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A must read: A direct link between heart attack and our emotions. We live in such a stressful world, the fight or flight hormones in our body is working overtime and the result is deteriorating health.

We live our lives in a corner and when somebody or something rattles our cage we want to destroy them, at least mentally. So we cannot help but live in a constant state of anger - well now you know what that pent up emotions are and they can kill you, do something about it today.

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Tired and angry? Both emotions may predict heart attacks
American Heart Association meeting report (article compliments EurekAlert.com)

HONOLULU, April 24 – Anger and exhaustion may result in future heart attacks or sudden cardiac death, according to research presented today at the American Heart Association’s Asia Pacific Scientific Forum.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the combined effects of these two psychological risk factors,” says Janice Williams, Ph.D., M.P.H., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and lead author of the study.

The study includes a bi-ethnic (black and white) sample of middle-aged men and women. It assessed the occurrence of heart attacks over nine years, a longer observation period than reported in previous studies.

Participants were members of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. ARIC is a large prospective study of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors conducted in four U. S. communities: suburban Minneapolis, Minn.; Washington County, Md.; Forsyth County, N.C.; and Jackson, Miss.

From 1990-98, researchers followed 12,453 men and women who were between the ages of 45 and 64 and had not had a heart attack when the study began to assess the occurrence of heart attacks and sudden cardiac death.

Participants took the 10-item Spielberger Trait Anger Scale to test for levels of trait anger (TA) and the 21-item Maastricht Questionnaire to determine levels of vital exhaustion (VE). TA is identified as a person’s proneness to anger, and VE is defined as excessive fatigue, increased irritability and feelings of dejection or defeat.

Some sample items participants ranked in the anger survey include: “I feel annoyed when I am not given recognition for doing good work”; “I am quick-tempered”; and, “I get angry when I am slowed down by others’ mistakes.” Questions from the exhaustion survey included: “Have you experienced a feeling of hopelessness recently?”; “Do you ever wake up with a feeling of exhaustion and fatigue?”; and, “Do you have a feeling that you can’t cope?” TA and VE were ranked in groups of high, medium and low.

The study found that persons who scored in high TA or high VE levels had a 42 percent greater long-term risk of heart attack or sudden cardiac death than those in the lowest tertile of each condition.

Furthermore, Williams says, “People who reported being highly prone to anger and also scored high for vital exhaustion were 69 percent more likely to have a heart attack or a sudden cardiac death than their counterparts who reported being less prone to anger and scored low for vital exhaustion.”

In sharp contrast, for both the low and medium levels of TA, the association between TA and VE was only appreciable when VE was in the highest tertile.

Researchers found the results were true even after taking into account several of the established biologic and sociodemographic risk factors for coronary heart disease, such as hypertension, smoking, gender, diabetes, low education and cholesterol levels.

Williams says the results of the study confirm previous findings that support a positive association between psychological stressors and coronary heart disease. The study suggests that not only are anger and vital exhaustion short-term predictors of heart attack, but that they also may predict long-term heart attack risk.

“This study provides convincing evidence that high anger and high vital exhaustion preceded the heart attack and was not a consequence of it,” Williams says. “Epidemiologic research should continue to focus on the influence of psychological factors on coronary heart disease.”

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Co-authors are David J. Couper, Ph.D.; Catherine P. Sanford, M.S.P.H.; Verna Lamar-Welch, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Herman A. Tyroler, M.D.; and Tom Mosely, Ph.D.

CONTACT:
Darcy Spitz or Carole Bullock
AHA News Media Relations
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
Ph. 808-792-6515
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It is important that you prevent anger to cause a heart attack, learn how to relax, vent your emotions in a positive manner like exercise, you’ll be a lot happier, try some easy stress management.

Your health

Libido and Health

Popularity: 13% [?]

clipped from news.monstersandcritics.com Two men dead and 48 sick after taking impotence drug in Hong Kong Hong Kong - Two Hong Kong men have died and 48 have fallen sick after taking unregistered drugs claiming to cure impotence over the last six months, health officials revealed Wednesday. The men, aged between 44 and 86, all became ill with low blood sugar after taking pills said to treat erectile dysfunction function between December 2007 and March this year. All sought help from hospital where two died. Another two men still remain in hospital. A Department of Health spokesperson said some of the men admitted to taking pills claiming to treat erectile dysfunction which they had bought from the mainland border city of Shenzhen, and in Yuen Long and Wan Chai in Hong Kong. Laboratory tests on the drug showed the presence of unregistered ingredients including a medication called glibenclamide which is used for lowering blood sugar in diabetics. The pills were also found to include sildenafil, the main active ingredient in Viagra.

There are more than enough natural cures that you can try and if all else fails then and only then should you consider drugs. Erectile dysfunction is as much a result of bad diet, lack of exercise and mental health as it is a physical problem.

I’m serious consider your natural alternatives 1st, keep an eye on this blog we’ll be doing a review on some natural male enhancement products over the next while.

In the meantime you can explore these options for your erectile dysfunction see our sexual health page.

Your health

Libido and Health

Popularity: 36% [?]

Must read article: If you are at all suffering from menopause you’ll recognize and sympathize with these horrible menopause symptoms.

I found this article particularly interesting because I just finished an article on adrenal fatigue that you should read to appreciate the severity of the situation and what you can do about it. The good news is there is a lot that you can do to alleviate and conquer these symptoms.

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Getting a good night’s sleep is the biggest problem for women entering the menopause
(article compliments EurekAlert.com)

Sleep disruption is the most common and severe symptom reported by middle-aged women when their periods change and they start moving into the menopause, according to a study in the April issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Researchers at the University of Arizona College of Nursing, USA, spoke to 110 women entering the menopause – when periods can become lighter or heavier and occur at longer or shorter intervals. Their average age was 49 and they had all experienced their last menstrual period in the last three years.

On average, they reported suffering from seven of the ten most common menopause symptoms.

95% suffered from sleep difficulties, 92% from forgetfulness, 87% from irritability, 85% from night sweats and 91% from hot flashes or flushes.

The other symptoms reported were: mood swings (75%), depression (71%), day sweats (66%), vaginal dryness (55%) and irregular bleeding (35%).

Women taking part in the study were also asked to rate the severity of ten menopause symptoms on a scale of zero to four, where zero was no symptoms and four was extreme. The average severity score was 20.8 out of a possible 40.

Difficulty sleeping was the most severe symptom, scoring an average of 2.90 out of four, followed by night sweats (2.58), irritability (2.56), forgetfulness (2.42), hot flashes or flushes (2.41) and mood swings (2.12).

Women reported that they were less affected by day sweats (1.88), depression (1.73), vaginal dryness (1.45) and irregular bleeding (0.82).

“We also talked to the women about how frequently they experienced symptoms” says lead researcher and associate professor Dr Judith A Berg. “Women who reported problems with day sweats and hot flashes or flushes experienced an average of six a day and women who had problems with night sweats averaged just under three a night.”

The average time since the women’s last menstrual period (LMP) was five months and the cut off point for the study was 36 months since the last period. Women were included in the study if they had a minimum severity score of at least 12 out of 40 when they were asked to rate the ten key symptoms on a scale of zero to four.

Women who had health problems like diabetes or a history of breast or uterine cancer were excluded, as were women who were on certain types of medication, like hormone treatment or tranquilisers.

The researchers found that some menopausal symptoms changed in frequency as women moved further into the menopause. But sleep disturbance was a notable exception, remaining constant regardless of when a woman had had her LMP.

For example women who had had their LMP in the last two months experienced an average of 3.4 hot flashes or flushes a day and this more than doubled to 7.60 in women who had had their LMP in the last three to 11 months. By 12 months plus the level had fallen to 6.83.

The pattern was the same for day sweats, starting at 3.50 a day and rising to 5.97 before falling to 5.17.

However, night sweats rose consistently during this time, starting at 1.86, then rising to 2.67 and 3.25.

“This contradicts earlier research which sought to link sleep difficulties with night sweats and problems like hot flashes or flushes” stressed Dr Berg. “Although the severity of these problems changed as the women progressed through the early stage of the menopause, the sleep difficulties the women reported remained fairly constant.”

The study also showed that, with the exception of sleep difficulties, the most common symptoms reported by the women were not necessarily the ones that they said were the most severe.

“For example, forgetfulness was the second most commonly reported symptom, but when it came to severity it only rated seventh out of the 10 symptoms studied” says Dr Berg.

“And night sweats were the fourth most common symptom, but women rated them second when it came to severity.

“These findings underline the importance of talking to women about the severity of symptoms and the distress they cause as well as how frequently they occur.”

The researchers note that a number of previous studies have identified hot flashes or flushes as the biggest problem for menopausal women.

“Our study looked at women who were relatively young and the time lapse since their last period was shorter than in a number of previous studies” explains Dr Berg. “It is known that hot flashes or flushes increase as the menopause progresses and emerging data suggests that other symptoms are more severe in the earlier stages.”

A woman is said to have reached the menopause when she has not had a period for a year. During this phase, known as the perimenopause, the hormonal and biological changes associated with the menopause begin and many women experience both physical and emotional symptoms.

“What our study clearly shows is that women who are entering the menopause find sleep difficulties a frequent and distressing problem and that this problem was consistently reported by women in the sample, regardless of when they had had their last period” concludes Dr Berg.

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Notes to editors

* Menopausal symptom perception and severity: results from a screening questionnaire. Berg et al. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 17, pp 940 to 948. (April 2008).

* Founded in 1992, Journal of Clinical Nursing is a highly regarded peer reviewed Journal that has a truly international readership. The Journal embraces experienced clinical nurses, student nurses and health professionals, who support, inform and investigate nursing practice. It enlightens, educates, explores, debates and challenges the foundations of clinical health care knowledge and practice worldwide. Edited by Professor Roger Watson, it is published 10 times a year by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, part of the international Blackwell Publishing group.

* About Wiley-Blackwell. Wiley-Blackwell was formed in February 2007 as a result of the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and its merger with Wiley’s Scientific, Technical, and Medical business. Together, the companies have created a global publishing business with deep strength in every major academic and professional field. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal. For more information on Wiley-Blackwell, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com or http://interscience.wiley.com.
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Menopause is a fact of life learn how to alleviate menopause symptoms naturally and you can turn this hurdle in you path into a transition to a new better you!

Your health

Libido and Health

Popularity: 16% [?]

What can a controversial anti aging mineral have to do with your mental health?

Good question!

Over the years there has been numerous research studies linking the mineral lithium with increased brain function.

In fact theses studies found that using low-dose lithium increases the number of brain cells in older persons. The study found that lithium stimulates “progenitors” which assisted in the growth of new nerve sells.

People are normally hesitant about lithium because of it’s use in treating bipolar disease but a low-dose lithium is very beneficial for the aging brain.

More studies have found that a there is a definite link in the reduction of addiction related incidents like alcoholism, depression and suicides in areas with a higher lithium content in the water. These studies showed that lithium improves mood and behavior in alcoholics.

Once again more proof that our health issues can be addressed naturally without the serious side effects found in many drugs. There are many anti aging and mental health strategies you can follow for a better quality of life and you owe it to yourself to get informed about it.

Your health

Libido and Health

Popularity: 12% [?]

How far are you from your heart attack?

Day by day we abuse our health and eventually we are surprised when we’re told you have to go for a bypass operation or you only have 6 months to live!

With out further ado the 7 Surefire Steps Towards Heart Attack and An Early Death -

*** Eat like a pig, pile on the fried chicken and chips followed by dessert

*** Crack open another can of soda and slug the liquid sugar down

*** Rush home cursing and swearing at the traffic, pushing your blood pressure through the roof

*** At home switch on the tv and slouch on the couch for another grueling session of couch patato-ing

*** Now that it is time to relax light up another aromatic cigarette

*** Your body crashes after the earlier sugar rush and you quench your thirst with another sugar filled soda

*** It’s morning and you’re late, you grab a cup of coffee and rush out without breakfast again

Does this sound familiar?

Are you destroying your health like this?

It’s time for a change?

The good news is you can start making a difference by making small changes. Start by drinking water instead of soda. If you are too addicted to the sugar alternate your sodas with water.

Fact is diet remains the single most effective way to prevent a heart attack and the best diet a low carb diet like the Atkins diet - find all that information on this blog.

Get informed today!

Your health

Libido and Health

Popularity: 24% [?]