Wouldn’t it be great if you could have better sex just by eating the right foods? Well, if you know the foods to choose, you can do just that. Your diet affects every level of your health from how well your heart functions to how clearly you think to how good you feel. It should come as no surprise that your diet can affect your sex drive. If you know what you’re doing, you can improve it.
One of the most frequent complaints I hear from my older patients is that their skin is making them look older than they feel! It’s true that after age 40 we begin to decline in the amount of certain hormones we individually have and can start to lose skin elasticity and thickness. Fine lines, wrinkles, dark spots, and sagging can then start to appear.
Several of my male patients who are troubled with low testosterone levels have also been found to have type 2 diabetes. In fact, the two conditions share many of the same symptoms (see more below) like erectile dysfunction and fatigue, which are usually symptoms that bring male patients in to see me. Balancing the two hormones of insulin and testosterone are not only important to a man’s sexual function but also to his overall good health – in fact, his life may even depend on it.
I’m sitting here at my desk reading the label on my boxed nutritional shake. Are you a label reader too? I have noticed lately that we are being bombarded with ads in grocery stores and magazines about the contents of our food. Now these messages are finding their way into our homes via commercials and Network Specials concerning “the state of our food”. How much corn syrup is too much? What are the benefits of Free Range Chickens over steroid-filled poultry? Are preservatives harmful?
Having Arthritis can change your whole life. Not only do you have to endure the suffering from joint pain but your lack of ability to move freely can damper your lifestyle. Whether you love to work in your garden, go for a hike, dance the night away, or simply climb a flight of stairs, arthritis can make your favorite activities seem impossible.
I saw a patient the other day who complained of feeling tired all the time. He also said he was getting sick more lately and even when he was well he didn’t really feel good. I suspected immediately that he was suffering from an overworked liver.
In a long-term, large-scale study, researchers periodically interviewed more than 10,000 participants about their levels of stress at work. People who reported having a high demand job along with little authority to make decisions and a low level of support were more likely to become obese. Intermittent stress at work increased the chance of obesity by 17 percent or more. Ongoing work stress increased the chances of becoming obese by up to 73 percent.
Increased flexibility provides you with a number of health benefits. When you are more flexible, you feel better. Your body works better. You are less likely to become injured. You can exercise without discomfort and without getting too sore the next day. Increasing your flexibility through stretching does many good things. It increases your range of motion, so you are able to move with less resistance and with less energy.
If you’re like many people, the winter months are rough. Less light and cold weather makes you feel tired, sad, even depressed. You might find that it’s more difficult to get up in the morning, that you have a harder time enjoying the things that you usually do, and that you don’t feel as productive at work.
This is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and it affects millions of Americans every winter. In mild cases, it is merely unpleasant. In the most serious cases it can lead to serious health problems including insomnia, weight loss, fatigue, and even suicidal thoughts.
If there is one thing I enjoy as a doctor, it is being able to give patients advice that is easy and pleasant to follow. All-too-often, health advice sounds restrictive. That gets tiring for a patient.One more bit of welcome advice for most people is to cook more with garlic. Some people don’t like the way garlic smells, but most everyone agrees that it makes food taste better. Garlic provides a huge list of health benefits. And as long as you share your garlic-cooked meals with your loved ones, the smell shouldn’t be anything to worry about.
When you have a couple hours to yourself, what is the perfect way to relax and recharge? When I ask my male patients this question, I hear answers like, “watch the game and have a beer,” or “shoot hoops with the guys.” When I ask the same question of my female patients, they laugh out loud. Then, they explain that having ten minutes to themselves, much less a few hours, is an extremely rare occurrence.
I am skeptical by nature. For a doctor, this is a very good trait to have. You see, every year there is a new crop of drugs and treatments that I evaluate for my patients. After doing some research, I will often discover that there isn’t much more than hype when it comes to these new “miracle cures.”