Many people think a drop in libido is just a part of aging. Some doctors say it doesn’t have to be.

If you’re older than 40 and your once-lively libido has taken a turn for the lazy, don’t blame it on getting older.

Age can have an influence on your lack of sex drive, but a myriad of other factors — both physical and psychological — also play a role in whether you’re in the mood for a romp or you prefer to pull a sack over your head and sleep for days.

Illness and conditions such as arthritis, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease can affect your sex drive. Prescription medications can also extinguish the fires of passion. Alcohol may put you in the mood, but too much alcohol will have the opposite effect.

While some things may be out of your control, the secret to a healthy libido lies in what you do about those you can control.

If You Think You’re Old, You Are

For starters, if you think you’re old, you’re going to feel old. And if your idea of old is being feeble and wrinkly, you’re not going to want to have sex. Chances are no one is going to want to have sex with you, either.

“A good diet and exercise program will help increase self-image, make people feel sexier and increase their libido,” says Dr. Eric Honing, a Glendale, Ariz.-based physician specializing in anti-aging medicine.

One particular area of interest that has been getting the attention of physicians who specialize in age-related conditions is the relationship between hormones and libido — specifically bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, also known as BHRT.

Hormones: They’re Not Just For Teenagers

Bioidentical hormone therapy consists of custom-mixed formulas containing various hormones that are said to be identical to those your body produces naturally. As people age, the hormones that regulate the sex drive decrease. Proponents of BHRT say that the therapy helps to restore a person’s libido by replacing hormones that have diminished with age.

“In men, testosterone levels begin to decline after age 28,” Honing says. “These levels decline quicker with poor lifestyle decisions — bad diet, lack of exercise, alcohol and too much stress. By increasing and restoring testosterone to youthful levels, a man’s libido will improve.”

“As anti-aging physicians, our goal is to replace hormones to the levels they were at when patients were around 25 years old. When you replace and balance hormones to these levels, the libido improves,” says Dr. Jennifer Landa, an AMA board certified doctor of obstetrics and gynecology and member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging.

“Testosterone increases libido in women as well,” Honing says. “We use a lot of testosterone cream vaginally because of the abundant testosterone receptors found in that area of the body. Not only does this help elevate testosterone levels, it also helps build and maintain muscles that will help strengthen the whole orgasmic experience.”

Linda Davis, 53, says that before therapy she was anxious, irritable and had “a very short fuse. My concentration decreased and I was very stressed at work. I was having difficulty achieving orgasm as well,” she says.

“In women, you have to balance and restore more hormones, particularly estrogen and progesterone. Along with cortisol, once these hormones are restored, a woman’s libido will return,” Honing says.

“I found that when I balanced a patient’s ovarian hormones and treated their adrenal problems, many of their libido problems resolved and with fewer side effects than with any other therapy I tried,” Landa says.

“Women and men who were afraid and upset that they had lost all sex drive have been thrilled that their libido has been restored and their relationships rescued,” says Honing.

Benefits Beyond Sex

Doctors say that restoring testosterone levels will also increase energy levels.

“I was suffering from increased mental fog and lethargy. I no longer had the energy to exercise. I was tired with a capital T,” says 52-year-old Ron Sinclair.

“After therapy with Dr. Honing, my energy has greatly improved and the mental fog has cleared. I now have the energy to exercise for an hour at a time most days,” he says.

Laurie Jordan also went to see Dr. Landa while seeking relief from the symptoms of perimenopause — low libido, tiredness, irritability and mild hot flashes.

After just a few months of BHRT treatment, she noticed considerable changes, including increased libido.

“Even my hot flashes disappeared,” she says. “I just turned 50 and I feel better now than I did in my 40s. This has been life-altering for me.”

“Libido problems can be caused by adrenal hormone problems, thyroid problems and problems with levels of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. The hormones all work together and the level of one hormone can affect any and all of the others. It is a very complicated balance that we are working to achieve,” Landa says.

Know The Risks

BHRT therapy does carry some risk, however. Critics say some products are well-tested brands, but that is not the case for recipes made by a compounding pharmacist.

Dr. Alicia Stanton, the chief medical officer for BodyLogicMD, a network of physicians specializing in natural bioidentical hormone therapy, offers some words of caution as well.

“Bioidentical hormones are not a miracle cure. They simply help replace the hormones the body is not making in adequate amounts at any given time. The combination of balanced hormones, balanced nutrition, exercise and stress management are critical in maintaining optimal health,” she says.

Advocates, however, insist that if properly balanced and given under the care of a trained doctor, the therapy can be an ally in the war against aging and the problems now considered the inevitable results of getting older, including low libido. The say the regime is better than traditional methods.

“Women and men who were afraid and upset that they had lost their sex drive, are thrilled that their libido has been restored and their relationship has been rescued,” says Honing.

WASHINGTON  - About one-half of one percent of young adults living in homes in the United States are infected with the AIDS virus, around 600,000 people, the National Center for Health Statistics reported on Tuesday.

The agency’s snapshot of HIV infection in the United States shows the rate continues to be stable and confirms other surveys that show black men are far more likely than other Americans to be infected.

The report covers adults aged 18 to 49 and only people living in households — not prisoners, the homeless or patients in institutions, said Gerry McQuillan, who led the study.

The data comes from people taking part in the federal government’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, who volunteer to have their blood tested for everything from cholesterol to AIDS and herpes, as well as undergo full physical exams.

“What we have done is taken data from our surveys in 1999 to 2006 because HIV has a very low prevalence. You have to combine all the years,” Gerry McQuillan, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

“In 1999 to 2006, the prevalence of HIV infection among adults aged 18-49 years in the civilian noninstitutionalized household population of the United States was 0.47 percent,” the report reads.

That works out to anywhere between 447,000 people and 841,000 people, with 618,000 the middle number, McQuillan said.

Men were more likely to be infected (0.7 percent) than women (0.2 percent). People infected with the herpes simplex type 2 virus, known as genital herpes, were 15 times more likely to also be infected with HIV, according to the report, available at www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db04.pdf.

Black men aged 40 to 49 had the highest rate of infection, at close to 4 percent, the survey found.

The National Center for Health Statistics, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, included 11,928 adults in the survey. These numbers can be extrapolated to the full population.

“We do see the disparities by race/ethnicity,” McQuillan said. “We can say the prevalence is basically stable in this U.S., household-based population.”

The report does not include data on how many people are newly infected with HIV.

These numbers have not been released but AIDS advocacy groups say the new figures will put the number of Americans infected with the AIDS virus each year close to 50 percent higher than previous estimates, at 55,000 instead of 40,000.

The CDC has estimated in the past that more than 1 million Americans in total are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

Globally, 33 million people are infected and 25 million have died from the fatal and incurable virus.

Fighting with wrinkles seems to be the most difficult task for women today. Be it Asia or America, wrinkles are common everywhere. Of course, there is no shortage of skin care products which are meant for treating wrinkles. But do those products really work?

When you enter a cosmetic shop, you find it difficult to choose an anti-wrinkle cream from among hundreds of wrinkle creams kept on the shelves. Skin-care experts are in demand today, thanks to the growing problems of wrinkles in every nook and corner of the world.

Every anti-wrinkle cream looks good when it is on the shelf of a cosmetic store. But once you purchase it and apply it on your skin for a few days, you become frustrated finding out that there are no changes in your skin. Looking sexy is the right of every woman- young or old.

Is there a solution to the problem of wrinkles? There are countless “Anti Aging Cream Reviews” available on the World Wide Web which can prove to be of some help when it comes to choosing the right skin care product. Of course, there are some reviews which are a total waste. However, there are hundreds of good ones too.

What are wrinkle cream reviews? Women all over the world use skin care products. Those who use anti-wrinkle products have a fairly good knowledge about the effectiveness of wrinkle creams. Such women and many other skin care experts write articles and post them on the Internet.

Those articles which review a particular anti-wrinkle product form a part of “Anti Aging Cream Reviews”. What causes wrinkles? Our skin needs two types of proteins for remaining young and flawless. “Elastin” and “Collagen” are the names of the proteins which are synthesized in our body.

However, as we grow old, our body fails to produce these two proteins. As a result of this, wrinkles start appearing on our faces. So a good anti aging skin care product must have those ingredients which can supply “Elastin” and “Collagen” to our skin. Moreover, a good anti-wrinkle cream is one which does not harm our skin.

Anti Aging Cream Reviews serve as one of the best sources for knowing the truth about wrinkle creams. Do not get impressed easily just by watching movie stars endorse popular wrinkle creams. Your skin is different from others. That is why a wrinkle cream which suits others might not suit you at all.

A number of parents are worried about the sort of effects intense exercises, such as those required for muscle building, can bring about to a teen’s body. Discover how muscle building can affect or not a teenagers growth.

Teens can gain from muscle building in a series of ways. Muscle Building is of course a considerable way of keeping in shape and maintaining perfect health. Although muscle building can concede you far superior rewards than a simple nice body. Read on to learn more.

 A teen’s body, as we all realize, experience a number of natural changes. Therefore, parents are worried that the extra strain of intense exercises might turn out harmful to the teen’s growth. Until there is no actual proof to suppose that exercising can harm bodily development most gym instructors are of the opinion that teenage bodybuilders often suffer from a singular problem that has much to do with their being a teen. This matter concerns the normal impulsiveness associated to being a teen. Teens like breaking rules and disobeying instructions, while this might be a fun thing to do generally in the gym while exercising with weights nothing could be more prejudicial than being a rebel. Muscle Building is all about discipline, and teens do not, as a rule, enjoy discipline. This is the single problem that plagues all teenage bodybuilders.

Numerous people presume that working with heavyweights can stop bones from growing. They support their claim by pointing out that lifting heavy weights can accelerate the closure of growth plates, thereby stopping their growth far before they are supposed to. While this argument sounds watertight it is yet to be verified as true. Also, groups opposed to this idea have pointed out that most professional athletes (several of whom had begun training with heavyweights at a juvenile age) have not strictly adhered to this law and remained stunted. Therefore, as of now, there seems to be no evident proof to propose whether or not weights affect a particular individual’s growth.

Although working out with especially heavy weights does indeed have an affect on the bones of teens even then none of them are truly at risk. This is because such an effect can truly be harmful merely before a teen reaches a certain level of maturity, and majority of teens attain the full range of their growth by over and about the age of 15. Now, surely no 13 or 14 year old will be pumping iron to build his body and thereby getting his bones all arrested!

Aside from the growth subject there is the issue, which we previously discussed and which concerns the basic problem of being a ‘teen’. Most teens feel out of place being neither adults nor children, as a result they try to accelerate their life and ‘grow up’ quicker than they are likely to naturally. This ‘quickening’ causes many of them to try and imitate everything from the walk to the talk and even the workout regimes of their seniors. Obviously this can turn out a disaster since teens are not technically supposed to do things that an adult does. A full grown bodybuilder has far more stamina and knowledge than a common teen, as a result imitating him can prove taxing and even dangerous for a young teen.

To ensure that they don’t end up hurting themselves real bad by trying and imitating better trained adults all teenage bodybuilders should preferably hire a trainer for themselves.

Many of the Big Skin Care companies are selling you skin care products that are not what you think they are. Read the Labels.

It has now been reported that many of the major skin care and cosmetic make-up companies consider anything that has carbon in it to be organic.. Let’s analyze this, over several million years, leaves fall to the ground and become a product which is called oil. Companies drill in the earth for this fossil fuel and because this fossil fuel has carbon in it, these skin care companies are using these toxic chemical in their products and calling them ORGANIC.

I don’t know about you, but when I am looking for a product that I consider to be organic, I am looking for a product that doesn’t contain any toxic chemicals. What is happening is that these large skin care companies are wanting to cash in on the growing demand for organic products and in the process, they are misleading the public as to what is organic and what they consider organic.

Check your labels when purchasing any organic product and check to see if the USDA has certified this product as being organic.

To find out more on organic products that have been certified by the US Government (USDA), and are great for you and your families health, please visit the websites: www.HealthyYouToday.com and www.OrganicWoolDuvet.com

Our society places a great deal of emphasis on youth and looking young. As a woman gets older, she is faced with the problem of finding a way to battle the effects of aging. Starting a search for anti-aging products can be a mind-boggling experience.

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Your bodybuilding workout does not only affect one part of your body, which is something that many people do not realize. Each different type of exercise works on more than one part of your body. This is why after a bodybuilding workout you feel the outcome in more places than the muscles you were concentrating on.

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Scientists have proven that spicey food can kill cancer cells. Capsicum, the compound in chili that makes them hot has been shown to effectively kill cancer, and eating it regular is at least a cancer preventative. It also offers a range of other health benefits, including a spicy sex life.

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HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) — The latest chapter in thedebate over whether childhood vaccines can cause autism was writtenWednesday with release of a study that showed the controversialmercury-containing preservative thimerosal is rapidly excreted frombabies’ bodies and can’t reach toxic levels.

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