Top 10 Men's Health Myths.... Debunked

Is Viagra the answer to erectile dysfunction? Do Well Man clinics make a difference? Men's health advice can be downright useless, says Dr Keith Hopcroft. He debunks the top ten men's health myths.

1. Well Man clinics are a good idea

WHAT ARE THEY? These are clinics, run by GPs and private companies, that offer health once-overs for men, checking their hearts, weight and all the bits that women don’t have.

WHO SAYS THEY’RE A GOOD IDEA? Men’s health enthusiasts with too much time on their hands and private screening companies trying to drum up business.

HOW WRONG IS IT? Totally, and will remain so until the average unhealthy male has a lobotomy.

GIVE ME THE FACTS The main problem is that Well Man Clinics attract only well men. Read more

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Posted in: health myths,men's health myths

Eating a Bit Less Salt Saves Lives

Americans' salt consumption has risen 50% over the past 40 years, mostly as a result of eating more processed foods and more food prepared in restaurants. Most people consume about 9 to 12 g (or 3,600 to 4,800 mg of sodium) per person per day - twice the recommended amount. Eating a bit less salt can have major health benefits.

Some salt is crucial for good health, of course — to regulate blood pressure and assist with muscle and nerve function — but too much (that is, at the levels we currently consume) can lead to hypertension, heart disease and stroke. If Americans halved their salt intake, as many as 150,000 premature deaths could be prevented each year, according to the American Medical Association. And new research presented March 11 by Bibbins-Domingo at the AHA's annual conference shows that even small reductions — as little as 1 g of salt per day — could have dramatic effects, saving 200,000 lives over the course of a decade. Read more

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Posted in: heart disease,high blood pressure,salt intake,stroke

Men Who Take Vitamin C Less Likely to Develop Gout

Men who take vitamin C supplements are less likely to develop gout, according to new research.

... Researchers at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada, found that men with higher intakes of vitamin C were less likely to develop the condition than men with lower levels. Read more

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Posted in: dietary supplements,gout,vitamin C

The Real Hood Workout

If the prison workout and its variations has become too easy, try the "Real Hood Workout." This is one of the best workout videos I've ever seen. All you need is a pull-up bar and some dip bars for the workout of your life.

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Posted in: bodyweight exercise,calisthenics,prison workout,real hood workout,videos

Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Really a "Sweet Surprise" for America?

Model and yoga activist Tara Stiles examines whether high fructose corn syrup is really a "sweet surprise" for America.

If you google "High Fructose Corn Syrup," the first thing that pops up is www.sweetsurprise.com. It's a sponsored link, right at the top. Go to the pretty website and you'll see healthy stalks of corn poking into a clear blue sky. A racially diverse group of kids and adults are pictured smiling around tables of pancakes, cereals, berries, and cornbread.

"HFCS is the chemical and nutritional equivalent of table sugar (sucrose). The two substances have the same calories, the same chemical composition and are metabolized identically." - Arthur Frank, M.D., Medical Director, George Washington University Weight Management Program. The Washington Times, December, 6, 2006

"In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally listed HFCS as safe for use in food and reaffirmed that decision in 1996. The FDA noted that "the saccharide composition (glucose to fructose ratio) of HFCS is approximately the same as that of honey, invert sugar and the disaccharide sucrose (table sugar)." - Food and Drug Administration Federal Register, August 23, 1996

Sounds convincing. I had to retreat to Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" for a reality check. Read more

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Posted in: diabetes,high fructose corn syrup,obesity,Sweet Surprise

ANOTHER Reason Sodas Are Bad for You

Women who drink two or more cans of soda per day are nearly twice as likely to have albuminuria, a sensitive marker for early kidney damage, according to a new study.

Women who drink two or more cans of soda pop per day are nearly twice as likely to show early signs of kidney disease, a recent study has found.

However, researchers did not find an elevated risk for men, or for people who drink diet soda, said lead researcher David Shoham of Loyola University Health System.

[...]

Women who reported drinking two or more sodas in the previous 24 hours were 1.86 times more likely to have albuminuria, a sensitive marker for early kidney damage. Albuminuria is an excess amount of a protein called albumin in the urine. Since healthy kidneys filter out large molecules such as albumin, an excess amount can be a sign of damage to the kidneys. Read more

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Posted in: albuminuria,kidney disease,sodas

Milk Could Help Prevent Alzheimer's Disease

For those lactose-intolerant people reading this, I have some bad news: milk could help prevent Alzheimer's Disease.

Drinking two glasses of milk every day could help protect against memory loss and Alzheimer's disease in old age, according to research.

Scientists working at the University of Oxford have discovered that milk is one of the best sources of a key vitamin thought to reduce the neurological damage to the brain that can lead to forms of dementia. Read more

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Posted in: Alzheimer's disease,anti-aging,dementia,lactose-intolerance,milk,vitamin B12