When the Pump Won't Work

When the Pump Won't Work

There's encouraging news for men who have experience impotence

Impotence is a treatable condition in more situations today than ever before. For those experiencing difficulties, the stock advice that psychological counselling should be sought may still apply at times, but doctors now have a far better understanding of the physiological conditions that can cause what is known technically as erectile dysfunction.

Factors can include everything from high cholesterol intake to prescription drug side effects. Dr. Irwin Goldstein, a professor of urology at the Boston University School of medicine and a leader in erectile dysfunction research, compares the penis to a hydraulic system: “All hydraulic systems have to be activated or initiated, they have to thave a high pressure hose to bring the fluid in, and they have to store the fluid. Failure of any of those systems means impotence.”

Here, Dr. Goldstein explains the risk factors and what to do about them:

Causes

Aging: There is a direct correlation between aging and impotence. Studies show that 40 percent of men at age 40 suffer from impotence. 50 percent of men at 50, 60 percent at 60, and so on. Like any other plumbing system that receives constant use, the vascular system simply begins to wear down.

Psychological factors: To attain an erection, your brain has to tell the system to start the flow of blood to the penis. Its failure to do so is the classic psychological basis of impotence. Part of being potent is being in control, so stress, anger, fear, and something called “the inverse of dominance” - which is just what impotence, also a synonym for powerless, means – can all affect performance.

Hormonal imbalances: A testosterone imbalance or thyroid condition can also lead to problems with initiation. The hydraulic mechanism is fine, but the desire to have intercourse is simply not there.

Medication: Make your doctor aware of any and all medications prescribed to you. Many of them can cause impotence: medications to treat high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and depression.

Diabetes and heart disease: Erectile dysfunction stemming from diabetes or heart disease can be a symptom of the illness or of the treatment, as noted before. Both illnesses can cause nerve damage, blood vessel damage, or tissue damage, thus leading to a complete breakdown of the hydraulic systems's ability to initiate an erection because the nerves are out; fill the penis with blood because the vessels are shot; or retain the blood because the tissue has lost its holding power.

Hypertension : Raising blood pressure raises erections, but chronic exposure to high blood pressure can injure the lining of the blood vessels, which leads to blocked arteries and impotence.

Cigarettes : Though cigarette smoking doesn't appear to be significant factor in and of itself, there is evidence that it is a secondary risk factor among people with heart disease or hypertension. Cigarettes tend to aggravate damage to the lining of blood vessels, which is always a problem.

High cholesterol intake : If you eat a lot of fatty food, it will clog the circulation to the heart, it will clog the circulation to the penis. Without that blood flow, an erection is difficult or impossible to maintain.

Physical trauma: Performance-affecting injuries can occur not only to the exposed penile shaft, but to the internal part of the penis in the pelvis and the perineum (the area between the scrotum and the anus). Trauma can also occur when the erect penis is bent during intercours or masturbation, which can actually fracture it. This causes the tunica (the lining material of the penis) to develop holes and prevents the penis from storing blood, a condition called Peyronie's disease.

I love you enough to tell the truth, but you must be brave enough to accept it (Megan Jorgensen). Photo : Elena

Treatments

Prophylactic care: Theoretically, preventive measure are the most effective. Don't smoke. Watch what you eat. If you need psychological treatment, seek it. Avoid trauma – recognize that your penis is not made of concrete. It can be fractured, so use lubrication during intercourse and if you are in an unusual position with your partner that causes pain, stop.

Hormonal treatment: This treament is reserved exclusively for those who have hormonal problems. It should not be used indiscriminately to boost your libido, because it can cause your prostate to grow, which can lead to prostate cancer. Moreover, if the problem is with your plumbing, hormonal treatment will simply be ineffective and add frustration to an already serious problem.

Oral medications: There are no FDA-approved oral treatments for erectile dysfunction. But several drugs are recognized in the medical community as being effective: Yohimbine, which is used to raise blood pressure; Trazodone, an antidepressant; and pentoxifylline, which makes the red blood cells more slippery, to improve circulation in clugged arteries. Some experimenting is also being done with sub-lignual drugs that are dissolved under the tongue.

Topical medications: Because it is difficult to predict the appropriate amount of drug to apply to the erective tissue, the topical approach is less effective than oral medication. But drugs like minoxidil (used for hair growth) and nitroglycerin can relax the blood vessels in the penis to induce an erection. Inrea-urethral (applied via the urethra) drugs are being developed as well.

Vacuum constrictive devices: A vacuum tube can be used to reduce the pressure around the penis and thus draw blood into it. Once an erection is attained, a rubber band is snapped around the base of the penis to retain the blood. It's a very effective method, but it does prevent ejaculation and can also be quite uncomfortable.

Penile prostheses: About 25,000 penile prostheses are inserted every year. There are two approaches. The first is a malleable rigid device that is inserted in the penis. The downside, the penis remains eternally erect. A more complex inflatable device also can be inserted that includes an internal manual pumping device, which will alow more flexibility.

Vascular surgery: This is a bypass operation for people who are suffering from impotenc brought on by blunt trauma to the artery leading to the penis. It is not effective in cases of impotence brought on by hardening of the arteries.

Injections: FDA approval is expected soon for drugs like prostaglandin-E that can be injected directly into the penis. They work like the nitric oxide that is released naturally during foreplay to dilate the blood vessels in the penis.

Causalties of Desire

Sexual dysfunction by gender

Experience pain during sex – women 14%, men 4%.

Sex not pleasurable – women 22%, men 8%.

Unable to achieve orgasm – women 24%, men 8%.

Lack interest in sex – women 33%, men 17%.

Anxiety about peformance – women 11%, men 17%.

Climax too early – women 10%, men 28%.

Men unable to maintain erection – 10%.

Women have trouble lubricating – 18%.

(Source: The Social Organization of Sexuality – Sexual Practices in the United States, University of Chicago Press, 1994).

The Fine Art of Flirting

The Fine Art of Flirting

It’s not how gorgeous you are, but how you play the game

She bats her eyelashes and smiles coyly. He throws back his head as he laughs loudly. Their eyes meet. A pattern as old as the story of Adame and Eve has commenced. It’s the flirting game.

Scientists who have studied courtship in animals are now turning their attention to humans. And they’re finding that we’re a lot like our feathered or four-legged friends. “A man may arch his back while he’s sitting at a bar stool,” says Dr. Helen Fisher, a Rutgers University anthropologist and author of the Anatomy of Love: The Mysteries of Mating, Marriage and Why We Stray (Fawcett, 1993). “A lobster does the same thing. A woman will swing her hips; a dog will almost swagger. A woman will look coy; an antelope will turn itself sideways. A man will show off; a peacock will too.”

“There’s a gerat deal of non-verbal behavior to flirting,” Fisher says. First, men and women both set up shop. “In a bar, a man will throw his coat over the chair to set up a space for himself. A woman will sit in a highly visible place,” she says.

Next, they spot each other across a smoky room. At this point in the game, a man will tend to gesture boldly, by using his whole arm to pick up his drink, for example. A man will also tend to laugh very loudly during this stage, and, “like all kinds of male animals, they arch their backs,” Fisher says.

Fine art of flirting. Photo: Elena

A woman, on the other hand, will fiddle with her hair, shade her face with her hands, look coy or meek, or squire around in her chair. Now it’s time for “the copulatory gaze,” as Fisher calls it. The flirter’s eyes meet. They may even smile at each other. It’s time for someone to make a move.

“A lot of flirting ends with talking,” says Fisher. Once someone opens his or her mouth, it gives away education, intelligence, and intentions. As a pick-up line, the anthropologist suggests saying something that requires some feedback. “It’s best to ask questions or give a compliment because they require a response.”

If the couple makes it past the talking stage, then it’s time to move on to the next level: touching. The woman is almost always the first to touch, Fisher says. A woman will graze the man’s shoulder, or touch his arm. “If he winces, she’ll never try again,” says Fisher. “If he touches back, she will.”

At this point, the two start mirroring each other’s body language. He picks up his beer, she picks up her beer, he takes a swig, she takes a swig, he burps…

But what exactly do men and women want? Fisher says, that because men once hunted on the plains, they are much more visual than women. A man looks for a healthy woman who can bear children, with clear skin, bright eyes, and a buoyant personality. “The flirtatious, not the attractive, get the attention,” she says.

Because of all those years of being couuped up in a cave with the kids, women want a man who is verbal. “Women want to be courted with words. Women want face-to-face contact,” says Fisher.

And despite progress for women in the workplace, she is also looking for a man who can support her and her children financially, Fisher says. “More regularly women pick the rich banker instead of the sensitive poet.”

About Breaks and Sprains

About Breaks and Sprains

The body has about 200 bones and over 600 muscles that can get hurt.

Bone and muscle injuries are seldom life-threatening, but they are usually painful, and, if not properly treated, can be potentially disabling. Here’s a breakdown of the things than can go wrong with all those bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons that hold our frames together.

Fracture: Breaks, chips, or cracks in a bone. They may be either open or closed and either compound or simple. An open fracture is one in which the bone has torn the skin and produced an open wound that can cause bleeding and lead to infection. A closed fracture involves no broken skin and is usually less serious.

Dislocation: A separation of a bone from its normal joint position, putting the joint out of commission. The displacement often leaves a bump, ridge, or hollow where the bone and joint should fit naturally.

Sprain: Occurs when there is a tear in the ligaments that hold bones together at a joint. The joints most often involved are the ankle, knee, wrist, and fingers. In serious sprains, there may also be a fracture or dislocation at the joint in question.

Strain: Results from stretching and tearing of muscles or tendons in areas such as the neck, back, or thigh. Tendons are fibers that connect a muscle to a bone, as opposed to ligaments, which connect two bones at a joint.

About Breaks and Sprains. Photo by Elena

Contrary to what some may thing, splinting isn’t only reserved for fractures. Sprains and strains may also require splinting on occasion. But this should only be done if the victim needs moving from the accident scene and it can’t be done by a trained rescue unit. Don’t attempt it unless you can do it without putting the victim in more pain than he already feels. Detailed instructions from the American Red Cross follow :

If a person is unable to move or use an injured leg…

Step 1. Support the injured area above and below the site of the injury.

Step 2 : Check for feeling, warmth, and color before and after splinting to make sure the splint is not too tight. Then… 

To apply anatomic splint to injured thigh or foreleg (first follow steps one and two):

Step 3. Place injured limb next to uninjured area. You can splint an arm to the chest or an injured leg to the other one.

Step 4. Place injured limb next to uninjured area. You can splint an arm to the chest or an injured leg to the other one.

Step 5. Tie tringular bandages securely.

Step 6. Recheck for feeling, warmth, and color. If cold or pale, loosen the splint a little bit. Apple ice and raise injured limb.

To apply soft splint to an injured ankle (first follow steps one and two):

Step 3. Place several folded bandages above and below the injured area.

Step 4. Gently wrap a soft object (folded blanket or a pillow) around the injured.

Step 5. Tie triangluar bandages securely.

Step 6. Recheck for feeling, warmth, and color. If you are not able to check warmth and color because a sock or shoe is in place, check for feeling.

If a person is unable to move or use an injured arm…

Step 1. Support the injured area above and below the site of the injury.

Step 2. Check for feeling, warmth, and color before splinting to make sure the splint is not too tight. Then…

To apply a sling to splint an injured arm (first follow steps one and two, see above, then):

Step 3. Place triangular bandage under injured arm and over uninjured shoulder to form a sling.

Step 4 : The ends of sling at side side of neck.

Step 5. Bind injured area to chest with folded triangular bandage. Recheck for feeling, warmth, and color.

Apply a rigid splint to an injured forearm or wrist (First follow steps one and two, described above, and then):

Step 3. Place the rigid splint (board, magazine, etc.) under the injured area and the joints that are above and below it.

Step 4. Tie several folded triangular bandaged above and below the injured area.

Step 5. Recheck for feeling, warmth, and color. If cold or pale, loosen a little.

Note: If a rigid splint is used on a forearm, elbow must also be immobilized. Bind the arm to the chest with folded triangular bandages or use a slin

Poetics and Poetry

Poetics and Poetry

Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE) was a very influential thinker and philosopher in Classic times, alongside other Ancient philosophers such as Plato and Socrates. Aristotle’s teachings continue to impact today’s philosophy and political science, such the governments’ classification table (tyranny, monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, democracy and polity). Interestingly, back then the word democracy had a pejorative connotation, and the fair rule of the people was better conveyed by the term polity. Along these lines, the following text is a brief excerpt from The Poetics: Aristotle on the Art of Poetry – the work has been placed in the public domain, as presented by Authorama.

The Poetics

Aristotle on the Art of Poetry

Our subject being Poetry, I propose to speak not only of the art in general but also of its species and their respective capacities; of the structure of plot required for a good poem; of the number and nature of the constituent parts of a poem; and likewise of any other matters in the same line of inquiry. Let us follow the natural order and begin with the primary facts.

A romantic castle (Casa Loma, Toronto). Photo by Elena

Epic poetry and Tragedy, as also Comedy, Dithyrambic poetry, and most flute-playing and lyre-playing, are all, viewed as a whole, modes of imitation. But at the same time they differ from one another in three ways, either by a difference of kind in their means, or by differences in the objects, or in the manner of their imitations.

I. Just as form and colour are used as means by some, who (whether by art or constant practice) imitate and portray many things by their aid, and the voice is used by others; so also in the above-mentioned group of arts, the means with them as a whole are rhythm, language, and harmony—used, however, either singly or in certain combinations.

A combination of rhythm and harmony alone is the means in flute-playing and lyre-playing, and any other arts there may be of the same description, e.g. imitative piping. Rhythm alone, without harmony, is the means in the dancer’s imitations; for even he, by the rhythms of his attitudes, may represent men’s characters, as well as what they do and suffer.

Open white flowers. Photo by Elena

There is further an art which imitates by language alone, without harmony, in prose or in verse, and if in verse, either in some one or in a plurality of metres. This form of imitation is to this day without a name. We have no common name for a mime of Sophron or Xenarchus and a Socratic Conversation; and we should still be without one even if the imitation in the two instances were in trimeters or elegiacs or some other kind of verse – though it is the way with people to tack on ’poet’ to the name of a metre, and talk of elegiac-poets and epic-poets, thinking that they call them poets not by reason of the imitative nature of their work, but indiscriminately by reason of the metre they write in.

Even if a theory of medicine or physical philosophy be put forth in a metrical form, it is usual to describe the writer in this way; Homer and Empedocles, however, have really nothing in common apart from their metre; so that, if the one is to be called a poet, the other should be termed a physicist rather than a poet. We should be in the same position also, if the imitation in these instances were in all the metres, like the Centaur (a rhapsody in a medley of all metres) of Chaeremon; and Chaeremon one has to recognize as a poet. So much, then, as to these arts.

There are, lastly, certain other arts, which combine all the means enumerated, rhythm, melody, and verse, e.g. Dithyrambic and Nomic poetry, Tragedy and Comedy; with this difference, however, that the three kinds of means are in some of them all employed together, and in others brought in separately, one after the other. These elements of difference in the above arts I term the means of their imitation.

Rain. Photo by Elena

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

Many novelists have denounced the social injustices or described the intricacies of their times through published fiction. For example, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a 1813 novel, which has become part of classic literature and popular culture. The author also wrote Sense and Sensibility in 1811 under the pseudonym ‘A Lady’. Further, the smoldering British actress Keira Knightley portrayed Elizabeth Bennett, the narrative’s protagonist, in the 2005 movie adaptation, while a television series debuted in 1995, in addition to other prior and subsequent adaptations. The original, notorious work has overtime been placed into the public domain, as confirmed by Authorama. A short excerpt is presented below.

Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 1

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

An old bridge. Photo by Elena

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

“But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

“Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.

“ – You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”

This was invitation enough.

“Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”

“What is his name?”

“Bingley.”

“Is he married or single?”

“Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

“How so? How can it affect them?”

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”

“Is that his design in settling here?”

“Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”

“I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley may like you the best of the party.”

“My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown-up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.”

“In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of.”

“But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes into the neighbourhood.”

“It is more than I engage for, I assure you.”

“But consider your daughters. Only think what an establishment it would be for one of them. Sir William and Lady Lucas are determined to go, merely on that account, for in general, you know, they visit no newcomers. Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him if you do not.”

“You are over-scrupulous, surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very glad to see you; and I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the girls; though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy.”

“I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good-humoured as Lydia. But you are always giving her the preference.”

A Victorian era building. Photo by Elena

“They have none of them much to recommend them,” replied he; “they are all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters.”

“Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves.”

“You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.”

Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.