Men's Health & Tips: April 2008

Fitness for Busy People

Because we’re busy people, we like to say that staying fit is not about the way we look in a bathing suit. It’s about self-confidence and performance. We want to go nonstop, alert and energized 18 hours a day.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to look good too. If you haven’t yet celebrated your 30th birthday, physical fitness, boundless energy, and an enviable body may seem like givens. But just wait. You’ll get yours. If you have already begun the slippery downhill slide, here is a routine that will make you look and feel great.

Getting fit and looking good comes from managing four things: Stress, Exercise, Nutrition, Rest.

And the nice thing is you can do it without compromising your crazy schedule.

Here’s how:

1. STRESS

Do some yoga or tai chi in your free time. At work, follow these three rules:

Stress Rule #1: Wait 24 hours before responding to bad or disappointing news.

Stress Rule #2: Be realistic about your deadlines. Don’t give yourself more to do than you can actually handle.

Stress Rule #3: Never work more than 90 minutes without a break.

2. EXERCISE

There are three aspects to exercise: developing strength, developing flexibility, and developing endurance.

Use Stress Rule #3 to get your strength and flexibility workouts without leaving the office. The trick is to take a five- or 10-minute refresher break every 60 or 90 minutes. Get yourself an egg timer and get up out of your chair when it buzzes. Go somewhere relatively private and do one of the following:

for strength: dumbbells, calisthenics, or isometrics

for flexibility: some form of stretching exercise

If you limit each workout to five or 10 minutes, you won’t have to worry about getting sweaty or tired. Do your exercises slowly and perfectly. After you can perform a particular movement easily, challenge yourself to a more difficult one. Keep it short, fun, and challenging.

To build endurance, you need to do some type of cardio exercise. It doesn’t have to be high-intensity, but you may prefer to do it before or after work so you can shower afterward. This should be fun. My favorite routines are biking (anywhere), stair climbing (you can watch your trashy TV shows on video guilt-free this way), or walking the dogs.

And it’s great if you can add some kind of active recreational activity to the mix – something you really love, like tennis, handball, etc. Even if you do it only on weekends.

3. NUTRITION

There’s nothing that affects your health, fitness, and energy levels more than what you eat. Here’s the short of it: Sugar and starches are poison. Fat is OK in moderation. The vegetables you don’t like are the ones that are best for you. Eat enough so you are never hungry.

One great routine (which will keep you young and lean) involves eating six small meals a day: protein when you rise, a vegetable shake three hours later, a lunch of salad and fish or meat, a protein and berry shake in the late afternoon, a dinner much like lunch but including rice or potatoes (no breads or pasta), and then more protein, if you feel the need, as a snack at night.

This will control your insulin levels. (Insulin is the major aging hormone. It is what makes you tried and cranky. It gives you wrinkles. It causes you to overeat. It’s terrible.)

4. REST

This one is easy. Find out how much sleep you need. And get it. The sleep you get before midnight is twice as good as the sleep you get afterward. So go to bed early.

In fact, your entire health-and-fitness program should be based on the “early to rise” concept. Get to bed early enough so that you can wake up refreshed, eat properly, get your cardio workout done, and get to work at least an hour before you have to. (Two hours earlier is better.) Then, during those early morning hours when there is next to nobody around anyway, you’ll be able to do a few of your mini-exercises in privacy.

By the time the laggards roll in at 9 o’clock, you will not only have done a day’s worth of business, but also will have finished a good chunk of your daily exercise.

One more thing: It’s easy to put off taking care of your health. So, if you want to be fit – and look it – make sure you highlight your fitness tasks on your to-do list and get them done as early in the day as possible. Get started now.

Michael Masterson,

Founder of Early to Rise, sister publication of

Total Health Breakthroughs

5 Ways to Disease-Proof Your Body

Let’s say you’re stranded on a desert island. you know the game: can have only 10 Cds. or five books. one woman. For the rest of your life. Except, in this version, you can have only three organs. Which would you choose? a heart, natch. how about a brain? definitely, otherwise the heart couldn’t pump a single pint. número tres? If you’re really honest, you’d choose the organ you’d need to satisfy the woman with whom you chose to spend eternity.

Of course, if you had just those three organs, eternity would last all of 2 seconds. and that’s the point of this gruesome hypothetical: We value certain vital organs more than others, but the fact is, they’re all just that—vital. So, while it’s great if you work hard to keep your heart healthy, your brain sharp, and your penis—well, you know—it may be for naught if you aren’t protecting your other anatomical all-stars, too. don’t worry; this guide will show you how to safeguard everything from your lungs to your liver. In other words, if your organs had to choose one single thing to be stranded with on a desert island, this guide would be their pick.

Lung
If you think the airbags in your car are high tech, consider the set in your chest. Not only do they extract oxygen from the air you breathe and exchange it for carbon dioxide from your bloodstream, but they also help filter out any bacteria and viruses you might have sucked in. the more efficiently your lungs function, the higher your energy levels and the lower your risk of an airborne infection.

YOUR BEST PROTECTION: Asurfeit of flab isn’t just hell on your heart. “Being overweight puts a tremendous strain on the lungs,” says John Mastronarde, M.d., an associate professor at the davis heart & Lung Research Institute at ohio State University. “excess fat in the chest wall can compromise lung expansion and possibly lung function.” Fortunately, even a relatively small drop in total poundage can have a big impact: a new study in the journal Chest shows that losing 10% of excess body weight can improve lung capacity by 5%.

As you cut back on high-calorie foods, increase your intake of the flavonoid-filled kind, particularly apples. “Flavonoids may have antioxidant properties that enhance lung function,” says dr. Mastronarde. London researchers recently found that people who ate at least two apples a week had as much as a 32% lower risk of developing asthma. and an earlier study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute determined that eating an apple a day may cut the risk of lung cancer by 40%.

Kidney
Urban legends about organ theft invariably involve pilfered kidneys. and why not? only really valuable stuff gets stolen, and by anatomical standards, kidneys are practically priceless. they’re the twin treatment plants that remove excess water and waste products from your blood before recycling the blood back into your circulatory system. But that isn’t all. “they also regulate all the fluids, salts, and acids in the body,” says Leslie Spry, M.d., a spokesman for the National kidney Foundation.

YOUR BEST PROTECTION: Because kidney stones are more painful than a Real World reunion show, we tend to think of them as the biggest threat to our blood filters. But a greater danger, one that can’t be prevented by consuming copious amounts of water, is high blood pressure. Chronically elevated BPcan damage the blood vessels in the kidneys, causing them to slow down or stop their waste-removal function—and that can raise blood pressure even higher. Left untreated, this can become a veritable death spiral.

Besides the proven pressure-relief measures, such as ingesting less sodium and swallowing more potassium, there’s also a benefit to packing on more muscle. a recent study from the Medical College of Georgia shows that participants with the most muscle mass had 11% lower systolic blood pressure and 7% lower diastolic pressure than those who weren’t as buff. to achieve the maximum Bp-lowering effect from your workouts, do power exercises; they train the fast-twitch muscle fibers, which grow the largest.

Gallbladder
Your gallbladder is basically a glorified holding tank. this pear-shaped organ is where a portion of the bile pumped out by your liver is stored until it’s needed to help digest fats in your small intestine. and while you can live without a gallbladder—your liver will send the necessary bile directly to your intestines—it’s worth keeping it healthy, if only to avoid the agony of a gallstone.

YOUR BEST PROTECTION: Gallstones, which are really more like “gallpebbles,” are small pieces of crystallized cholesterol. you can have a few and not even know they’re there—until one becomes painfully lodged in the duct leading to your small intestine. there is, however, a relatively simple way to prevent the little suckers from forming in the first place: Break a sweat.

A Harvard University study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine monitored more than 45,000 men and found that one-third of all cases of gallstones could be prevented with 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise—from running to brisk walking—five times a week. Log that essential half hour of cardio work in the a.m., then pile on the protection by eating oatmeal for breakfast and washing it down with orange juice. Research has determined that soluble fiber—of which oatmeal is one of the richest sources—and vitamin C can both lower the risk of gallstones. Note: In this case, skip the fresh-squeezed oj and buy the frozen-concentrate kind instead; lab analyses show that frozen actually has the highest levels of vitamin C.

Pancreas
A Leatherman has nothing on this multitool. Located between your stomach and your spine, your pancreas secretes insulin to regulate blood sugar levels and metabolic rate, as well as to help neutralize stomach acids that accidentally enter the intestines. “It also produces enzymes that break down the fats, carbohydrates, and proteins we eat so we can absorb them,” says john affronti, M.d., an associate professor of medicine at the Emory University school of medicine.

YOUR BEST PROTECTION: If you’re guarding against gallstones, then you’ve already reduced your risk of pancreatitis, an inflammatory condition often caused when an errant stone blocks the organ’s main duct. And, as a sort of bonus, by preventing pancreatitis, you also help lower your odds of being diagnosed with a

disease that’s deadly in nearly 100% of cases: pancreatic cancer, which is as fast as it is fatal.

another strategy for slashing your cancer risk is to pig out on produce. When Canadian researchers analyzed the diets of nearly 5,000 men, they discovered that those who adhered to a diet high in fresh fruits and cruciferous vegetables had a 49% lower risk of pancreatic cancer than men who ate mainly meat and potatoes. If you’re not a fan of brussels sprouts and broccoli, go ahead and cover ’em with ketchup. In a study published in the Journal of Nutrition, men who regularly consumed tomato-based products lowered their odds of developing pancreatic cancer by 31%. all the kudos go to lycopene, the red pigment that first earned its stripes in the battle against prostate cancer.

Liver
More than just your body’s antidote to alcohol, your liver helps flush out other toxic stuff you were never meant to swallow, e.g., any food purchased from a drive-thru window. the organ does this by producing a grease-dissolving goo known as bile. (See “Gallbladder.”) Oh, and in its spare time, your liver also removes bacteria from your bloodstream, lays away a supply of iron, and converts glucose into glycogen to be stored for energy.

YOUR BEST PROTECTION: You know the spiel—cut back on the booze and your liver will live longer. That means two drinks a day, max, if you want to avoid cirrhosis, a disease in which normal liver cells become damaged and are replaced by scar tissue. eventually, so much scar tissue forms that the liver no longer functions properly and its main vein becomes blocked. that said, don’t wave off the bartender just yet; pretend you need to sober up and order a cup of coffee.

A new study of more than 90,000 Japanese published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reveals that those who drank 1 to 2 cups of joe daily had half the risk of liver cancer of those who went without. (Score one for Starbucks; there are more than 500 of the stores in japan.) the study also shows similarly dramatic results for people with liver diseases, such as hepatitis. “Coffee contains large amounts of antioxidants,” says Manami Inoue, M.d., ph.the study author. “and studies have shown that such coffee compounds inhibit carcinogens in the liver.” the best bean? British researchers discovered that medium-roasted coffee has higher antioxidant activity than dark-roasted varieties.

Secrets to Better Breathing

Pumping oxygen to your screaming muscles seems automatic—go hard, suck wind, repeat. But done with care, breathing can help you perform better in almost any sport.

Swimming
PROBLEM It’s hard to swim fast and straight.
BREATHING FIX Breathe on both sides, says swim coach kevin Koskella, of triswimcoach.com. And focus on turning your torso instead of your head, rolling your body until your mouth is above water. “Raising your head will slow you down and disrupt your stroke rhythm,” says Koskella.

Running
PROBLEM Your muscles tighten up on hills or when you’re pushing through the last mile.
BREATHING FIX Try fully inhaling and exhaling through your nose, which will help facilitate breathing from the abdomen. this calms you down and relaxes your muscles, says Scott jurek, a seven-time champion ultramarathoner.

Cycling
PROBLEM When you’re tucked in racing position, tight shoulders and neck make it hard to draw a deep breath.
BREATHING FIX When seated, “keep your fingers loose on the handlebar, as if you were going to play the piano,” says dirk Friel, a USa Cycling certified coach. your muscles will loosen, your chest will open, and your heart rate will decrease.

Basketball
PROBLEM Your free throws are bricks.
BREATHING FIX “Many players have this habit of holding their breath when they shoot,” says erik Spoelstra, a bench coach for the Miami heat. “But the key to a good shooting stroke is to stay relaxed, and to do so, you should take a breath and let it out just before or during your shot.”

6 Steps to Efficient Running

1. Run Tall

Gravity and weak core muscles cause many runners to “fold” in the middle when their feet land. This sitting-down movement wastes energy. Imagine that wires are attached to your shoulders, pulling you up slightly. thrust your hips forward a bit and think “stability” when your foot hits. It’s easier to run tall if you’ve worked your core properly.

2.Relax.
Tension in your arms, shoulders, neck, and face reduces efficiency. arms and fingers should be loose. Unclench your hands and let your jaw jiggle.

3.Breathe right.
Your breathing should be rhythmic and deep, and you should feel your diaphragm, not your chest, doing the work. exhale with controlled force. When you pick up the pace, don’t let your breathing get shallow.

4.Land on the midfoot.
Aheel-first landing is a brake. It means you’re extending your leg out too far in front of your center of gravity, so it takes more energy to move forward. and it’s shaky, so your muscles are working on stabilization instead of forward motion. Shorten your stride. It’ll feel odd at first, like shuffling, but once you get used to it, focus on thrusting backward with force.

5.Run softly.
The louder your footfalls, the less efficiently you’re running. Try running more quietly; you’ll be unconsciously switching to a midfoot strike and a shorter, quicker stride.

6. Swing symmetrically.
Check your form on a treadmill in front of a mirror. If one arm is bent more than the other or swings more, you have a musculoskeletal imbalance that can slow you down. target the weaker side with strength and flexibility exercises.

Vitamins and Prostate Cancer

Listen up if you're a man and are popping large amounts of vitamins and dietary supplements in the hope that they'll improve your health. You may instead be raising your risk of prostate cancer.

About one-third of the 300,000 men in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study of prostate cancer were taking a daily multivitamin; and the approximately 5 percent of them who were swallowing more than 7 multivitamin tablets a week had a 32 percent increased risk of advanced prostate cancer and a two-fold greater risk of dying of prostate cancer.

The strongest association with these advanced forms of prostate cancer was found among the men who had a family history of prostate cancer or who took other supplements like selenium, beta-carotene, or zinc along with the extra amounts of multivitamin pills.

Taking one or more multivitamin pills a day did not raise the risk of localized prostate cancer, so it is possible that the vitamins did not cause prostate cancer but instead prodded cancer cells that were already present to grow faster.

Now, add to these findings from the NIH study above some more bad news for supplement takers, this time about lycopene, a carotene abundant in tomatoes that earlier large studies had found protected against prostate cancer.

A study of more than 28,000 men between the ages of 55 and 74 from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle has demonstrated that higher blood levels of lycopene did not diminish the risk of either total or aggressive prostate cancer. Moreover, the men with the highest blood levels of beta-carotene had a 3-fold greater risk of aggressive prostate cancer than did those with the lowest beta-carotene levels.

This latter finding is not surprising, since earlier studies demonstrated that taking supplements of beta-carotene increased the risk of lung cancer among cigarette smokers.

And, just for good measure, another small study at Wake Forest University recently found that adding lycopene to one's dietary supplements did not slow the progression of cancer in men with recurrent prostate cancer.

Still, it's difficult to understand how extra doses of multivitamins would foster aggressive prostate cancer or why the latest results show no protection from higher blood levels of lycopene when earlier observations found that a higher intake of lycopene reduced prostate cancer risk.

While much data indicate that ample intake of fruits and vegetables protects against cancer, the discrepant findings in the studies described above illustrate how difficult it can be to prove that a particular dietary component will prevent cancer.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure that taking an extra multivitamin pill a week is harmful or that lycopene fails to prevent aggressive prostate cancer. I do agree, however, with the position of the American Cancer Society (ACS), which does not recommend the use of multivitamin supplements but recommends instead that people get their vitamins from natural food sources.

And I continue to decry the gullibility of the American public, whose naïve trust encourages the practices of manufacturers of vitamins and other dietary supplements. Whenever a study suggests that something new may have health benefits, these manufacturers stuff it into a pill, advertise it stridently so that Americans waste lots of money on it, and end up with big profits.

Men Need More Fruits and Vegetables a Day

Do you know that men need to eat more fruits and vegetables than women?
The National 5 A Day program is encouraging men, who have greater health risks than women for some diseases, to shoot for nine servings of fruits and vegetables each day and women to aim for seven servings a day.

Fruits and vegetables contain many powerful and important nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fiber and disease-fighting phytochemicals, and that helps reduce the risk of many cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Why do men need more than women?
The recommended servings are greater for men because more than two-thirds of men are overweight or obese, and men have a higher death rate for certain diseases than women.

Those diseases include:

Cardiovascular disease (1 times greater)
Lung cancer (About two times as high)
Colorectal cancer (1 times greater)

Among Americans, at least 58 million have some form of cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure, and 8.2 million Americans have a history of cancer.

How much equals one serving?

cup fruit juice
1 medium banana
1 cup chopped or diced raw vegetables
1 medium apple
cup cooked vegetables
cup dried fruit
cup cooked beans or peas

One serving of fruit or vegetables should fit in the palm of your hand. It's a lot smaller than most people think.

How can you increase your intake of fruits and vegetables?

Have fresh fruit in the morning
Snack on fresh fruit throughout the day
Eat a big salad at lunch
Snack on raw vegetables with a healthful dip
Eat at least two vegetables with dinner
Add beans and peas to salads

How Big is Yours?

Small penis syndrome. Sounds horrifying, right? If you're anxiously reading this article, you may already have it. Oh, relax. It’s not a johnson-shrinking virus. "Small penis syndrome" is a psychological condition in which a man thinks his manhood is too small, even though he's really on par with the rest of mankind. Does size matter? (To her, that is.)

That age-old question was addressed by British researchers in a scholarly article this week in BJU International. Their findings, in a nutshell (or two): 63 percent of men complained of having inferior hardware -- but none of them was smaller than normal! (Normal is between 5.5 and 6.2 inches long when erect and 4.7 to 5.1 inches around -- and don’t even think about measuring at your desk.)

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To make those fears all the more pointless, 85 percent of women are happy with their partner’s size. Okay, British researchers are one thing. But what do real women think? That's where Men's Health comes in. We asked two of our favorite women: Nicole Beland, our "Girl Next Door," and Debby Herbenick, Ph.D., our "Bedroom Confidential" columnist.

"Yes, we care about the size of a man's penis," Nicole says. "But when it comes to sexual satisfaction, it's pretty far down on our list of priorities."

And having a big wood certainly doesn't guarantee her orgasm, which is more important than penis size, Debby says. "Women find it difficult to orgasm, and oral sex and hand stimulation are often more effective, as are vibrators," she says. "It's not personal -- it's just how some women's bodies work." Nicole notes that small penis syndrome can work in a woman's favor.

"There's nothing worse than a guy who thinks he has a HUGE penis and is therefore God's gift to the ladies," she says. "That kind of guy thinks that getting an erection is pretty much all the effort he has to put into sex. The chances that the women he sleeps with are having orgasms? Slim to none."

Ian Kerner, Ph.D., sexologist and author of She Comes First, says we should worry more about her pleasure than our size. "Usually when women complain about a small penis, it's also that they're not having orgasms," Kerner says. "If they’re orgasming, it'll matter a hell of a lot less what size your penis is."

For the truly tiny or even those paranoid normal guys, Kerner recommends "pressing instead of thrusting in missionary position, or trying woman-on-top," both of which maximize clitoral stimulation. Nicole suggests these positions: "Place her legs on your shoulders during missionary position, enter her from behind when she's on all fours, or, when she's on top, put a pillow under your butt to raise up your pelvis."

The British research (really just a review of previous studies) confirmed that women do indeed prefer a thick penis. The reason: "The greatest number of nerve endings are in the lowest part of the vagina," Nicole says. "So when a thick penis pushes against the labia and lower vaginal walls, it provides intense, pleasurable sensation.

"But men with thinner penises can provide a similar experience by penetrating in the positions described above or moving his hips in a circular motion while thrusting." Why are men so worried about penis size? Part of the reason is pornography--21st century man has seen plenty of prodigious penises on his screen. Most women don’t want that.

"When women watch male porn stars humping away like lobotomized underwear models," Nicole says, "it's almost always with a cringing, confused expression. "Getting pummeled with a giant penis is painful, not fun. The majority of women don't consider bouncing up and down on a Poland Spring bottle to constitute great sex."

Herbenick, a researcher at Indiana University, says penile worries arise from "cultural myths and stereotypes about penis size that stem from television, movies, jokes told among friends, and advertising messages from companies that present false information about penis size in order to sell products that probably don’t even work."

Lou Paget, Ph.D., author of The Great Lover Playbook, said point of view matters--literally. "The majority of men compare themselves to something they see in adult material. They haven’t seen another man's penis up close," she says. "But women see them all the time. And we see a whole range of sizes. "Men only see themselves, and look at a different angle than women -- looking down." In other words: Your penis looks bigger to women than it does to you.

And don’t forget that there’s a lot more to sexual and relationship satisfaction than penis size and positions. Like communication, Herbenick says: "Trust and believe your partner if she says, 'Honey, you’re fine' or 'I like you just how you are' rather than second-guess yourself."

The irony is that men spend so much time thinking about their anatomy when they should be thinking about hers. "It's a man's knowledge of female anatomy and ability to stimulate a woman in all the right ways that determines whether or not we’re happy in bed," Nicole says.

And don’t forget foreplay. "Twenty minutes of erotic foreplay with a guy who has a penis the size of a Sharpie will be far hotter than 2 minutes of sloppy groping from a dude with a johnson the size of a flashlight," Beland says.

And finally, guess what really matters? Don’t groan -- it's personality. "Of course it’s more important than any physical aspect of a man’s body," Nicole says. "Any woman who thinks otherwise isn't worth dating."

What is the normal size of a penis for my age?
This used to be the #1 most frequently asked question at Cool Nurse. A reader sent in some answers. I thought this was worth putting on the site, but I do not know where he got it from. It might be from an Internet survey and may not be that accurate, it has been on this site since 2001.

These statistics are not clinical measurements, they are the average results of people who answered an Internet poll. If you know you are a late maturer, then the results for your age group will be meaningless -- you need to look at a younger age group. Don't be too concerned if you fall well outside the measurements for your age group. The penis is an organ that varies a lot from male to male - there is no “right” or “wrong” when it comes to penis size.

Measured along the top, how long is your erect penis?

By age, the averages found were:

Age	Size
12	4.1" (104 mm)
13	5.1" (130 mm)
14	6.0" (152 mm)
15	6.1" (155 mm)
16	6.3" (160 mm)
17	6.5" (165 mm)
18	6.4" (163 mm)
19	6.2" (157 mm)
20	6.2" (157 mm)

Conclusions:
The average adult penis size is about 6.2 inches or (157mm). It is interesting that in this study, penis size 'peaks' at age 17. Since penises do not get smaller as a male approaches age 21, it can be concluded that boys aged 16, 17, and 18 are most likely to exaggerate the size of their penises. Just a guess. (Several physicians suggested that the average penis size was about 6 inches, but they weren't measuring.) So, an average of 6.2 seems incorrect and maybe guys taking the survey exaggerated.

By ethnicity (age 15 and over only):

Race	Size
Black	6.89" (175 mm)
Asian	5.33" (135 mm)
Caucasian	6.22" (158 mm)
Hispanic	6.15" (156 mm)
Native American	5.66" (144 mm)

Here is a quote from the video library, by Donald E. Greydanus, MD
The size of your penis is simply determined by factors, called genetic traits, which you inherited from your parents. There is nothing you can do to increase or decrease the size of your penis -- it will develop into its adult size as you change from a boy to a man through the process called puberty. Most boys start the changes of puberty between 10 and 14 years of age, though a few will start earlier or later than these ages. First, the testicles (balls) begin to enlarge and then hair starts to grow around the them. The penis then starts to enlarge, first in length and then later in thickness. Though there is much normal variation, the final penis size is reached four to six years after the testicles first started to enlarge.

This process of normal penis growth can be disturbing to many males. Since the testicles enlarge first (and later followed by growth of the penis), many young male teens do not notice the testicles growing and worry that they are not changing and that their penis is too small. If you are overweight, fat tissue can hide the penis somewhat and give an impression that the penis is smaller than it really is. Some males in your class may have started their changes of puberty well ahead of you and they may seem like they have an adult-size penis-that can be very upsetting!

It is difficult to know how large a penis will be in its erect state, simply by looking at it when not erect (or when flaccid). It is also true that adult penis size varies considerably from person to person. Just as with any body part, different people will have different penis sizes. We live in a society that pushes a myth that the male with a larger penis has a better sex life than one with a smaller penis. This is constantly noted in sexual jokes, in comments heard on TV, or in the movies and in many other places.

The truth is that normal penises vary a lot in size, and sex is just as good for all of these men. You sometimes need to wait a year or two after your overall height has stopped changing to see what final size your penis will be. If at any time during your growth period, you are worried that your penis is abnormal, just go to your doctor and ask him or her directly. In almost every case you will be told that it is fine.

When Bigger Isn't Better

Men seem to have bad perception. Lots of us think we're smaller than we really are.

And that doesn't just negatively impact our bedroom performance: Many guys fool themselves into thinking they're in good shape, and therefore don't work out and instead continue chowing down on cheese fries.

A new Australian study found that more than 60 percent of men were clinically overweight, but only half of these guys perceived themselves that way.

If you think you're fit, you're more likely to skip the gym and not make efforts to keep your weight on track. And you know obesity has been linked to a slew of health problems: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, early death, and more.

Think you're not overweight? Test yourself: Measure your waist-to-hip ratio (check out the article below). Surprised by the results? And the best thing about being smaller around the waist? You look larger below the belt.

How's Your Body Fat? These are the basic building blocks

Everyone's Body is Different

Everybody who tries this plan will have a different starting point. But based on the scientific research, you can expect an average loss of up to 20 pounds of body fat on the 6-week plan and, for men, a gain of 4 to 6 pounds of muscle (about half that amount for women). For the average man, that's enough of a transformation to have your abs show.

One of the bigger challenges, however, is monitoring your progress on the plan. Here's a look at the four major measurements you can use to see just how effectively the Abs Diet will work for you.

Weight
It's the most straightforward. The heavier you are, the more at risk you are for disease and the less fit you are. It's a good measuring stick to gauge how well you're progressing on your diet, but it's incomplete in that it doesn't take into account the amount of muscle you're going to develop over the course of a plan. Muscle weighs about 20 percent more than fat so even a dramatic fat loss may not translate into a dramatic drop in body weight.

Body Mass Index (BMI)
The BMI is a formula that takes into consideration your height and your weight, and gives you an indication of whether you're overweight, obese, or in good shape. How it's done is demonstrated below.

To calculate your BMI:
• Multiply your weight in pounds by 703
• Divide the number by your height in inches squared. For example, let's say you are 6 feet tall (that's 72 inches) and weigh 200 pounds. So first we multiply your weight by 703. 200 x 703 = 140,600
• Next, we calculate your height in inches squared, meaning we multiply the number by itself. 72 x 72 = 5,184
• Now we divide the first number by the second. 140,600/5,184 = 27.1

Rumus BMI contohnya jika berat badan kamu 70 kg dan tinggi 1,65 m, maka BMInya 70:(1,65 x 1,65) = 23,3. Di bawah 18,5 = underweight, 18,5-24,9 = normal, 25-29,9 overweight, 30 ke atas = obesitas.

That's not terrible.

A BMI between 25 and 30 indicates you're overweight. Over 30 signifies obesity. This measurement, too, has flaws. It doesn't take into account muscle mass, and it also leaves out another important factor--weight distribution, that is, where most of your body fat resides. But BMI can give you a pretty good idea of how serious your weight problem is.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio
Researchers have begun using waist size and its relationship to hip size as a more definitive way to determine your health risk. This is considered more important than BMI because of that visceral fat I talked about earlier—the fat that pushes your waist out in front of you. Because abdominal fat is the most dangerous fat, a lower waist-to-hip ratio means fewer health risks.

To figure out your waist-to-hip ratio, measure your waist at your belly button and your hips at the widest point (around your butt). Divide your waist by your hips. For example, if your hips measure 40 inches and your waist at belly button level measures 38 inches, your waist-to-hip ratio is 0.95.

38/40 = 0.95

That's not bad, but it's not ideal. You want a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.92 or lower. If you were to lose just 2 inches off your waist--something you can do in just 2 weeks with the Abs Diet--you'd find yourself in the fit range.

36/40 = 0.90

Body Fat Percentage
Though this is the most difficult for the average man to measure because it requires a bit of technology, it's the most useful in terms of gauging how well your diet plan is working. That's because it takes into consideration not just weight but how much of your weight is fat. Many gyms offer body fat measurements through such methods as body fat scales or calipers that measure the folds of fat at several points on your body. See your local gym for what options they offer.

If you want a simple low-tech test (and this isn't as accurate as what the electronic versions will give you), try this simple exercise:
• Sit in a chair with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
• Using your thumb and index finger, gently pinch the skin on top of your right thigh.
• Measure the thickness of the pinched skin with a ruler.

Results:
• If it's 3/4-inch or less, you have about 14 percent body fat--ideal for a guy, quite fit for a woman.
• If it's 1 inch, you're probably closer to 18 percent fat, which is a tad high for a man but desirable for a woman.
• If you pinch more than an inch, you could be at increased risk for diabetes and heart disease.

This last measurement can be the most significant because it'll really help give you a sense of how well you're sticking to a plan. As you see your body fat percentage decrease, you'll see an increase in the amount of visible muscle. Experts say that in order for your abs to show, your body fat needs to be between 8 and 12 percent. For the average slightly overweight man, that means cutting body fat by about half.

Before Your Start the Plan
It's important to record some of these measurements so that you'll know how far you're progressing. Take one baseline measurement, and then remeasure as needed for motivation.

I'd recommend measuring every 2 weeks. That'll be enough time to see significant differences to propel you through the next 2 weeks. (Measure body fat percentage only at the beginning and end of the plan, unless you have easy access to a measurement system.) Any sooner than that, and you're focusing too much on numbers rather than process.

Measurement Start End of Week 2 End of Week 4 Finish
Weight
BMI
Waist-to-hip ratio
Body fat percentage

Note: Make sure to have the same person administer body fat readings using the same method to ensure consistency.

Kelebihan kalsium dapat mengakibatkan kanker prostat

KALSIUM diketahui sebagai salah satu unsur pembentuk tulang dan gigi pada manusia. Namun, kelebihan kalsium ternyata cukup berbahaya karena dapat mengakibatkan kanker prostat.

Berdasarkan hasil penelitian yang dipublikasikan di majalah kedokteran The International Journal of Cancer, ada kaitan antara pola makan dan kandungan kalsium yang tinggi dengan resiko kanker prostat.

Dr Panagiota N. Notrou dari Lembaga Kanker Nasional di Rockville, Maryland beserta rekan-rekannya menemukan hubungan meningkatnya risiko terkena kanker prostat dengan meningkatnya konsumsi asupan makanan produk olahan hewan seperti susu, keju telur, mentega dan lain-lainnya.

Untuk menyelidiki lebih lanjut para peneliti melakukan penelitian menggunakan data dan catatan medis yang diperoleh dari penelitian pencegahan kanker dengan menggunakan Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene (ATBC) untuk menguji tingkat asupan kalsium dan kaitannya terhadap risiko kanker prostat.

Penelitian ATBC yang menyertakan 29.133 pria perokok berkebangsaan Finlandia dengan kisaran usia 50 hingga 69 tahun yang menyelesaikan lembar pertanyaan mengenai 276 macam makanan untuk mengetahui pola makan mereka pada saat penelitian dimulai.

Setelah berlalu kurun waktu 17 tahun tim peneliti menemukan sebanyak 1.267 kasus kanker prostat dari jumlah total 27.028, mereka yang mengisi data hingga tuntas juga disertakan dalam analisa akhir. “Kami menemukan adanya hubungan sebab-akibat yang kuat antara asupan kalsium dan risiko kanker prostat,” kata tim peneliti.

Setelah melakukan penyesuaian data terhadap sejumlah variabel yang penting maka ditemukan risiko kanker prostat sebesar 63 persen lebih besar bagi mereka yang mengkonsumsi sebanyak lebih dari 2.000 mg kalsium dibandingkan pria-pria yang menerima asupan kalsium kurang dari 1.000 mg tiap harinya, maka terlihat perbedaan statistik yang mencolok.

Kaitan yang yang jelas juga mengamati jumlah total asupan protein hewani dengan risiko kanker prostat namun hal itu menjadi tidak jelas saat menghilangkan pengaruh unsur kalsium. Dengan perkataan lain, hubungan erat antara lemak berasal dari lemak hewani dengan kanker prostat menjadi gugur saat unsur kalsiumnya dihilangkan.

Mereka para peneliti juga mengatakan bahwa pemindaian dengan menggunakan antigen khusus prostat (PSA) satu senyawa yang menjadi penanda bagi adanya kanker prostat.

“Karenanya sebagian besar dari kasus yang kami temukan adalah meriupakan hasil temuan gejala klinis. Hal itu juga mengurangi kesalahan dalam pendeteksian kanker prostat tersebut,” kata Nitrou.

Antioksidan

Antioksidan adalah substansi yang diperlukan tubuh untuk menetralisir radikal bebas and mencegah kerusakan yang ditimbulkan oleh radikal bebas terhadap sel normal, protein, dan lemak. Antioksidan menstabilkan radikal bebas dengan melengkapi kekurangan elektron yang dimiliki radikal bebas, dan menghambat terjadinya reaksi berantai dari pembentukan radikal bebas yang dapat menimbulkan stres oksidatif. Radikal Bebas adalah molekul Oksigen yang memiliki 1 atau lebih elektron yang tidak berpasangan sehingga sangat REAKTIF dan RADIKAL.

Ada beberapa bentuk antioksidan, di antaranya vitamin, mineral, dan fitokimia. Berbagai tipe antioksidan berkerja bersama dalam melindungi sel normal dan menetralisir radikal bebas.

Sumber pemicu Radikal Bebas Internal adalah metabolisme normal, stress, radang/luka, kelelahan/kerja berlebihan, olah raga berlebihan.

Sumber pemicu Radikal Bebas Eksternal adalah polusi, rokok/alkohol, obat-obatan, pestisida, insektisida, food additive, virus/bakteri.

Radikal Bebas ini secara langsung merusak dinding plasma dan DNA sel. Bila Radikal Bebas bercampur dengan lemak/kolesterol maka akan menjadi Lemak Peroksida. Lemak Peroksida inilah yang menimbulkan penyumbatan/ penyempitan pembuluh darah. Penyakit yang ditimbulkan tergantung sel/pembuluh darah yang dirusak.

Bila DNA inti sel yang diserang oleh Radikal Bebas, maka akan menyebabkan kanker atau tumor.

Antioksidan adalah zat yang menetralisir Radikal Bebas dengan kata lain yang menyediakan pasangan buat elektron pada Radikal Bebas yang tidak berpasangan.

Jenis Antioksidan Internal (Berat molekul tinggi): Enzim SOD (Super Oxide Dismutase),Katalase, Gluthione. Jenis Antioksidan Eksternal (Berat molekul rendah) : Vit C, b2, E dan Selenium, Beta Karoten, Polifenol, Flavanoid, dll.

Antioksidan yang paling efektif adalah Antioksidan Berat Molekul tinggi (ada dalam tubuh) terutama enzim SOD.

Namun seiring pertumbuhan usia, produksi enzim SOD dalam tubuh menurun ditambah Radikal bebas yang lebih banyak dari pada enzim SOD dalam tubuh menyebabkan timbulnya berbagai penyakit penurunan fungsi organ (penyakit degeneratif).

Olah Napas Mengusir Stres

Cobalah latihan sederhana ini untuk meringankan stres Anda. Pusatkan perhatian Anda pada sebuah tempat persis di bawah pusar Anda. Tarik napas ke dalam tempat itu, isilah perut Anda dengan udara mulai dari bawah ke atas. Sekarang, hembuskan napas Anda perlahan-lahan layaknya Anda sedang ’mengempiskan’ sebuah balon. Stres Anda akan hilang bersamaan dengan setiap tarikan napas panjang Anda dan perlahan-lahan hembuskan.

3 Strategies to Eliminate Job Stress Today

Every second you sit at your desk, you're putting yourself at risk for these three plagues of office workers, regardless of whether you take time to work out or not. Office professionals take 850,930 sick days a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While some of those days might be mental-health days or plain old playing hooky, some illnesses plague the office worker. Here are a few of the diseases you might be at risk for and how to avoid them.

THE PROBLEM Adult Onset Asthma
The culprit: Office printers, which emit fine particles into the air. A recent Australian study found that office printers can damage the lungs in the same way cigarettes do. Study author Lidia Morawska found that almost a third of printers emit dangerous levels of particles.
Symptoms: Coughing while exercising, shortness of breath, wheezing when you breathe, and tightness in the chest
Protect yourself: Increase the ventilation in your office to allow airborne particles to disperse, and make sure your desk is far enough away from the printer that you can’t hear the machine running. A study from Columbia University found that taking low-dose aspirin can reduce the risk of asthma.

THE PROBLEM Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
The culprit: Prolonged sitting. A New Zealand study found that DVT occurs in 34 percent of desk workers and in 21 percent of those who travel by plane.
Symptoms: Only about half of people affected have any symptoms, which include swelling and soreness in the legs along a vein. DVT happens when blood clots form in the legs, which can be deadly if a clot breaks off and moves to the lungs, blocking blood flow and causing a pulmonary embolism.
Protect yourself: If you know you will be sitting for extended periods of time, make sure you stay hydrated, and every couple of hours, get up and walk around to stretch your legs.

THE PROBLEM Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD)

The culprit: Poor posture when sitting at the computer, according to a study in the Indian Journal of Medical Sciences.
Symptoms: Pain involving the nerves, tendons, muscles, and supporting structures of the body. In the United States, MSD accounts for almost a third of missed workdays.
Protect yourself: Position your keyboard above your thighs, and place your monitor at eye level with the screen 15 to 25 inches from your eyes. Sit with your feet flat on the floor, your knees directly over your feet, your lower back arched in, and your upper back naturally rounded, and type with your elbows at your sides and bent at 90-degree angles.

By: Nicole Collins
www.bestlifeonline.com

Pedoman Hidup Sehat

Program ini hanyalah satu contoh bagaimana pola makan menurut prinsipnya. Anda dapat mengganti bahan resep dengan bahan yang disukai atau mengabaikan yang tidak disukai. Banyaknya tidak selalu ditentukan karena disarankan Anda makan sebanyak yang diperlukan untuk merasa puas. Menu tersebut semurni dan seideal mungkin dapat dibuat, serta yakin Anda akan menikmati transisi pola makan seperti kami menikmatinya. Tercapainya semua hasil menakjubkan — sambil menikmati makanan — akan memastikan Anda tidak kembali ke gaya hidup kurang sehat!

Gunakan selalu buah dan sayuran segar. Gunakan buah dan sayuran beku (tanpa gula atau saus) bila yang segar tidak tersedia.
Bila lapar, Anda dapat menyantap buah, tiga jam setelah makan siang.
Bila lapar, Anda dapat menyantap buah, tiga jam setelah makan malam.
Gunakan saus salad (dressing) dan bumbu yang tidak mengandung bahan kimia tambahan, pengawet, gula atau MSG. Bahan tersebut hanya menambahkan racun ke tubuh Anda. Hindari cuka dalam saus salad. Cuka adalah hasil fermentasi yang menghentikan air liur pencernaan dan memperlambat pencernaan zat pati. Gantikan cuka dengan sari lemon.
Hindari konsumsi bawang merah dan bawang putih yang berlebihan. Bahan ini merusak selera dan menyebabkan Anda kecanduan makanan berat.
Bekukan sisa sup. Sisa sup dapat digunakan lagi nanti dalam program.
Bila tersedia, gunakan mentega dan produk dari susu yang asli.
Buah segar atau salad buah segar dapat menggantikan makan siang.
Ketika mengurangi pemakaian produk susu, manfaatkan biji-bijian sebagai sumber kalsium yang tinggi. Biji-bijian mentah sangat berguna bagi wanita yang ingin menggantikan kalsium yang ber-kurang pada awal siklus menstruasi.
Jangan ragu untuk membuat pengganti yang lebih disukai daripada bahan yang tercantum. Gunakan bahan segar yang terdapat di daerah Anda ketimbang terpaksa memakai bekuannya. Program ini fleksibel untuk dipertimbangkan karena adanya perbedaan geografi. SELAMA PRINSIPNYA DIPATUHI, PROGRAM INI AKAN BERGUNA BAGI ANDA.
Anda dapat menyantap lebih sedikit dari yang tertulis, tapi cobalah untuk menahan diri dari makan lebih banyak. Bila terus-menerus menyantap lebih sedikit, Anda dapat mempercepat detoksifikasi dan mengalami sedikit ketidaksenangan. Jadi sebisa mungkin cobalah menuruti apa yang tertulis.

JANGAN MAKAN BERLEBIHAN! MAKANAN YANG PALING BAIK DAN BERGIZI SEKALIPUN AKAN MEMANJAKAN SISTEM KERJA TUBUH BILA DIMAKAN BERLEBIHAN. JANGANLAH MAKAN BERLEBIHAN! JANGAN MAKAN BERLEBIHAN!

Bila Anda cenderung makan berlebihan, ada gunanya mengetahui fisiologi di balik pola makan. Dengan menyisihkan penyebab psikologi, ada dua penyebab utama fisiologi kenapa makan berlebihan. Penyebab fisiologi penting namun mudah diatasi dan diperbaiki. Memperbaiki penyebab fisiologi terkadang membuat memperbaiki penyebab psiko-logi jauh lebih mudah.

Salah satu penyebab kita terkadang makan berlebihan adalah tubuh tidak menyerap nutrisi. Nutrisi terserap melalui usus dengan filamen-nya. Bila filamen tersumbat, berapa pun banyaknya kita makan, tubuh tetap kekurangan nutrisi. Filamen dapat dengan mudah tersumbat oleh limbah hasil pengolahan makanan yang tidak dapat dimetabolisir dan digunakan secara efisien oleh tubuh. Bila tidak ada nutrisi yang diserap sebagai akibat penyumbatan, tubuh membunyikan alarm bahwa tubuh belum diberi makanan. Sehingga meskipun baru saja makan, kita ingin makan lagi.

Penyebab lain makan berlebihan adalah konsumsi makanan yang tidak bergizi seperti makanan sampah, sereal olahan untuk anak-anak, dan makanan lain yang diolah. Tubuh membunyikan alarm sekali lagi untuk meminta tambahan makanan, karena secara literal kelaparan NUTRISI. Tidak ada cara yang lebih baik untuk salah-memenuhi nutrisi tubuh selain menyantap makanan olahan dan “makanan sampah” secara berlebihan. Tubuh yang diberi nutrisi dengan salah akan meminta makanan lagi meskipun orang tersebut makan dalam jumlah banyak. Bila yang disantap sejumlah besar makanan sampah, tubuh mengalami kelaparan. Dapat dikatakan bahwa lebih dari 60 persen orang Amerika kelebihan berat akibat makan berlebihan karena perlahan-lahan kecan-duan makanan sampah.

Gaya hidup baru ini akan membantu Anda mengatasi kedua sebab makan berlebihan. Makanan yang banyak mengandung air akan mem-bantu membersihkan usus dan menghilangkan penyumbat filamen sehingga tubuh dapat mulai menyerap nutrisi. Hanya makanan sehat dan segar yang penuh dengan nutrisi yang dicantumkan dalam program ini. Oleh karena itu, tubuh Anda akan mulai diberi nutrisi dari makanan yang dimakan. Dalam waktu singkat, tubuh tidak akan membunyikan alarm meminta tambahan makanan karena secara teratur menerima makanan yang akan membersihkan dan memenuhi nutrisi.

Bila pada awalnya Anda masih merasa ingin makan berlebihan, janganlah sedih. Teruskan program dan biarkan tubuh Anda membersih-kan sendiri. Minumlah juice buah dan sayuran segar bila kecenderungan makan berlebihan muncul. Sayuran segar sangatlah membantu. Dengan terus memakan makanan yang penuh nutrisi, dasar psikologi makan berlebihan akan hilang. Akhirnya, seperti mereka yang lain, Anda dapat berkata, “Dulu saya makan berlebihan.”

"Big Bang" Link Explosion

This is the big bang link explosion

The Big Bang will go on as long as sites are being added. I have no plans to end it.

*Start Copy Here*

You do not have to be tagged to play along. This game is simple and so are the rules.

1. Copy from *Start Copy Here* through *End Copy Here*

2. Add your site(s) to the list. Just be sure to post at each site you add.

3. Tag or don’t tag, your choice, however, the more tags you create the bigger the list will grow.

4. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list. (If you would like a scroll box code, leave me your email address and I will email it to you.) Scroll Box Example. (I decided not to use the box for the Big Bang for ease of copying.)

5. Come back and copy the master list back to your site, often. This process will allow late-comers to get as much link benefit as the first ones in. Once you are on the master list people who have participated earlier will update their bookmarks and help everyone lower than them out on the list.

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Mengantisipasi Pergantian Musim

Memasuki pergantian musim, orang sering menjadi khawatir akan terserang beragam penyakit, seperti flu, batuk, diare, dan lainnya. Satu cara menangkalnya: tingkatkan daya tahan tubuh.

Dipengaruhi oleh pemanasan global, saat ini cuaca sehari-hari menjadi sesuatu yang sulit diramalkan. Kalau pada beberapa masa lalu, di bulan-bulan ini seharusnya sudah masuk ke musim panas atau kemarau, namun akibat pengaruh pemanasan global tadi musim kemudian berubah-ubah dan masih sedikit sulit ditentukan.

Bahkan tidak jarang kita harus mendapati perubahan cuaca yang sangat ekstrim. Di pagi hari matahari bersinar cerah, sehingga udara pun terasa panas dan membuat gerah, tetapi di sore hari langit berubah drastis, awan gelap dan tebal, lalu tiba-tiba saja hujan turun deras.

Panjangnya Masa Pancaroba
Oleh karena faktor-faktor ini, kalau sebelumnya dalam setahun kita hanya mendapati satu dua kali masa peralihan, sekarang ini bisa jadi setiap saat dapat digolongkan ke dalam masa peralihan atau masa pancaroba.

Tidak heran jika cuaca yang tidak menentu ini akhirnya sering menimbulkan masalah pada kesehatan Anda. Mulai dari menurunnya daya tahan tubuh, hingga beragam penyakit seperti gangguan saluran napas yaitu batuk, bronkhitis, pilek atau influenza yang disertai bersin-bersin dan peningkatan suhu tubuh atau demam. Juga bebeberapa penyakit yang tergolong lebih berat lagi seperti diare dan thypus.

Tingkatkan Daya Tahan
Supaya selama perubahan musim ini Anda terhindar dari seluruh gangguan itu, yang perlu Anda lakukan adalah melakukan gaya hidup sehat guna mempertahankan dan memperkuat daya tahan tubuh Anda tetap optimal.

Beberapa tips hidup sehat itu di antaranya:
Makanan sehat dan bergizi. Agar tubuh tidak terpengaruh perubahan suhu, makanlah makanan sehat dan bergizi dengan teratur. Kemudian jagalah kebersihan makanan yang Anda konsumsi. Hindari mengonsumsi sembarang makanan, karena biasanya pada masa ini banyak berjangkit diare atau bahkan typhus.

Istirahat cukup guna mengembalikan stamina Anda yang terkuras setelah bekerja dan beraktivitas.
Minum air putili sedikitnya delapan gelas sehari.
Menjaga kebersihan badan agar tak
tertular penyakit dari orang lain. Misalnya dengan mencuci tangan sebelum makan dan mencuci muka sehabis berpergian di luar.
Menjaga kebersihan lingkungan. Misalnya dengan membersihkan rumah dan perabotan secara rutin, serta membuang sampah pada tempatnya.
Lakukan olah raga ringan secara teratur untuk menjaga dan meningkatkan stamina tubuh Anda.

Terlanjur Terserang
Bagi Anda yang di musim peralihan sering mengalami demam dan gangguan saluran pernapasan atas, untuk meringankan dan mempercepat kesembuhan, beberapa tips yang bisa Anda lakukan selain istirahat cukup dan memperbanyak air putih, di antaranya:

Banyak mengonsumsi makanan yang mengandung banyak cairan, seperti sup, bubur cair yang dibuat dengan kaldu ayam guna memulihkan tenaga dan melegakan sumbatan pada hidung Anda.
Lebih baik lagi jika Anda bisa menambahkan bawang putih yang memiliki antimikroba dan sedikit cabal ke sup panas tersebut untuk meredakan sumbatan di hidung.
Meminum secangkin teh hangat yang dibubuhi jahe beberapa jam sekali guna menyegarkan tubuh dan menurunkan demam.
Teteskan minyak menthol pada air panas, kemudian hirup uapnya untuk melegakan pernapasan dan dada Anda.
Mandi air panas yang berfungsi melegakan pernapasan Anda. Setelah itu kenakan baju yang agak terbuka dan tidak ketat di tubuh.

Jenis makanan yang dapat meningkatkan daya tahan tubuh

Makanan yang banyak mengandung vitamin A, seperti keju, telur, dan hati.
Makanan kaya betakaroten, seperti bayam, ubi merah dan wortel.
Makanan yang mengandung vitamin B12, seperti daging, telur, ikan, dan biji-bijian.
Makanan yang kaya akan vitamin C, seperti buah dan sayur.
Makanan yang mengandung vitamin E, seperti minyak zaitun, kacang kacangan, alpukat dan gandum.
Makanan yang kaya mineral penting, seperti daging dan pisang.

Tips how to avoid the most damaging and preventable threats to your health and aging

You can’t prevent the passage of time, but when you’re proactive about your life choices, you can control some of the risk factors in your life associated with illness and disease. Being proactive doesn’t automatically guarantee you won’t develop a chronic disease or illness, but not doing anything or actively taking part in known risk factors that are linked to chronic disease or illness may lead to health problems.

You may not realize just how much control you have over how long you live — and we don’t necessarily mean that in a good way. Seemingly casual choices you make every day may have the most profound impact on your health. In fact, it’s estimated that if everyone in the United States led a healthy lifestyle (outlined in the list below), more than 50 percent of the cases of cardiovascular disease and diabetes could be avoided, and more than 50 percent of all cases of cancer prevented.

The earlier in life you choose to follow a lifestyle of disease prevention, the more you can lower your risks of developing chronic disease. Chronic disease and illness come from many different factors, some of which you can control — such as lifestyle choices — and others you can’t — like your age and genetics.

The following tips show you how to avoid the most damaging and preventable threats to your health and aging:

Don’t smoke — and if you already do, stop. Really. Smoking increases the risks for the top three killers: heart disease, cancer, and cardiovascular ailments, including strokes. It also damages your lungs and other parts of your respiratory system. At least 60 chemicals in cigarette smoke cause cancer, and as a cigarette burns, it produces the poisons carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, arsenic, and cyanide.

Smoking raises your blood pressure and decreases the flow of oxygen to your brain and body. It’s also a significant risk factor for other health concerns, including emphysema, chronic bronchitis, stroke, and osteoporosis. In the year 2006, smoking resulted in 435,000 deaths or 18.1 percent of the total deaths (includes 35,000 deaths from second- hand smoke and 1,000 infant deaths due to maternal smoking).

Limit alcohol consumption. If you drink alcohol, no more than two drinks a day are safe for men, and one or fewer drinks a day for women. (A standard drink is one 12-ounce bottle of beer or wine cooler, one 5- ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.) Women are more likely to have liver damage from drinking two or more drinks a day than men are, so it’s especially important for women to keep alcohol consumption to one or fewer drinks a day.

Alcohol is a depressant and can exacerbate the symptoms of depression and other mental disturbances. Alcohol intoxication causes problems with coordination, speech, and decision making, leading to risky behaviors. At toxic levels of alcohol intake, vomiting, difficult breathing, seizures, and even death can occur. Alcohol has an addiction potential, with around 8 percent of adults having an alcohol use disorder. With addiction and chronic alcohol consumption, disease in the liver, pancreas, nervous system, and gastrointestinal system can occur. If you’ve had any history of addiction to alcohol or any other substance, you shouldn’t drink at all.

Many studies have found that consumption of alcohol at these quantities can have protective measures in cardiovascular disease. Consumption of red wine may be particularly favorable, since red wine contains certain polyphenol antioxidants associated with cardiovascular health.

If you’re pregnant, you should avoid alcohol altogether because researchers don’t know how much alcohol will harm a fetus, but they do know that a certain amount can be extremely harmful.

Maintain a healthy, balanced diet. We can’t overstate the importance of a balanced and healthy diet as you age. A poor diet can lead to an increased risk of many health problems, including osteoporosis, heart disease, and impaired memory. Eating well, on the other hand, makes you feel and look better, keeps your body functioning optimally, wards off colds and sickness, and contributes to lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which in turn helps protect you against heart disease and stroke.

Exercise regularly. Over time, a sedentary lifestyle can lead to obesity, a preventable yet dangerous epidemic that poses a threat to people’s longevity. And it’s on the rise. As you age, regular exercise should be a cornerstone of healthy living. As your body slows down, you may be tempted to skip the exercise because it’s harder to do, you feel challenged physically, or you accept that being less active is part of normal aging. Don’t fall prey to this thinking!

As you get older, exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous, it just needs to be consistent. Regular physical activity helps your body function more effectively.

Manage your stress and develop healthy coping mechanisms. Stress causes the release of the hormones cortisol, norepinephrine, and epinephrine, which under acute stress have a protective effect on the body. But chronic stress allows hormones to hang around longer than usual and cause the formation of free radicals. Although these little buggers don’t cause death directly, they do contribute to aging.

Get enough sleep regularly. You need sleep, both psychologically and physiologically. The body uses this time for healing and growth, and your body produces many hormones essential for proper functioning during the deepest sleep stages. Sleep irregularity can have a direct impact on some disorders, such as epilepsy and migraines, and has been associated with diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, clinical depression, diabetes, and other serious conditions.

Visit your doctor for the recommended screening tests for your age. Several important tests can help protect against cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Some of these tests find diseasesearly, when they’re most treatable, while others can actually help keep a disease from developing in the first place.

Men Deserve to Feel Proud of Their Sexuality - Male Sex Myth Test

Remember a time when a buddy made a bragging sexual comment and you felt intimidated; you wondered if you were sexually “normal”; a TV program described male sexuality in a negative way; the time you felt con- fused about what to do sexually with a woman; whether your sexual fanta- sies were healthy; whether your expectations of lovemaking were realistic; when you thought, “Yes, I really like sex, but I feel differently than what other men feel.” If you’ve ever had moments or thoughts like these (and the great majority of men have), this book will help you develop a healthier, more confident, and satisfying sex life. What’s different about this book? We’ll tell you the honest truth—no hype, no magic, no “BS.” We will share with you the best available scientific, psychological, medical, and relation- ship information. The truth about sex is that every man deserves to feel proud, confident, and healthy about his masculinity and sexuality. The truth is that sex is an essential part of who we are as men.

To begin, we ask you to take our 21-item true–false quiz to assess your understanding of male sexuality. Don’t worry about performance anxiety; you can score this yourself to see how knowledgeable you are, and you don’t have to tell anyone your score.

Exercise 1.1: Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire

1. ____ Penis size is the most important factor in pleasing your partner.

2. ____ Real men are always interested and ready to perform sexually.

3. ____ The best sex happens when you are single; committed sex squelches good sex.

4. ____ All men are potential rapists.

5. ____ Perfect sexual performance is the most important fac- tor in satisfying your partner.

6. ____ Women control men with sex. It’s just the way it is.

7. ____ Women expect to be fucked hard, but don’t honestly say it.

8. ____ The Internet is the best source for accurate sexual information.

9. ____ Sex is such a basic physical need, men should be able to perform perfectly regardless of their level of physical conditioning, lifestyle, or age.

10. ____ What men most want and need in a relationship is sex.

11. ____ Men will do or say anything to get sex.

12. ____ Men inevitably think with their penis.

13. ____ Sex is natural and requires no learning, management, or regulation.

14. ____ Sex requires an erection because sex equals intercourse.

15. ____ Men need a lot of sex; lack of sex causes major physical problems.

16. ____ It is the man’s responsibility to give his partner an orgasm each time.

17. ____ The man leads sex: “Men are supposed to run the sex show.”

18. ____ Sex equals performance and performance is what counts.

19. ____ Real men have penises that are “two feet long, hard as steel, and able to go all night.”

20. ____ Men can’t control their sex drives.

21. ____ Men should never view women as sex objects.

How many “True” responses did you record? Compare your responses to the fact that this is a male sex myth test; all of these items are false. In the following chapters, we will coach you how to think about your sexuality in an accurate, honest, reasonable, confident manner. You can learn to increase sexual pleasure and satisfaction for the rest of your life. (Read the truth about Sex).

The Truth About Sex

This article is to coach you (and your partner) in the truth about healthy, pleasurable, satisfying sex—not hype or promises that only lead to disappointment and “is that all there is?” We coach you in the scientific and medical facts, the reality of real men who have real jobs and real stresses, living real life with real women, with real failures as well as successes. We wrote this article to coach you with integrity, openness, candor, frankness, and details that you can apply to your life. We wrote this article because we believe there is too much BS out there about men and sex. We wrote this so that you can avoid the myriad of mistakes we have seen in our clinical practices, mistakes made out of ignorance, misinformation, unrealistic expectations, anxiety, shame, and following hyped-up promises—“Use this cream and your ‘dick’ will grow two inches.” We’ve seen too many lies told to men. We want to give you the facts! So, we have written this article with the promise—to ourselves and to you—that this is an article with integrity. We’ve counseled and coached thousands of men (and their partners) how to develop positive male sexual health, address sexual problems, and overcome worries, misunderstandings, and other barriers to sexual satisfaction. We have heard legions of men individually, in educational workshops, in couples therapy, and in men’s group therapy express hidden thoughts and conflicts about sex. These men are scientists, construction workers, college students, professional football players, Fortune 500 CEOs, politicians, government employees, computer geeks, police officers, invest- ment bankers, bakers, hockey stars, medical doctors, waste management truck drivers, pilots, prisoners, clergymen, chefs, military personnel, lawyers, factory workers, diplomats, teachers. You name the occupation, and we’ve heard from them over the years of our clinical work. They are young, middle-aged, older, single, married, divorced, sexually active, celibate, in good health, in poor health. Like their jobs and status in life, men are different emotionally and sexually. We are not stereotypes but have incredible diversity and ranges of thoughts, feelings, experiences, and sexual preferences. Some of us are saintly, some are villainous, while most of us are in the broad expanse in between. While we are different from each other in many ways, we all seek sexual health. Here are principles and facts that are common to all of us when it comes to sexual health. Men’s sexual health is grounded on psychological and physical facts and truths.

Fact #1: Healthy Men Are Proud of Their Sexuality
Feeling good about your body and sexuality is essential to being sexually healthy. The truth about great sex is that every man deserves to feel proud and confident of his masculinity. Okay, there are jokes that sexual health for men is impossible or an oxymoron—that men are sexual idiots or “only think with their penis.” These are simplistic stereotypes. Trash talk!

Each man can feel proud of his masculinity. Sex is a good part of a man’s (and a woman’s) life, not something to feel ashamed or embarrassed about.

Feeling proud of your body, unashamed of your powerful sex drive and sexual desires, buoyed by your sexual function, and clear with yourself

of the importance of feeling pleased and satisfied with sex are important principles of men’s sexual health. This confidence is based in physical, psychological, and relationship principles that accept masculinity with pride and self-respect.

Fact #2: Sexually Healthy Men Are Confident and Strong
What is men’s sexual health? How do I get a solid grip on it? How do I determine if I am a sexually healthy man? These are not simple ques- tions with simple answers. Sexual health is a lifelong process, with subtly different dimensions at each stage. For example, sexual health of a boy is part of the lifelong process but is different from that for a teen or young adult and different from a middle years and older adult. However, at each stage of life, common elements characterize sexual health. Here is the description of sexual health from the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO, 1975):

Sexual Health may be defined as a dynamic and harmonious state involving erotic and reproductive experiences and fulfillment, within a broader physical, emotional, interpersonal, social, and spiritual sense of well-being, in a culturally informed, freely and responsibly chosen, and ethical framework; not merely the absence of sexual disorders.

A translation may be helpful. Sexual health is the integration of your psychological, biological, and interpersonal sexual energies in a comfortable, meaningful, and satisfying way. In short, you feel confident and strong about yourself as a sexual man and know that others feel comfortable with you as well. Sex is a physiological, natural function, and sex is part of sexuality. Sexuality is a learned, psychosocial function. Sexuality is an integral part of every man’s personality and is expressed in all that we do. In the broadest sense, sexuality is the psychic energy that finds physical and emotional expression in the desire for contact, warmth, tenderness, eroticism, and love. This energy is part of a man’s balanced self-confidence and strength.

Fact #3: Men Have a Wide Range of Sexual Concerns
Every man (and woman) has concerns about what is sexually normal. There is a wide range of concerns about what is normal physically (like penis size); how your sexual body functions (erections, ejaculation); what thoughts or fantasies are normal (e.g., being sexually aggressive, group sex, attracted to a coworker, sex with animals); how to make love (how to “turn a woman on”); and what are appropriate sexual feelings (e.g., “horny”), sexual interest (e.g., “Am I addicted to strip bars?”), or behaviors (“Is my use of porn okay?”). We hear real men say things like:

“Am I normal?”
“Is my partner normal?”
“I love sex; it’s great. But I am not like men in the movies or TV. Is
there something wrong with me?”
“My testicles hang differently. Is there something wrong with me?”
“I don’t want to get older, 55 or 75, because sex surely must decline and end.”
“I’m embarrassed that I don’t know how to be a super lover.”
“I had really great sex with her, but is that all there is?”
“I feel so dumb! Nobody talked to me about what healthy sex is.
I don’t trust all the braggadocio I hear from male friends in the locker room or sports bar.”
“Sex with a long-term partner gets boring.”
“I use pornography regularly because it is my guarantee for vari- ety. It ensures that I can get aroused and erect. Is that healthy?”
“I feel inadequate; I doubt my ability to perform and satisf y my partner.”
“Penis size seems so important to women. I worry, am I big enough?”
“Sex is supposed to be natural, but I have difficulty letting go.”
“My sexuality as a man seems more complex than what other men say, TV or movies show, or what the Internet says. Am I peculiar or inadequate?”
“There are times that I feel very ashamed of my honest sexual desires, that they are ‘bad.’”
“I often doubt my ability to perform, to sexually satisfy my partner.”
“Are my fantasies, my body, my lovemaking style normal?”
“I’m afraid she’s judging me, my sexual skills and performance;
this makes me anxious.”
“I have some weird thoughts and desires. How do I know if I’m deviant?”

These and other thoughts and feelings represent common concerns men have about their masculinity and sexual performance. If you are a man who wants to be honest with yourself and not live in the world of beer commercials, simplistic promises of Viagra ads, and sexual hype, you’ll find yourself in this article. You can learn to feel proud of your masculinity and sexuality. This is an article for honest, strong, thoughtful men. We will explore common anxieties that many of us experience. Most men have little opportunity to learn from other men about healthy sexuality. We will confront common barriers to growing and developing an adult, healthy, and satisfying male sexuality.

This article takes men’s sexuality seriously. Rather than trivializing men and sex, we consider complexity. This is an article for real men, not politically correct men. We will give you essential facts and discuss how sexual health can confirm your masculinity and promote life satisfaction.

Fact #4: What Is Good for Your Body Is Good for Your Sex Life. What Is Good for Your Sex Life Is Good for Your Body
The interrelationship between your physical body and sexual function is crucial to sexual health. Good lifestyle habits and choices—such as proper sleep, regular exercise for physical conditioning, healthy diet, moderation in your use of alcohol—provide the foundation for easy sexual function. Taking good care of your physical body is a prerequisite for satisfying sex. Positive, realistic expectations and cooperation with your partner are good for your sexual function. This interrelationship makes sense in the context of physiological sexual response and the importance of relaxation and comfort with your partner.

Fact #5: Satisfying Sex Is Important to Your General Health
When men feel sexually healthy and satisfied, men walk tall. Our sexual feelings, emotional well-being, confidence in the world, and even our physical health are essentially intertwined. On the other hand, a man who is troubled with his sexuality is at risk for low self-esteem, irritability, anxiety, and even physical illness. This interrelationship is an important reason that sexual dysfunction is considered both a psychological and a medical concern. The mind–body connection is valid.

Fact #6: Satisfying Sex Involves Lovemaking Skills
Good sex is more than performing as a “stud.” Healthy physical conditioning, realistic psychological thinking, emotional health, and interpersonal cooperation for mutual pleasure are all part of good psychosexual (love-making) skills. While procreation may be biologically natural, satisfying lovemaking skills are not automatic but are developed through healthy attitudes, behaviors, and emotional intimacy. You can develop comfort and confidence with psychosexual skills and strengthen your desire, arousal, and orgasm response.

Fact #7: Knowledge Is Power
Accurate and realistic knowledge about men’s bodies and male sexuality is crucial. Sexual health for men involves understanding physical, psychological, and relationship factors. Being realistic and thinking accurately about your body and your sexual function is a crucial component of sexual health.

This is essential because the public presentation of sex has nearly no relationship to the truth. The media, marketing, and public discourse is about getting your attention more than teaching you the truth about sex in real people’s lives. This is a major problem and one of the most important motivations for our writing this article.

You also need a good understanding of your emotional life. It is important to understand the differences between your sex drive (“feeling horny”) and positive and negative emotions like anxiety, loneliness, enjoyment, or pride in a job success. All energy in the body is not sexual energy, although there is a tendency for men to interpret a variety of emotions as sexual and try to manage their emotions by sexualizing them. For example, most men have masturbated to relieve anxiety or stress.

You also need to understand what healthy sexual behaviors are. Men care about sexual performance. Sexual function (performance) for men is fundamental, and to dismiss this important component of male sexuality is self-defeating. We’ll coach you how to put sexual function into perspective; otherwise, it becomes a huge barrier to sexual pleasure, sexual acceptance, and relationship intimacy.

Fact #8: Sexual Health Is a Lifelong Developmental Process
Your health as a sexual man is a lifelong process. Sex can be a positive, integral part of your life at every stage. You are sexual from the day you are born to the day you die. Realize that your sexuality is a lifelong, progressive, and developmental process. It changes as you go through your life—from boyhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, and older. Your sexuality as a 15-, 25-, 45-, 65-, or 85-year-old has both underlying similarities and also differences. We can be sexually healthy at each stage of our lives.

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”—Robert Louis Stevenson.

The best research indicates that the quality of sex—like fine wine—improves with age. If you take good care of your psychological, physical, and relationship health, lifelong sexual satisfaction is a realistic expectation.

Fact #9: There Are Many Barriers to Healthy Sex
Detrimental messages, stereotypes, and erroneous beliefs about men and sex can set you up for sexual self-doubts, dysfunction, and dissatisfaction. The quiz you took earlier presented common myths. Some incorrect stereotypes include “Good women really don’t like sex” or it’s antithesis, “Hot women expect perfect sex performance”; others, “Great sex is what you see in porn videos” or “Marital sex is inevitably boring and mediocre.”

Do not be duped by such damaging messages—recognize where they come from. Don’t get faked out! Pay attention to positive sexuality. The following sources can undermine your sexual health.

Negative Messages About Men and Sex in the Media.
Product marketing: It is important to realize that we live in a commercial culture and that media is a primary source for selling products. Sex sells. Because of its natural power, sex is used to get our attention and even to create a need by associating sexualized women to attract us to a product—whether a car, shaving lotion, beer, or athletic club. Be aware that marketing typically trivializes men and sexuality.

News and entertainment: Male sexuality attracts attention—often associated with shame. For example, news reports often and sadly focus on rape, lust killings, child sexual abuse, arrests of men making or dis- tributing child porn, sexual abuse by clergymen, and voyeurism. Men are frequently portrayed as sexually troubled and even dangerous, addicted to Internet pornography, sex harassers, or sex offenders. Some TV shows engage in male-bashing. Men who try to be sexually healthy may unfortunately take on by osmosis subtle collective shame, feeling that as a man he is somehow implicated, suspect, bad.

Avoidance (“Silence”) About Honest Male Sexual Feelings.
Men’s cautiousness about expressing honest sexual feelings is a significant barrier to sexual health. This silence in expressing honest sexual feelings subverts feeling proud of masculinity and sexuality. Men (and women) get faked out, believing that male sexuality is simplistic, one-dimensional (e.g., intercourse), impersonal, and about perfect performance and proving masculinity. This may fit an adolescent emerging from childhood to manhood, but men seeking lifelong sexual health do not live in such a one-dimensional world of sex.

Male “Bravado”: Bragging and Trivializing.
Seldom do men honestly talk with other men about sex in a personal way. Locker-room teasing, joking about another man, and exaggerating sexual escapades are accepted as normal male interaction. Sex is simple, no questions, automatic; it is about how often one “scores” (gets “laid”). This competitive bantering is the usual public discourse for men. When that is the only level on which men communicate with each other about sex, it reinforces a lack of understanding and acceptance and sets up self-defeating sexual expectations.

Typical male language can also be a barrier—language that is object focused (third person) rather than an expression of personal thoughts or feelings. Objectifying language depersonalizes and trivializes sexual- ity. For example, when a man says to his partner “Your body is hot” he may actually mean “I’m lonely and want to feel special and close to you”; “You’ve got great tits” may mean “When you invite me to enjoy you and get close to you I feel special”; or “You don’t want sex? What’s wrong with you?” may mean “I’m confused. When you flat out just say ‘no,’ I think you don’t love me. I feel rejected and controlled.”

Unrealistic Sex Expectations.
Sex as presented in our society has virtually nothing to do with what we know of realistic sex according to the best scientific research. The public impression and discussion of sex in Amer- ica is almost silly. When accurate information is undermined by myths, political distortions, and hype, people do not learn and accept facts about men’s bodies, women’s bodies, and how people function sexually. Without accurate information, we are susceptible to myths, “Hollywood” or pornographic notions of what is supposed to be “real” sex. You will not find men’s sexual health portrayed in a porn movie because pornography is purely about sexual fantasy.

Fantasy is “what you don’t have and can’t reasonably have in real life with a real woman.” That doesn’t make it “bad”—just fantasy. Porno- graphic fantasy has the message that sexual drive does not need to be regu lated, that anything goes. Major unrealistic expectations are encouraged. There is an absence of positive societal messages that teach boys (and men) to regulate their sex drive. Instead, the cultural message about sex drive is negative and shaming (such as in radical feminist philosophy, anti-porn zealots, or negative religious messages of sin). Paradoxically, this shame serves to powerfully contribute to sexual impulsivity and impede men’s sexual health.

Fact #10: You Need a Model for Your Sexuality as a Man
So, what is your model for male sexuality? Who is your role model for a sexually healthy man? How can you think positively about the multiple dimensions of your masculinity? How can you create your standard for healthy sexuality? Your model defines what—for you—is sexual health. It includes your assumptions about what is good sex and what causes sexual problems. This framework determines your understanding of the nature and purposes of sex, your attitude toward your body and your partner’s body, your feelings, the value of fantasies, sexual growth and maturity, your expectations about sex, your relationship expectations, what a sexual dysfunction is, your attitudes toward friendships with men and women, your philosophy of life, the relationship between spirituality and sex, and your definition of sexual satisfaction.

Your sexual model will have a valence; sex is either fundamentally positive or negative—sex is good or sex is bad. Your model needs to focus on you as an individual and on your sexual relationship. Focus your model on accurate knowledge, feelings (satisfaction), and behavior (sexual function). You want to avoid being simplistic or one-dimensional. Ensure that your model of sexuality is inclusive, multidimensional, and well integrated with your body and mind. As much as we all wish important things in life could be simple, the fact is that life is complex, and so is sexuality.

Exercise 1.2: Creating Your Model of Male Sexual Health
Consider the following questions about your thoughts, beliefs, and values about male sexuality:

Do you think that you can be in poor physical condition and still have a good quality sex life?
How do you understand your body to be “programmed”? What is it sexually designed to do?
For you, what are the most important purposes for sex?
If you feel that you are ugly or have a small penis, can you find sexual satisfaction?
What do you think is the relationship between your physical and sexual health?
Could you be happy as a celibate man? What are your specific sexual needs?
What is the interaction between your sexual thoughts, feelings, and actions?
Do you think sex is the one area of your life where you should be free and not need to regulate feelings or behavior?
Is your sexuality your own, or is sex meant to be shared with a loving partner?
Do you believe that sex is serious or playful?
Where does your sex drive come from? Body? Emotions? Relationship? Do you think playfulness during sex is valuable for your relationship? Can you sexually disappoint your partner and still have satisfying sex and feel good about yourself?
How important is a good sex life to an intimate, long-term relationship?
Do you think sex should rely more on physical desire than emotional closeness?
How much do you value intimacy? How much eroticism? Can these be integrated into your relationship?

Reflection: There are no simple responses, no correct or incorrect responses to these considerations. Ask yourself:

What thoughts stand out as you reflect on these questions? What do you learn about yourself? Your values? Your model of male sexual health?

Fact #11: Men’s Sexuality Is Complex
An honest model for men’s sexual health grapples with its complexity. We are not the simple, testosterone-driven, google-eyed, lap dogs for women portrayed in beer commercials. Men who model their sex on a Bud Light commercial (think wet T-shirt contest and female mud wrestling) may have fun in college, but this will restrict your adult sexual growth and health.

We propose a new psycho-biosocial, integrative model, that can be valuable for the man (and his partner) from his 20s to his 80s. We label our model the “Good-Enough Sex” model. What is different about our integrative psycho-biosocial model is that it includes multidimensional aspects of each component (mind, body, relationship) plus positive, realistic expectations based on accurate, scientific information and personally relevant guidelines. For example, the psychological dimension appreciates that we have important sexual thoughts (cognitions), feelings (emotions), and actions (behaviors) that need to be integrated. We want you to see the complexity of male sexuality, not trivialize it; to feel confident; to respect your manliness; to understand how to build your sexual satisfaction individually and in a relationship. These features vary and develop throughout your life. Sexuality is not set in stone, immutable, but rather evolving and contributing to the distinctive man that you are at each age.

Fact #12: Male Sexuality Has Multiple Dimensions
Men’s sexual health involves multiple dimensions that help understand and integrate the physical, psychological, relational, cultural, and psycho- sexual lovemaking skills. These five factors are illustrated in Figure 1.1. The 5 Components of Integrative Sexual Health. Each dimension is indispensable and warrants attention to ensure sexual health throughout life.

The biological factors are the physiologic dimensions of sexual function—sexual drive, getting and keeping erections, ejaculation and orgasm, and physiological sexual satisfaction. The physical systems are the vascular, neurologic, hormonal, and behavioral health habits. Good physical condition and healthy habits are the foundation for your biological sexual health.

The psychological dimensions (CBE) are your cognitions, behaviors, and emotions. You can understand and ensure healthy sexual cognitions or thoughts (C); actions or behaviors (B); and your feelings or emotions (E).

The relationship dimension, includes the identity you and your partner share as a couple (e.g., couple expectations such as balancing autonomy and cohesion); your style of cooperation and interactions such as mutual conflict resolution; and emotional intimacy—especially empathy with your partner.

Societal norms refers to the social and cultural environment within which sexuality is understood, moderated, and regulated. This dimension includes prevailing societal attitudes, scientific understanding of sexuality, the laws regulating sexual behavior, as well as religious, moral, and ethical principles. Integrating your sexuality within the social norms and freedoms as well as restrictions of your culture are important aspects of healthy male sexuality.

The psychosexual skills for lovemaking include the cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and interpersonal factors in sexual response. These are important aspects for facilitating your sexual comfort and confidence.

This approach is worth your investment because when you understand how things work and what’s involved, it makes sense, and you can integrate it into your cognitions, behaviors, and emotions. This allows you to feel more comfortable and natural. What you understand, you can do. What you can do well, you feel good about!

Fact #13: Pornography May Be Fine Fantasy but Healthy Sex Is Reality Based
Fantasy for both men and women is a natural part of sexuality. Its role in sexual health depends on its function. Like any other area of life, it needs to fit your realistic lifestyle. A soldier’s use of a group sex fantasy may bring relief through masturbatory arousal. For a married man who avoids his spouse sexually, pornography may serve an anti-intimate role. For the couple who mutually integrate erotic materials into their sexual relationship it may serve to freshen their lovemaking. The debates about the appropriate use of pornography in men’s sexual lives should be about situation-appropriate sexual arousal. In a sexual relationship, pornography use should be about the comfort of both partners as an intimate team.

Fact #14: Ultimately Sex Is About Relationship Intimacy and Satisfaction
From the psycho-biosocial and developmental perspective, the ultimate function for a long-term sexual bond is relationship satisfaction. Consider that over the course of your life, there is a developmental flow from the biological and physiological development and growth of youth, the psychological and sexual development of young adulthood, and the integration of biological, psychological, and relationship dimensions of sexuality in adulthood and older age. It would be unusual for a teen- ager to achieve the level of relationship intimacy that is developmentally possible for middle years and older adults. At the same time, among older adults, it would not be reasonable to expect the biological intensity of adolescence. This perspective can enrich the quality of lifelong sexuality.

Fact #15: Long-Term, Satisfying Sexuality Varies in Quality
One of the most important facts is that the quality of lovemaking is naturally variable. It is a perfectionistic myth to believe that lovemaking will always be exceptional. The best research clearly indicates that while love- making may vary in quality, satisfaction can still be high. In short, the major criterion for sexual satisfaction is not performance but acceptance and pleasure.

The Truth About Great Sex
The truth is that if you think healthy and act healthy, you’ll feel healthy sexually. Thinking well about male sexuality involves taking good care of your body, your partner’s body, realistic expectations of sex, and adopting the Good-Enough Sex model. This approach is focused on being an “intimate team;” on pleasure-oriented sexual function rather than falling into the perfect performance trap; understanding the multiple purposes for sex, the three basic arousal styles and how to use them in partner sex, and maintaining positive, realistic sexual expectations.

Do Penis Enlargement Exercises Really Work?

Many people are keen to dismiss penis exercises as myths even though they are not familiar with the facts. Penis exercises have been around in one form or other for a very long time. Primitive tribes are still using weights, various objects and exercises to force parts of the human body to change size and achieve a new look.

The women of the Paduang tribe use metal rings to lengthen their necks, while the people from other tribes hang weights from their lips or ear lobes in order to reach their own standards of beauty. With all these going on, why should it be so hard to believe that the penis was ignored?

Especially since we know that it was not. Various penis enlargement techniques have also been reported, especially among the nomad Arabic tribes. Body enhancement techniques performed by males were always tied to the position of the person in question within the tribe or with the manhood initiation rites.

It seems that men found early on that the human body can be modified using devices or exercises. The only traction devices at their disposal for a long period of time were weights, but stretching the penis using one’s own hands was just as good as any device.

The basic principle behind body enhancement is the adaptability of the human body in response to external stimuli. Everybody knows that the extra physical effort put into working out at the gym will trigger an increase in the size of the muscles that have to sustain the effort.

Similarly, repeated exercises focused on the penis, will force the body to start multiplying the cells that make up the penis tissues and to increase both the length and girth of the penis in order to cope with the new situation.

The best known penis enlargement exercise is the Jelq. This exercise is designed to enlarge the penis using milking movements in order to increase the blood flow into the corpora cavernosa, the sponge-like tissues of the penis. The increased blood flow will, in time, force the tissues to expand and increase both the flaccid and erect sizes of the penis.

Dr. Brian Richards conducted a study of penis enlargement exercises in the 1970s and found that the jelq helped nearly 90 percent of patients increase their penis size. The gains ranged in size of course, but it was proven that men could add an inch or more to their penises. Despite the rabid skepticism of those who cannot be bothered to check the facts, common sense and evidence point to the fact that penis enlargement exercises do work. No man who could use an extra inch or two in length or girth should write them off until he’s actually tried them. Many skeptics have been pleasantly surprised after embarking on a penis exercise program, so why not give it a go? There’s nothing to lose and a whole world of sexual pleasure and self-respect to gain.

Methods to Avoid
Penis enlargement is one of the worlds fastest growing industries. Unfortunately as a result of this, several products have crept onto the market with the aim of making a quick buck and benefiting from mans natural insecurities, irregardless of whether the product is a safe and effective choice for a larger penis. Here we will give you a brief guide on which methods you need to avoid if you are going to successfully and safely enlarge your penis.

1. Weight hanging
Weights are probably the oldest penis enlargement technique around, and by far the simplest to operate. However, simplicity is not always the best option and this certainly rings true for weight hanging.

Weight hanging is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous techniques of penis enlargement because of the amount of weight needed to create any lasting effect.

Known dangers of this method include; impotence, ligament damage, painful erections, deformity and stretch marks. In addition, by only stretching the penis in one direction as weights do, means that if you gain any length it is most likely to be at the expense of girth size, so you could end up with a longer but much thinner penis.

2. Penis Pump
Another common option for the misinformedman is the penis pump, made famous by a host of adult movie stars who claim their large penis secret is the regular use of a penis pump. Let’s get something straight, these adult stars almost always have a large penis to start with, that is often why they are an adult star in the first place. The only thing they use a penis pump for is to gain an erection to its fullest extent for long enough to perform their scene.

People often wrongly believe that penis pumps have been proven as a long term solution to enlarge the penis, this is incorrect. Pumps have been proven to help with impotence since they force blood into the penis, this can often result in a larger than normal penis as it promotes a stronger than normal erection.

However, the effects of pumps are temporary, they will help gain an erection for a few minutes but will doing very little to enlarge the penis in the long term. Pumps are not only ineffective at providing long term size gains, but they also come complete with a series of dangers for any man that chooses to use them. For starters the mechanical forcing of blood into the penis is difficult to control and therefore often results in severe bruising, blisters and even burst blood vessels within the penis. Repeated use can bring on impotence when the body begins to rely on mechanical stimulation to produce an erection, further risks include deformation and diseases.

3. Pills
Next up is the ‘magic pill scam’ that is often reported in the media. Penis pills have popped up for sale all over the internet often with wild claims of adding several inches, curing impotence and ending premature ejaculation.

Don’t you think that if a pill could really do all of this then the medical community would be knocking down doors to prescribe them to the individuals who need them? The truth is that pills cannot enlarge the penis by themselves. They can, however, be used in conjunction with a more reliable penis enlargement method such as exercises to help speed up and enhance gains.

Pills work by increasing blood flow, which in turn means the exercises have more to work with and therefore can produce gains more quickly. Exercises are more than capable of working alone though, so pills should only been seen as a supplement rather than a must have!

4. Surgery
And last of all, surgery, the latest penis enlargement technique to emerge. Surgery is expensive, not very safe and definitely not under customer control. The results of any type of plastic surgery are somewhat unpredictable and that goes double for the penis.

This technique is mostly an option for rich people who can afford the best surgeons around to enlarge their penises. Any mistake here could mean impotence and the end of your sex life. I have yet to see a surgeon who will guarantee results, they simply will not, which shows that even the professionals carrying out the treatment do not have complete confidence in what they are doing.

By all means go ahead and look into surgery, perhaps you will be one of the lucky ones who is completely satisfied with the results. However, bear in mind that surgery is not only the most expensive option, but also one of the riskiest. Furthermore, surgery gone wrong is often irreversible; surely it makes sense to try a natural solution first? So, if you don’t trust ointments, weights, pumps or surgery, then penis enlargement exercises are the best way to go. You can perform them at your leisure, in the privacy of your own home. It is up to you to decide the length of sessions and the intensity of exercises. You can stop at any time and start again whenever you feel like it. What could be better than that?

Hair Loss

Why does it seem like your friends have won the genetic lottery while you are left with a disappearing hair line? Discover the source, and the solution to the problem.

The male pattern baldness (MPB) accounts for more than 95% of hair loss in men. When reaching 35 years, two-thirds of North American men will suffer from some degree of hair loss, and by the age of 50 about 85% of men will experience significantly thinning hair. A quarter of men who have male patterns baldness start loosing their hair at an early age, even before reaching 21.

Men who suffer from male pattern baldness are tremendously unhappy with their situation. It is not unheard of that men change their career plans and suffer in their social life from this condition. Although baldness is socially accepted in most cases, you dont see it that way if you are the affected one. Relationships, both romantic and professional, suffer from insecurity that grows as the baldness progresses.

While previously scientists believed that testosterone was responsible for hair loss, it is actually DHT, a derivative of testosterone that is the culprit. Basically DHT kills off the hair follicles on your head, which is the reason you loose your hair and it does not come back.

DHT binds to the hair follicles and subsequently shrinks them. This makes it impossible for healthy hair to survive. The process of testosterone being converted to DHT is a normal process, and happens in both men and women. However, women have only a fraction of the testosterone men have. One of the best ways to prevent hair loss and treat already occurring hair loss is to block the DHT receptors around the hair follicles. Alternatively blocking the DHT hormone will also have the same result.