Back in July, McCain was asked about his voting record on medical insurance. With abortion such a hot button issue in the Presidential Election campaign, someone asked him a direct question - makes a refreshing change to find someone asking a politician for a straight answer on Viagra. It went along the lines, “Did you vote in the Senate against a proposal to require insurance companies to cover contraceptive products?” To give you a little background, most private medical insurance companies will not cover the cost of any contraceptive product but will pay for their male policy holders to get their Viagra. Now far be it for me to suggest this is a tad sexist - men set the terms of every policy and they favor the men who pay the premiums. No. Perhaps that is fair. When women are good enough to be appointed as the policy makers, they can pay out for the women to get their contraceptives. Swings and roundabouts. Anyway, let’s not get into that. When asked the question, McCain gave one of those straight answers he is so famous for, “I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer because I don’t recall the vote.” Did you see that one of the side effects of Viagra is amnesia? The FDA is going to require a warning on labels. Looks like McCain has been using Viagra just a little too long if he can’t remember how he votes on important political issues. And just so you don’t get confused, I’m against gender discrimination in any and every form.

Filed under: Uncategorized Date 2 September, 2008
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What are we teaching our kids these days? Plastic surgery has welcomed the insecurities of teenagers with open arms and plenty of anesthetic. And where are the parents in all this? Well, they’re the ones paying the medical bills - more than 250,000 operation for patients under 18 years in 2007. Well, I’ve got news for parents. There’s nothing even remotely glamorous about visiting with the real life version of Nip/Tuck. You get wheeled into surgery, the kind doctors knock you out and set to work with scalpels. They’re ready with the pain killers when you wake up. Why go through all this pain and suffering? Well, so many of the kids get bullied in school. Other children (and some of the teachers) have Cruelty as their middles names. So it usually starts with acne. Your local health provider comes up with the news you want to hear. You can’t rub it off (that’s called dermabrasion when a trained professional does it). So it’s on with the Accutane. If it’s not pimples, it’s the nose or the breasts or. . . well, the list of body parts just goes on. Now cosmetic surgeons are queuing up with just the treatment for you when the medication doesn’t cut it. And because everyone wants everything done yesterday - this is the age of instant gratification - you get it done. Except that you’ve still got to wait for the Accutane to work before they can work on your face or else the risk of scaring is great. That just leaves all those other body parts to work on while you’re waiting for those pesky spots to clear up.

Filed under: Uncategorized Date 2 September, 2008
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My English teacher told everyone in class (repeatedly) that we should never use “nice”. “Nice,” she used to say with scorn, “is a lazy word.” What she meant was that, with so many adjectives to choose from, we should not just routinely pick nice. Well, that was then. Now “nice” is on every Brit weight watcher’s lips. That’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence, of course. This is the UK’s gatekeeper for drugs. With so many to choose from, NICE picks the drugs that represent the best value for money - the drugs the state will fund through their National Health Service. It’s just issued final guidelines for the use of Acomplia. This is a great drug, but patients have to co-operate. They have to change their diets and exercise. If they do, their weight comes down. It’s one of those, “God helps those who help themselves” drugs. So NICE will only fund the drugs if the individual patient loses 5% of their body weight in the first six months (in clinical trials, the average weight loss was 10%). Treatment has to stop if a patient returns to his or her original weight while still taking Acomplia. And treatment is not to continue for more than two years unless the patient has shown real commitment to getting the weight down and keeping it down. Those nice people at NICE know what’s best for you. That’s nice, isn’t it?

Filed under: Uncategorized Date 2 September, 2008
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Back in the 1950s, Richard Boone starred as Paladin in one of the best TV Westerns ever made about a gun for hire. It was called, Have Gun - Will Travel. Today, our kids turn to other remedies to get rid of the thing they hate the most: acne - the bane of the teenager’s life. How can anyone bear to be seen in public with their faces all messed up with zits and pimples? So, they are all in the market to buy Accutane, the surest way to kill acne stone dead. Except it takes months rather than days to work and it doesn’t come in a cool black outfit like Paladin used to wear. But you can’t have everything. But who cares so long as it works. So how much would teenagers pay to be free of acne forever? According to a survey published in this month’s Archives of Dermatology (a real cool publication is ever there was one), the national average is $275. Obviously, the kids they asked in High School gave higher amounts if their acne was bad. Curiously, their parents averaged around $250 - just to get a little peace around the house. Well, the good news is that $275 buys you a truck load of Accutane - more than enough to see off that acne, so buy some online today!

Filed under: Uncategorized Date 2 September, 2008
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Any man who is experiencing problems of sexual performance is likely to feel angry, frustrated and afraid of rejection. In other words, he feels exactly the same way that you do. This underlines the basic truth that, when there are sexual problems in a relationship, both parties are affected. If you do not deal with these problems, they fester and may ultimately destroy your relationship.

How to begin

There is no right way to begin the discussion with your partner. If you have read the rest of the information on this website, you have actually taken a vital first step because you have begun to learn about the problem and its causes. You should have a better understanding of how your partner feels. You now understand not only that impotence is physically and emotionally complicated, but also that it is usually treatable, often using a drug like Cialis.

To talk or not to talk

You now need to bring your partner “up to speed”. How you do this will depend on the nature and strength of your relationship. Whatever you do should appear non-threatening. He already has considerable worry and anxiety about his inability to perform consistently (or at all). If you come over as confrontational, he will retreat even further into his shell. So you need to think about him as a person.

• How does he react in different situations?
• Is there a “best” way to raise this issue with alarming him?
• What coping strategies can you devise?
• What can you offer to do to help him overcome the problem?

Whatever the approach you devise, should help to relieve the stress he is feeling and to build a spirit of co-operation between the two of you.

There is one further reason for opening the discussion. Impotence may be a symptom of more serious medical problems. If he only focuses on what he perceives to be his current sexual inadequacy, he may completely fail to take early steps to address the more serious underlying cause.

So many treatments for cancer and other serious conditions are effective because they are an early intervention. So many men find that more drastic measures are required because they delayed seeking diagnosis until it was almost or actually too late.

Support

Talking about the risks of not seeing a doctor may separate the emotional overtones from the physical issues. Hopefully, you still love him even though he is having sexual problems and you do not want to lose him to a disease. Even if the worst should be confirmed, the quality of your relationship during the difficult days of treatment will be far better. Ignoring the problem will only lead to you feeling guilty because you failed to take action and resentment from him that his problems were undiagnosed. Supporting each other openly and honestly is always the best foundation for a relationship.

Talking positively

That means talking positively about the different options that may have to be explored. Rather than focusing on all the things that may be wrong, concentrate on taking early action to restore good health, which if everything else is all right, may just be the simple decision to buy Cialis. By giving him encouragement, you stand a better chance of being able to work together to solve the problems as they come along. If all you do is to hold up a mirror to his negative feelings, you will both lose out.

This is an emotional minefield for both of you so approach it with care and a commitment to be patient even if his first response if very defensive and dismissive. By whatever means it takes, you need to manoeuvre him towards your family doctor and access to diagnostic services and treatment. This may be the usual case that can be treated with Cialis. You will both be reassured and can begin to restore your mutual confidence in sexual activity. If there are more serious problems of blood circulation or nerve damage, work can begin to address the problems. If the cause is more psychological than physical, counselling may be a useful first step for both of you to take.

Filed under: Uncategorized Date 29 August, 2008
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