to a second study in the same journal, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. That suggests oxytocin may not only ease social interaction, but that the hormone could also someday help people with socially impairing conditions like autism interact with others.

Oxytocin is a complicated character. It’s commonly called the “cuddle chemical” — the brain chemical is involved in orgasm, social bonding, pregnancy and breast-feeding — but in other circumstances, it has the opposite effect, increasing aggression against outsiders or spurring distrust and rejection rather than affection in some people who have had difficult childhoods.

(MORE: Could the ‘Cuddle Chemical’ Oxytocin Improve Male Sexual Function?)

The two new studies illuminate the nuanced effects of the hormone: in the first study, researchers found that oxytocin had opposing, but complementary effects on men and women in romantic relationships, who were given a dose of the drug before discussing a contentious point in their relationship. When both people got oxytocin, their conflict resolution improved.

The research involved 47 healthy heterosexual couples who were either married or had been living together for at least a year; they were happy in their relationships and not seeking therapy. Before being given either oxytocin or placebo, they were told to pick two areas of disagreement in their relationship; after the oxytocin took effect, the couples discussed those issues with each other while being videotaped.

Men who received oxytocin rather than placebo responded more positively to their partners during their dispute, paying more attention to them and responding more cooperatively. Physically, their levels of emotional arousal increased, which researchers gauged by tracking levels in the saliva of a chemical linked with autonomic nervous system activity. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for generating emotional and physical states, such as fear, anger, happiness and the fight-or-flight response — and the men’s behavioral changes occurred in tandem with changes in their autonomic activity.

(MORE: Telltale Signs You’ve Got the Love Hormone Gene?)

In women, oxytocin had the opposite effect: it reduced their autonomic response, making the women more friendly and approachable. The different results by gender may be linked to the fact that the autonomic nervous system has two primary functions that counteract each other: the sympathetic nervous system boosts arousal and triggers the fight-or-flight response, while the parasympathetic nervous system promotes a calming response, returning to the body to a neutral state. Perhaps boosting one function while suppressing the other could produce complementary effects depending on gender.

The authors suggest that the variation corresponds to the different ways men and women tend to respond to stress. Men are more likely to go into fight-or-flight mode, which raises arousal and makes them prone to approach, while women typically engage in a tend-or-befriend” strategy with calmer physiology, which makes them more approachable. In its role in facilitating bonding between couples, therefore, oxytocin may tune the stress system to generate the best response from each gender in order to reduce conflict. The authors write that oxytocin “may have driven quiescence in women and…‘approach’ behavior in men.”

The second study, published in the same journal, reveals a possible mechanism for how oxytocin actually works its magic on social behavior, by examining the hormone’s effect on people’s ability to read emotional expressions in faces.

(MORE: Should the Love Hormone Oxytocin Be Used in Couples’ Therapy?)

Forty healthy volunteers had their pupil dilation monitored as they tried to detect either hidden or explicit emotional expressions in images of faces. Pupil dilation is often used in research to indicate a person’s interest, attention or “cognitive load.” The authors note that “oxytocin significantly enhanced the pupil dilation response for all facial expressions presented.”

What does that mean in terms of the ability to interpret facial expressions appropriately? “[O]xytocin consistently enhances the perception of others’ facial expressions, ‘sharpening’ the impression such that happy faces appear more happy and less angry, whereas angry expressions appear more angry and less happy,” the authors write. “This type of evaluative ‘sharpening’ could represent one mechanism by which oxytocin enhances sensitivity to simple as well as more complex emotional expressions.”

In other words, the hormone may act on the brain by literally focusing visual attention on important social information and making it seem more distinct. But the effect was most pronounced in people who started out with difficulty reading social cues. People who were already sensitive to detecting emotion showed little change after receiving the oxytocin.

All of this suggests that oxytocin could be particularly useful for people with autism, a condition that is marked early in life by reduced interest in most social signals and experiences. “We think that oxytocin plays a critical role in social attachment and social cognition,” says Dr. Eric Hollander, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Montefiore/Albert Einstein School of Medicine, who studies the use of oxytocin in people with autism and was not associated with the current research. “One of the problems in autism is that social information is not being tagged as salient, so enhancing oxytocin should help in terms of salience, so that they can start to pay more attention to social information,” he says.

(MORE: A Blood Test to Predict Everlasting Love?)

Indeed, a case report published this week in BMC Psychiatry showed that a 16-year-old autistic girl who was given oxytocin daily for months experienced dramatic improvement. Prior to starting oxytocin, the Japanese teen had had few friends and frequent emotional outbursts. She had difficulty understanding others and obsessively played videogames alone. The authors write:

One month after starting nasal oxytocin spray administration, the girl’s social behaviors began to improve. The duration in which she closeted herself in her room became short. She greeted other people and made small talk with them, and she also showed empathy for others’ sickness and worries. She became able to express gratitude to her family for their support.

She became able to carefully listen to her family’s conversation, and showed attenuated expressions of rebellion to the family’s words of caution. Even when she lost her temper, she calmed down immediately. A teacher who taught her about culture and who did not know about her treatment noted decreases in the numbers of episodes of irritability and self-injury, and was surprised at the increases in the frequencies of daily conversations and happy facial expressions in the presence of other people.

If controlled trials and additional lines of research bear out, oxytocin may someday play an important role in the treatment of autism. It could also potentially help with other disorders like schizophrenia, which are marked by social withdrawal. In addition, researchers are studying oxytocin for the treatment of addiction, in which social difficulties often precede the development of substance misuse.

But given that research has shown that oxytocin can also have some negative emotional effects — notably in people with borderline personality disorder — it’s not yet ready for home use in autism or in couples’ counseling outside of experimental settings.

Maia Szalavitz is a health writer at TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland.

Are men ‘sexually fluid’?

2012-07-20

In a new critically-acclaimed off-Broadway play, with a title too controversial for print, a gay man finds himself falling for a woman, which makes him – and his male partner – wonder whether he’s “really” gay after all.

Can a gay man who is sexually attracted to women still be gay? And what about straight men who get turned on by other men? Are men “sexually fluid”?

Female sexual fluidity – the capacity to move from romantic relationships with men to those with women, and vice versa – is well established, as I’ve previously discussed. Male sexual fluidity is less clear, yet it seems to be on the minds of many men and women. In fact, I’m often approached by women who are worried because they’ve caught their husbands or boyfriends looking at gay porn.

Continue reading Are men ‘sexually fluid’? →

Propecia Problems: Baldness Drug Linked with Long-Lasting Sexual Side Effects

2012-07-16

In April, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated the warning to finasteride, Merck & Co.’s drug marketed to treat both male pattern baldness (Propecia) and enlarged prostate (Proscar). The new warnings noted that the sexual side effects associated with the medication, including problems with libido, ejaculations and orgasm, could last even after patients stop taking the drug.

Now a new study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine finds that side effects may not only continue after stopping finasteride, but they may last for months or even years.

In the study, Dr. Michael Irwig of George Washington University and his colleagues surveyed 54 men under age 40 who reported experiencing side effects for three months or more after stopping the medication Propecia. The patients reported a variety of sexual problems including erectile dysfunction, low libido, trouble having an orgasm, and shrinking and painful genitals. Some men also reported neurological problems like depression, anxiety and cognitive haziness.

For 96% of the men, the sexual problems lasted more than a year after they quit using the drug. None of the men had sexual, medical or psychiatric complaints before taking Propecia.

(MORE: Could the ‘Cuddle Chemical’ Oxytocin Improve Male Sexual Function?)

The study sample was small and the authors acknowledge that it may be skewed to include only men who were most negatively impacted by the drug. Most of the participants were recruited through an Internet forum called Propeciahelp.com, for men experiencing persistent side effects.

Still, the authors argue their findings may signal potentially serious risks for men using finasteride. “Our findings make me suspicious that this drug may have done permanent damage to these men,” Irwig told ABC News.

The FDA’s updated warning labels for finasteride were based on a review of post-marketing reports of sexual dysfunction. The agency reviewed 421 post-marketing reports of sexual side effects related to Propecia from 1998 to 2011; out of these cases, 59 reported adverse sexual effects lasting over three months after discontinuing the drug. For Proscar, the FDA reviewed 131 cases of erectile dysfunction and 68 cases of decreased libido from 1992 to 2010. As Healthland reported in April:

Finasteride labels will now warn users that Propecia’s side effects can include libido disorders, ejaculation disorders, and orgasm disorders that continue after discontinuation of the drug and that Proscar can lead to decreased libido that continues after quitting the drug. Both medications will receive a new description of reports of male infertility and poor semen quality that normalized or improved after stopping therapy.

“Despite the fact that clear causal links between finasteride (Propecia and Proscar) and sexual adverse events have not been established, the cases suggest a broader range of adverse effects than previously reported in patients taking these drugs,” the FDA said in a statement.

(MORE: Study Finds Pattern in Male Baldness: Could There Be a Cure?)

Irwig acknowledges that the number of men experiencing long-lasting side effects from finasteride is small, although the incidence of sexual side effects in clinical trials was around 2%, the incidence of persistent sexual side effects is unknown, but likely less than 0.1%. “But because the medication is prescribed so commonly, it’s still a lot of people, likely several thousand men around the world,” Irwig told ABC News.

Both the FDA and Merck maintain that finasteride is safe and effective.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/12/propecia-problems-baldness-drug-linked-with-long-lasting-sexual-side-effects/?iid=hl-main-feature#ixzz20ljWGTHl