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Archive for July 4th, 2010

Why, you might ask, should we spend more time thinking about the link between diabetes and erectile dysfunction? Well, the answer comes in three stages. Whether you prefer to read and believe the World Health Organization’s alarming reports showing the spread of obesity, or you prefer to believe the evidence of your own eyes as you walk (sorry, drive) down Main Street every day, there are more overweight people than ever before. Every aspect of our lives is changing because of this increase in physical size, not the least being the dramatic rise in the incidence of type II diabetes. Medical science long ago identified the cause and effect. People who are overweight have a significantly higher risk of late-onset diabetes than thin people. Finally, even though men are reluctant to talk about their sexual difficulties, the research fairly consistently shows about three-quarters of all diabetic men suffer some degree of erectile dysfunction. Sadly, if the diabetes is not positively controlled, the damage to the nerve endings does reach the point when the dysfunction tips over into permanent impotence. Unlike muscles and soft tissue, nerves cannot and do not heal themselves.

As some encouragement, there’s continuing research at the Case Western Reserve University. The team is using proteomics. This looks at how proteins relate to the genetic information processed through and controlling our bodies. Recently, they have been studying the way in which proteins work in the penis. This is relevant in two ways. Firstly in the action of the smooth muscles in the arteries to dilate and contract, and secondly in the corpus cavernosum which expands when the extra blood flows into the penis. Their findings show the number of proteins and their activity levels changes depending on whether the male is diabetic and the length of time the diabetes has been active. The most important of these proteins delivers collagen where it’s required. This is important to build strength. Of similar importance are the proteins that transport the hormones and those that help maintain the cells in a healthy condition. Although this has been an animal study using rats, there are a high number of proteins associated with cell death in the penis of a diabetic rat.

If this research is confirmed by other teams and can be replicated in humans, this opens up new hope for diabetic men with erectile dysfunction. Once you know exactly which proteins to change, you can design a drug to modify them and produce the desired improvement in performance. Of course, it’s easy to say and many years away in terms of actual development. But with so many diabetic men suffering erectile dysfunction, this is welcome news. Until this new drug appears, men need to follow the best treatment for diabetes, eating a healthy diet and exercising. This will reduce the rate of damage to the nerve endings and help maintain sexual activity. As self-medication for erectile dysfunction, buy cialis to encourage the arterial muscles to dilate. Taken as needed, it gives up to thirty-six hours of responsiveness. Better still, generic cialis is equally effective and a fraction the price of the branded version. But remember this is not a substitute for controlling the diabetes. You can only continue sexual activity if the diabetes is stabilized.

In the midst of all the debate about environmental issues, we are too often distracted by the hot button climate change. Yet controlling carbon emissions is only one of many different concerns about how we live our lives and the impact our lifestyles have on our environment. If we are to hand over a habitable planet to our children, we have to start thinking about every aspect of the systems currently in use and how we might make them safer. One of the less obvious questions is how we dispose of our unwanted drugs. There are a number of quite different issues. One day, you open the bathroom cabinet and find unexpected rows of half-empty bottles and packs of pills, all of which have passed their use-by dates. For a moment, you pause and wonder whether you should do something. Then your eye catches the toothbrush and life goes on for another month or so.

Why worry?

Well, the statistics are interesting. In some parts of the country, more people accidentally poison themselves, become hooked on addictive drugs or die of drug overdoses than die in traffic accidents. That should give you pause for thought. The number of deaths from traffic accidents is already an epidemic but, when you collect the statistics from emergency departments around the country, one of the largest groups of people admitted for treatment is suffering drug-related problems. Children are common admissions. Instead of having lockable cabinets, parents store drugs in places easily accessible by children and family members, friends and neighbors with addiction problems. Children are often tempted by brightly colored pills, thinking them candy. Adults can raid your stash of unwanted drugs to feed their addiction. But how should you dispose of these pills?

The temptation is to flush them away. Except this dumps a cocktail of drugs into the sewers that drain into our rivers and seas. Downstream, the water is drawn out by another city or town but the water purification plants cannot remove all these chemicals. The result is that the downstream population consumes a dilute mixture of your drugs. Fish and animals you might eat also drink the water, treated and untreated, so there’s a big circle of life with drugs recycling through the food chain.

That’s why it’s important for every town and city to have a safe disposal system. The best are run by local police departments which offer lock-boxes at strategic locations around every neighborhood. These allow anonymous deposits and deter all but the most determined of addicts. The drugs can then be disposed of safely, usually by incineration at high temperatures. So if you want to reduce temptation and prevent accidents, you should dispose of all your drugs as soon as you have finished the course of treatment. Although painkillers like tramadol apap are not abused, there should be a general shift in culture to ensure all medications do not end up as part of the cocktail of chemicals in our drinking water or the food we eat. If you do buy tramadol to keep a painkiller in reserve, you should store it in a lockable cabinet to reduce the chances of accidental poisoning or overdose. With children about, you used to worry about keeping liquor in the house. Prescription drugs are far more dangerous.