Information on popular complementary and alternative medical topics

The following is a suggested healthy eating plan for men. It will give you some ideas for choosing appropriate foods throughout the day to maintain your energy levels and provide you with all the essential requirements. I have included mostly simple meals that are quick and easy to prepare or purchase.
Men generally crave more proteins and carbohydrates than women and often reject women’s tendencies to introduce more vegetarian foods and salads into their diet. Men often feel the need to supplement this kind of diet with ‘fillers’ – the breads, pastas and potatoes they’ve been used to eating in the past. Men still crave these foods and seem to feel satisfied only if they have these carbohydrates in their diet.
Including some carbohydrates is fine but you need to choose quality carbohydrate, such as wholemeal or grainy breads, or couscous and brown rice. Potatoes left in their jackets are a favourite with many men but should be accompanied by other vegetables and a quality protein. Rice noodle dishes with plenty of vegetables are also a good option.
Thick soups in winter filled with grains such as barley, buckwheat or rice with split peas and lots of vegetables are great Tillers’. Whatever you choose, avoid resorting to pizza and other fast foods, which contain little nourishment and lots of unwanted fat, hidden preservatives and additives to make you irritable!
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Any long-term (chronic) disease can exhaust the individual as can long-term drug therapy, hospital visits, treatment and so on. All of these can adversely affect the most sex-centred person, as well as those who were content with very infrequent sex before their trouble began. Many diseases actually cause a loss of libido (sex drive), as do many drugs; so if you think your sex life should be better, and you are suffering from a long-standing illness, discuss it with your doctor in case the two could be linked.

Strokes-Far too little is known about the sexual problems of stroke patients, of whom there are many thousands in the UK alone. The trouble is that a stroke is a very complex business and results not only in physical weakness and loss of sensation but in mental and psychological changes too. This raises all kinds of anxieties about sexual performance and the physical problems often make physical sexual expression difficult even if the heart is willing. All of this can alter the way a couple relate to each other after a stroke, but physical closeness, other manifestations of love and sexual activities which are not genital-to-genital can work well. Loss of bladder and anal control is very upsetting, but many couples who really want to can find ways around these practical problems. Sex therapy can greatly help stroke sufferers and it can be useful to experiment with sex until the couple finds a way of living with the disability.

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No perversion, apart from rape, arouses such public outcry as does paedophilia, the condition in which an adult or older adolescent takes an erotic interest in a child under the age of fourteen. Even hardened criminals cannot tolerate this crime and paedophiles often have to be isolated in prison for their own safety.

In heterosexual paedophilia the victims are usually seven to ten-year-old girls who are sometimes harshly treated or even killed. Usually a paedophile wants the girl to show her vulva, to look at pornography, or to handle his penis. He may fondle or smack her, or attempt to have intercourse with her. How parents can rear girls so as to avoid such individuals without encouraging them to fear all men or become discourteous to men who are being socially pleasant towards them is a real problem and there are no easy answers. On balance it makes sense to teach children never to go anywhere with strangers without first asking permission from their parents and children should never take sweets or anything else from people they do not know unless their parents are there. It is upsetting to think that we have to bring up our children fearing anyone they do not know but one has to be realistic and child molesters can be dangerous.

Oestrogen, anti-testosterone drugs and castration have been used in attempts to control paedophiles and rapists but the best course must be prevention. Usually men and women show a tendency to consort with individuals corresponding to their own stage in psychosexual development. Heterosexual paedophiles are immature, scared of women of their own age and often revengeful against them. They masturbate a lot to vivid fantasies of little girls, concentrating perhaps on their buttocks or even on things such as the ankle socks they wear. Whatever the precise cause, clearly the psychosexual development of the heterosexual paedophile has not prospered and he needs professional help.

The more common form of paedophilia is that in which men are attracted to young boys. To say they are homosexual may overstate the case since many, although not too attracted to it, do have heterosexual intercourse. Many are married. Their love of small boys is probably

self-centred since what they really love is the image of themselves when young. They often shave off their pubic hair and watch themselves masturbate in front of a mirror. They are fascinated by boys, especially nude.

A number of people who are mentally disordered also commit sexual offences against children.

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The total number of cases of AIDS in the UK; how the infection was originally caught; and the number of deaths so far (end of May 1988)

These numbers are not very horrific compared with say, injuries and deaths from road accidents but it must be remembered that the people these figures represent were originally infected with HIV some years ago. The statistics are history. People infected now will not appear in these statistics until well into the next decade. There is also evidence that the figures may well underestimate the number of AIDS deaths not all of which are identified as due to AIDS or notified even if so identified. Even if the HIV mutated itself out of existence now the number of AIDS cases will rise for some years to come.

The World Health Organisation estimates that there are now 150,000 cases of AIDS in the world although only 94,000 have been notified to it. Of these 69,000 are in North and South America; 12,000 in Europe; and 11,000 in Africa. It expects 15 0,000 new cases in 1988.

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The short answer is that no one knows. As we have seen, the vast majority of boys go through a developmental stage around puberty during which some degree of homosexual behaviour is normal. Some experts believe that most adult homosexuals have remained frozen at this stage of their development.

Recent evidence has found that a specialised area of the brain (the hypothalamus) that controls all the hormones of the body is ‘cycled’ in its activity in all young foetuses. In male foetuses it normally becomes uncycled but in some male homosexuals it may remain cycled. Perhaps this points to something happening early in pregnancy that prevents the developing male foetus from becoming a typical male.

Some young people and, indeed, adults of any age, have problems with narcissism – that is, they are attracted only to someone like themselves. They are consequently predisposed to choose a sex partner from their own sex.

Many people deprived of sex with the opposite sex for long enough (for example in prison) will turn to some kind of homosexual activity, even if it stops short of intercourse. Some women turn to homosexuality after bad experiences with men and many more at least consider doing so. These homosexuals often return to the heterosexual life once the balance of their lives returns to normal again.

Sometimes homosexuality arises in a man because he is so tense with women that he cannot relax and so never has satisfactory sexual relationships with them. Such men turn to other men and find that they have better quality, more enjoyable orgasms with them. The ‘cure’ here must surely be to ensure that boys are not brought up to fear women, as too many are. Thankfully this is less true today than it was in the past. A similar situation also lies behind some

lesbianism – some women can relax more with another woman and climax more easily.

Lastly, experimentation in sexual matters has become a feature of the current scene and experimenting with homosexuality is sometimes simply a part of this. Some youths, frightened of getting girls pregnant or simply wanting to sample both sides of the fence before deciding, try a homosexual relationship. Unfortunately, there are real dangers in this because, at this young age, a boy can become locked into the homosexual sub-culture all too easily and so does not get a chance to develop his heterosexuality. An extension of this type of homosexuality is that in which a rebellious teenager uses homosexuality to punish his or her parents and rebel against society.

If all of these ’causes’ seem to point to a clear, black and white picture of homosexuality, this would be wrong. Certainly, about one in twenty-five adult men choose to be exclusively homosexual, but there are many others who have fleeting homosexual experiences.

Broadly speaking, homosexuality can be latent (beneath the surface) or openly expressed. Many people are latently homosexual and with very little provocation demonstrate their homosexual side on occasions. (Incidentally, the fact that many people, men and women, find anal stimulation erotic does not make them homosexual.) Overt or expressed homosexuality is less common and is unfortunately plagued with unhelpful stereotypes in many people’s minds.

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Once children get to school they discuss sex just as they would anything else. Both during this and the later phases leading up to puberty we feel that a child’s parents are the best people to give information because they know the child and what he can cope with day by day and year by year. Parents also have the advantage over formal systems in that they can take opportunities as they arise and use them to talk about sex in an informal, unplanned way. Satisfying a child’s curiosity is ideally done in a spontaneous way and the old notion of saying nothing until you sit your child down to talk about ‘the birds and the bees’ is not only unfashionable but far less pleasant for both child and parent.

There is so much in daily life that raises questions about sex that can be dealt with a low-key, matter-of-fact way that the average child can end up very well sex-educated without ever realising it. TV, shopping, the people a child meets and his or her mother’s experiences with carrying, bearing and rearing a baby can all lead to questions which are best answered simply at the time.

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Many couples entering into new sexual relationships decide to be tested jointly for HIV. This is a good idea. If both partners are tested for HIV more than six months from their last sexual contact with other partners or exposure to any other risk factor, test negative, and are mum ally monogamous, then they can assume that they are negative for HIV However, if there is continued risk of infection—such as contact with other partners or injection drug use—then a couple cannot assume they are safe and should continue to use a barrier method to protect themselves against infection.

If you intend to be tested for HIV you should consider the issue of confidentiality. Insurance companies, if they know that you have sought testing for the infection, may label you as “high risk” and deny you insurance coverage or certain benefits in the future—even if you test negative. This consequence has prevented many people from being tested. Others who didn’t know about this practice, and who sought testing from a health care provider on their insurance plans, now have the test as part of their permanent records and may be denied insurance coverage in the future. Check in your area for a clinic that performs anonymous testing. To preserve your anonymity, such a testing center requires only your first name, or else you are assigned a number without having to give your name at all. Most public health clinics provide this service. There is also a home HIV test that is anonymous. People who do test positive must refer their partners for testing; health care providers can help with this.

The following five tests are available to test for HIV infection or to monitor the progress of an infected individual.

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Infected children who are not toilet trained and are around other children—for example, in a daycare center—can spread the infection to other children and adults. Family and household contacts of those who are infected frequently become infected themselves. In addition, institutional staffs, such as nursing home employees, may also be at higher risk.

Sexual transmission can also occur via the fecal-oral route. A person can become infected with hepatitis A through oral-anal contact (called analingus or rimming) or by stimulating a partner’s anus with the fingers and then not washing the hands before placing them in the mouth or preparing food. Occasionally outbreaks of hepatitis A occur among men who have sex with other men in urban settings. Other types of sexual contact are not thought to be a method of transmission. Studies of men who have sex with other men have shown that the more sexual partners a man has, the more likely he is to become infected with hepatitis A. This is true for any oral-anal contact with multiple partners.

At various times during infection, the saliva and blood of an infected person may also contain the virus, but it is very rare that transmission takes place through contact with saliva or blood. Although occasional outbreaks among persons who use intravenous drugs may be due to blood transmission, the more common method of transmission, via the fecal-oral route, may actually be the cause in these cases as well. Blood banks screen for all types of hepatitis, so transmission through blood transfusion is rare.

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Bloodborne infections, such as HIV and hepatitis, can also cause infection of the fetus in the womb. With HIV there are no developmental problems associated with the infection itself, but there is about a 25 percent risk of a child acquiring HIV if born to a mother who is HIV positive. Mothers who are HIV positive can reduce the transmission rate of the infection to their children by taking medications used to treat HIV infection during the pregnancy. (See the section on HIV infection and AIDS in Part II for more information.) Combination therapy (with more than one HIV medication) is also being offered in many settings. Children who are born to mothers with hepatitis B may be protected from acquiring the infection by being immunized at birth against the infection. If a child acquires hepatitis B at birth, there is a high risk that the child will become a lifelong carrier of the infection.

Children who are infected with herpes in the womb, at delivery, or after birth may experience problems that range in severity from a mild skin infection to mental retardation and death. Again, knowing your and your partner’s status for herpes prior to and during the pregnancy, and taking appropriate precautions, can nearly eliminate these risks. Most problems occur when a woman does not know she has herpes during the pregnancy and therefore takes no precautions, or when she becomes infected while she is pregnant, which poses a greater risk for transmission. This is why partners must also be tested. There is also a risk of infection after the delivery from well-meaning but uneducated friends and relatives, who may pass the virus to the baby by kissing the baby, especially if they have an active cold sore.

The human papillomavirus, which causes genital warts, may cause vocal cord infection in a newborn during passage through the infected birth canal. Considering how common genital infection with this virus is, this is a rare occurrence.

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1. If there is discharge, a small amount will be put on a swab, and tests can then be performed to test for various specific causes of urethral infection, such as gonorrhea and chlamydia. If there is no discharge, then a small swab will be inserted about 2 centimeters into the urethra and quickly removed; the swab is wiped on a slide, which is examined under a microscope for pus cells. The swab can cause pain, but the procedure is done quickly and the pain is usually brief. Another way of examining the urethra is to collect urine from the very first part of the stream and look for pus cells in this sample. New techniques also allow testing for gonorrhea and chlamydia from this first urine sample. (Whether or not a swab or urine sample is taken, it is very important that a man not urinate for four or more hours [and preferably overnight] before this part of the examination, since urination may wash out evidence of infection.) After this, a midstream urine sample may be tested to look for evidence of a bladder infection, a rare occurrence in men.

2. The anal area and buttocks will be examined for any rashes, bumps, or sores. Swabs may be taken from this area (to test for gonorrhea and chlamydia) if a man has been the recipient of anal sex or has STD symptoms in the anal area. If the man has diarrhea, a stool sample may be obtained to test for evidence of intestinal infections. Whatever a man’s sexual orientation, an anal examination is an important part of the screening. For example, genital warts and herpes lesions can occur in this area even if a man has never received anal sex. A procedure called an anoscopy may be performed if there are symptoms in the anal area or if the man has diarrhea. In an anoscopy, a small plastic speculum is inserted into the anal area to look for changes in the lining of the rectum or for skin lesions such as warts. If there are no symptoms in this area, this is not a routine part of the examination. 8. A prostate examination may be performed. (This is not routinely done during an STD screen unless symptoms indicate a need for it.) The health care provider will ask the man to bend over the table and then will insert a gloved, lubricated finger into the anal area. Not only can abnormalities of the wall of the rectum be felt, but the prostate gland can also be felt to determine whether it is swollen, tender, or irregular in shape. This part of the examination may cause brief discomfort. The man may be asked to provide a sample of urine after this part of the examination to test for evidence of prostate infection. This is best done after the earlier urine samples have been collected to evaluate for urethral infection and for bladder infection.

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