Benefits of testosterone in men

During the early years, it ensures that the male sex organs as well as other physical features including muscles and body hair grow and develop normally. A deficiency of testosterone has a negative impact on a man’s energy levels, moods, sexual functioning and libido. Men with low testosterone levels tend to experience less sexual desire, fatigue, erectile dysfunction and depression, amongst other problems.

Men with higher testosterone levels tend to be risk takers and are generally aggressive and dominating in nature. This ‘impulsive hormone’ needs to be controlled and channelized effectively.

Benefits of testosterone in women

Not many people are aware that testosterone – the male androgen – is also produced naturally in women’s bodies. The adrenal glands and the ovaries release small amounts of testosterone and estrogen (the female sex hormone) into the blood stream. These hormones are responsible for the growth and maintenance of the female reproductive tissues and are beneficial for bone mass, as well as, other body tissues. Steady levels of testosterone boost sex drive, promote the growth of bones and relieve the symptoms of mild depression.

Testosterone in women is also known to have a positive impact on vasomotor symptoms and treat vaginal dryness and atrophy. Women with high levels of testosterone in their bodies have more sexual desire, are easily aroused and have better and more frequent orgasms. In women, testosterone is known to improve the functioning of the liver, brain and blood vessels as well as cognitive functioning.

Source of Information: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/testosterone-the-sex-hormone-and-its-benefits-for-men-and-women.html

Medical history
Your medical as well as sexual history helps to determine the nature and degree of impotence you suffer from. A detailed medical history can reveal the diseases that might have contributed to erectile dysfunction. Disclosing your previous and current sexual history will help your doctor to determine whether your problem is associated with libido, erection, ejaculation or orgasm. If you have a history of taking prescription or recreational drugs, there might be a chemical cause of your erectile dysfunction. The effects of medications are responsible for about 25% of impotence cases. This can be resolved by asking your doctor to prescribe alternative medications or altering the dosage to a safer level.

Laboratory testing
Lab tests are often used to diagnose impotence. You might be required to get tested for systemic diseases such as urinalysis, blood count, lipid as well as measuring liver enzymes and creatinine. If you suffer from low libido, measuring testosterone levels in the blood can reveal problems in your endocrine system.

Physical examination
Systemic problems can be detected by a simple physical examination. For instance, if your penis is unable to respond normally to certain kinds of touching, there might be a problem in the nervous system. You have a hormonal problem if there are secondary sex characteristics including hair pattern. If there is an aneurysm in your abdomen, a problem in the blood circulatory is the most likely cause of erectile dysfunction.

Psycho-social examination
A psycho-social examination for diagnosing erectile dysfunction consists of a questionnaire and interview. Your sexual partner might also be interviewed to allow your doctor to understand the perceptions and expectations involved in your sexual experiences. Psychological factors such as guilt, stress, depression, low self esteem, anxiety and fear of failure in bed account for about 10-20% of impotence cases.

Erectile dysfunction treatment usually consists of prescription medications and/or therapeutic counselling with a qualified psychologist.

The positive findings of this research were that more than 35% of the smokers smoked at home instead of going out for a smoke. This reduced the risk of developing cancers and other chronic conditions, which was caused because of second hand smoke. On the contrary, this also led to an increase in the number of children being exposed to second hand smoke.

Is the ban effective?
Smoke-free laws make public places better and more pleasant. This has a positive effect on thousands of people all over the world who are able to protect themselves from second-hand smoke. Preventing smoking in public has a major impact on preventing many health conditions including heart attacks. A ban in smoking can prevent heart attacks up to a third. More than one fifth of the deaths in people above the age of 35 were because of smoking.

While, it has been seen that a smoking ban can be effective in certain cases, it depends on how well the citizens abide by the law. Smoking in public places such as restaurants, hospitals, gardens, cinema halls and bars certainly increases the risk of smoking-related health conditions even for those who do not smoke. The risk of second hand smoke can be reduced by banning smoking in public places. It is high time that people learn to act more responsibly towards their environment as well as their fellow human beings. After all, ‘effective’ is what we make of it.

In many cases, psychological and physical causes overlap resulting into the said condition. According to experts, psychological problems are responsible for ED problem in younger men. Anxiety, depression, low self esteem, stress are few of the psychological causes of ED. Anxiety and depression are two emotional disorders which are most commonly found to be associated with psychological impotence or erectile dysfunction.

Performance anxiety is a fear of not being able to satisfy partner. This anxiety constricts the flow of blood in and out of penis resulting in erection difficulties.

Like anxiety, stress also results in consistent ED. Stress can be due to problems at work place, money related problems, relationship problem which prohibit man to perform well during sexual activity.

Depression, another strong factor associated with ED can result in loss of libido and sexual desire. Certain medications used to treat depression can further result in erectile dysfunction.

Low self esteem can be the result of previous bad sexual experiences or prior ED experiences or non sexual related experiences.

It is very necessary to reach to the exact psychological cause behind the problem so as to find exact measure to rectify the problem. Addressing your problems and eliminating risk factors responsible for it is the key to regain control over lost erections.

Nicotine works as appetite suppressants for smokers and ex smokers experience symptoms like energy loss, headache if they have to wait long before taking meals. Cigarettes containing nicotine do suppress hunger and keep weight under control but at the cost of causing cancer, heart problems, and a hell lot of life taking health issues. Also, after smoking cessation, a person keeps on eating now and then whether he or she is hungry or not.

Among many alternatives to keep control on weight, one is to improve diet habits. It is about regulating your appetite and eating foods which burn more calories like carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, rice, pasta, potatoes etc). Reduce the intake of sweets and go for sugar free solutions.
Another strategy to keep off the weight gain after you quit smoking is to start with a regular exercise program which will not only help to improve your appetite but will also reduce stress level which is often faced by many ex smokers.

Last but not the least, keep never say die spirit. Don’t let weight worries overtake the joy of quitting smoking. Quitting smoking not just help you have a better sense of well being but actually give you a key to control your life.

Desire
“Feeling of wanting to be sexual”

Excitement
This phase is characterized by following:

1. Increased heart rate
2. Penis erection, nipple erection
3. Increase in blood pressure
4. Increased blood flow in genital areas
5. Muscle tension throughout the body
6. Skin flushing

Plateau
At this stage, changes of excitement phase are more intensified prior to orgasm and further includes following:

1. Heavy breathing
2. Further increase in muscle tension
3. Muscle tension increases.
4. Men start to secrete seminal fluid
5. Testicles get closer to the body.

Orgasm
This is the climax of sexual activity. It is quite brief and goes on only for few seconds and characterized by peak of sexual response cycle. It includes following:

1. Vaginal and uterine interactions in women
2. Sex Flush
3. Contractions of muscles at the base of penis resulting in semen ejaculation
4. Extreme sexual sensations

Resolution
This is the last phase of sexual response cycle and brings out a feeling of wellness followed by orgasm. During this phase, men lose their erections and women’s genitals return to their normal state. This happens as muscles tend to relax and blood pressure drops. Body returns to its normal level of functioning.

Understanding these phases may help partners better understand one another’s bodies and responses, leading to enhanced sexual experiences.

The risk of suffering from cancer
All women who smoke put themselves at the risk of suffering from lung cancer. The cancer of the lung has left breast cancer far behind as the leading cause of death related to cancer. A large percentage of the lung cancer deaths are a result of smoking. Women are not just at risk of suffering from lung cancer, but may also suffer from cancer of the mouth, lips, oesophagus, bladder, stomach, cervix, throat, voice box and kidney. All these cancers may result from smoking.

The risk of suffering from heart disease and lung damage
A woman, who smokes, increases her chances of suffering from heart disease. The risk of suffering from heart disease is directly proportional to the amount of cigarettes smoked, throughout the duration of her life as a smoker. There is also no doubt that the lungs are damaged as a result of smoking. The smoke that you inhale has a number of toxic substances that all come together to wreak havoc on the airways and small air sacs that are a part of the lungs.

Smoking affects the reproductive health of a woman
A woman who is addicted to smoking might not be able to get pregnant. She may also face serious problems during her pregnancy. The problems include growth of placenta near the uterine opening, early separation of placenta from the uterus and membrane ruptures. Other problems include premature delivery and bleeding.

Smoking can also affect the baby
It’s not just the mothers who are affected by the negative effects of smoking. Even their baby’s health can be affected by smoking. Women who smoke throughout the duration of their pregnancy are at the risk of delivering their child prematurely, which can result in infant death. Babies are also at risk of suffering from what is known a Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

You can see that women who smoke not only put themselves at risk but their infants as well.

A person suffering from ED can have a normal sex drive
If you have a problem in experiencing an erection or sustaining it for a long period of time, it’s could be because the blood flow to your penis is restricted for some reason or the other. It’s not because you are not sexually aroused enough. You might have as much of a desire to have sex as the next man, but problems with the process of erection make it difficult for you to have satisfying sex.

A person suffering from low sex drive can have some degree of ED
There is a chance that if you are suffering from low sex drive, you might face a degree of erection problems. But more often than not, it’s a result of the fact that you aren’t getting sexually stimulated enough. It’s important to understand that men who suffer from low sex drive have very little, if anything, wrong with their penile functioning. They can experience an erection. What they don’t experience is a desire to have sex.

Treating the condition
There is also no link between the treatments available for ED and low sex drive. There are some people who have an erroneous belief that prescription medications like Levitra, Viagra, and Cialis can also help treat low sex drive. But they do nothing of the sort. Treatment for low sex drive concentrates on offering counseling to those suffering from the condition. If there is some psychological reason behind low sex drive, it is specifically addressed during these counseling sessions.

Source of information: http://www.6thsenselondon.com/general/is-there-a-relationship-between-erectile-difficulties-and-low-sex-drive/

Pattern of hair loss
The onset of male pattern hair loss can begin at the end of puberty and is usually genetically determined. Many men start losing their hair during their 20s or early 30s. Hair loss usually begins with a receding hairline and gradually progresses to thinning hair at the top of the head. Eventually both balding areas converge to form a U shape around the sides and back of the head. The remaining hair, if any, becomes thinner and finer in texture and the rate of growth slows down. Mild or moderate hair los due to hormonal causes affects about 50% of men by age 50. This hormonal condition is thought to be hereditary in nature.

Male pattern baldness treatment
There is no known cure for male pattern hair loss, but there are a number of products and therapies that can treat or camouflage it to a certain extent. You can opt for surgical methods such as hair transplants, scalp reduction or flap surgery to restore the lost hair. Or you can ask your doctor to recommend prescription medications, which can be very effective too. Hair pieces or volumizing shampoos can be used if nothing else works.

Second hand smoking can harm you

Causes cancer
Second hand smoke is a cancer causing agent. It’s estimated that there are over 4000 compounds that are a part of tobacco smoke and around 60 of them are carcinogens. Cancer, as a result of smoking or passive smoking, is one of the leading causes of death across the world.

Smoking harms the newborn
Mothers are asked not to smoke as the foetus or the new born infant is affected by her smoking. This is the kind of passive smoking that leads to birth defects in the baby. The infant passively takes in the cigarette smoke from the mother, leading to serous health risks.

Other health problems
You are not just at risk for cancer because of second hand smoke. Your body becomes susceptible to heart disease, lung infections like pneumonia and bronchitis. There are increased cases of children who suffer from asthma as a result of passive smoking.

Avoiding second hand smoke
Because of its harmful effects it becomes very important that you avoid passive smoking. But, is it really possible for you to avoid passive smoking? Let’s just say that it’s difficult. The best thing you can do is to avoid smokers and not frequent places that are frequented by smokers. And whenever possible make a non-smoker out of a smoker.

Second hand smoke has first rate harmful effects. You will do well to stay away from it as far as possible.