WHEN AND WHEN NOT TO ASPIRIN

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right!

Experts agree that if you survive a heart attack or a clot caused (ischemic) stroke, you should take low dose aspirin. This holds true unless you have an aspirin allergy. In most cases, it also holds true if you have known blockages in the arteries that feed your heart or brain.

But what if you haven't been diagnosed with heart disease or had a stroke? Can an aspirin a day help you, too?

Aspirin reduces the risk of having a heart attack or ischemic stroke. It does this by making platelets in blood less likely to form clots. How much it can help depends on your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Aspirin helps a lot if you have already had a heart attack or stroke or if you have partial blockages in your arteries. But if neither of these applies to you, it actually helps very little.

If aspirin had no side effects, then it wouldn't matter whether your risk of heart attack or ischemic stroke was high or low. But we know that is not the case. Even low dose aspirin can cause serious problems. A low dose is generally defined as less than 325 milligrams of aspirin (one regular-strength tablet) daily.

Low dose aspirin can upset the stomach and contribute to the formation of ulcers. The most worrisome side effect is major bleeding. This mainly takes the form of bleeding from the stomach or intestines or bleeding into the brain (called a hemorrhagic stroke).

A new study strongly supports what we have known. Study results appear in the June 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers suggest that the prior studies have actually:

Underestimated the risk of major bleeding from low dose aspirin
Overestimated the ability of aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes
Another important finding in this study pertains to the benefits and risks of low dose aspirin in people with diabetes. Their baseline risk of major bleeding was found to be 36% higher than that of the general population, whether or not they used aspirin.

So aspirin did not cause people with diabetes to bleed any more than they would if they did not take aspirin. That's good. But wait. Aspirin also did not protect them from strokes and heart attacks as well as it did in the general population. The risks were lower, but so were the benefits.

You would think it's simple to decide about daily low dose aspirin. And for people who have been diagnosed with coronary artery or other blood vessel disease, it is simple. Take a baby aspirin (81 milligrams) daily unless you are allergic.

For everyone else, it gets a bit complicated.

If your heart and arteries are in good shape, consider your heart and blood vessel risk factors. Do you:

Smoke?
Have high blood pressure?
Have a high LDL (bad) cholesterol level?
Have family members with coronary artery disease that started before age 60?

If you answered no to all of the above, you would not take aspirin simply to prevent a heart attack or stroke. However, aspirin may have other benefits. For example, people who take aspirin appear to have a decreased risk of developing cancer, especially colon cancer.

What if you do have one or more of the heart risk factors? Your benefit score goes up with each risk factor you have. If the risk of major bleeding is the same for everyone, your benefit to risk ratio might favour low dose aspirin.

Until recently, daily aspirin was recommended for everyone with diabetes. Now your decision about taking an aspirin is similar to everyone else's. Aspirin is less effective at preventing heart attacks and strokes in people with diabetes. Scientists aren't sure why. Possible reasons include:

Decreased anti-clotting effects of aspirin
Increased platelet turnover in diabetics, therefore increasing the percentage of young, very sticky platelets that would be more aspirin resistant
High blood sugar levels pushing sugar into platelets, which changes how they are affected by aspirin


There will be no simple answer for many of us to the question of "if and when" we should take daily low-dose aspirin. But for people with heart or blood vessel disease or more than two heart risk factors, aspirin benefit will almost always outweigh risk.

The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.

IT TAKES FIVE TO HELP LOSE WEIGHT

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential...these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

While some people view the pursuit of health goals as an individual process, many people’s success depends on the support of their loved ones. In order to help a family member, friend or significant other lose weight, Ramani Durvasula, Ph.D., licensed clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology at California State University in Los Angeles, offers the following tips:


Get on Board:
Words of encouragement and emotional support can definitely help a loved one pursue their goal to lose weight; however, sometimes actions speak louder than words: “Offer to watch children so a new mom can run, or perhaps when it is gift giving time provide gifts that facilitate activity such as running shoes, or a piece of sports equipment.”

Respect Boundaries:
Keep your advice to yourself: Dr. Durvasula says that many families “don’t respect boundaries, they offer unsolicited advice and even criticism.” Saying something like “Why even bother,” “can undercut someone who is trying to make real changes.”

Help on the Food Front:
Dr. Durvasula recommends keeping an open mind when it comes to trying healthier food options, and “when the junk food purge takes place, offer to throw some stuff out too.” Also, favorite foods are often difficult to deal with for people trying to lose weight; don’t act as an enabler by bringing home “things the person loves but struggles with.”

Don’t Live in the Past:
“Never point out past failures. They’ve probably already done it to themselves.”

Find New Activities:
If your family’s activities revolve mainly around food, branch out and find activities that involve exercise, such as hiking. Not only will you be supporting your loved one, you may also discover a new hobby!
“The biggest barrier to making any healthy behavior change is environment,” says Dr. Durvasula, “and environment is largely made up of people. Family is a unique group because the history can make their words and actions even more powerful…the person who wants to make the changes can’t be too heavy handed and just come in and throw out all the goodies, it’s a process, and the more respectful it is from both sides, the more likely it is to succeed.”

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

THINK OBESITY, MIND OVERWEIGHT CHILDREN

As a parent. Act, don't react!

Having an overweight child can be a challenge for any parent. You want your child to be healthy and happy. Not only is being overweight bad for your child’s physical health, but it can take a toll on their emotional health as well. Overweight children can suffer from diseases that were once thought to be adult diseases. Children are now being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

For the health and happiness of your child you want to find a way to instill positive discipline in them. It is important that you teach them how to make good decisions so that they can make good food and lifestyle choices on their own and not be saddled with being overweight for the rest of their lives. There are positive steps you can take to help your child make good decisions each day and take steps towards becoming a healthier child and eventually a healthy and fit adult.

Discipline Yourself

The first step you can take is to lead by example. If you are filling your plate with vegetables and fruits at every meal then your children will be doing the same thing. You should eat healthy meals and snacks and your children will do what they see you doing. Keep your pantry and refrigerator stocked with healthy snacks. Your children cannot eat junk food if it isn’t in the house. When your children see you snacking on carrot sticks and nuts, then they will copy that behavior.

Find another Way

Junk food tastes good and can be fun. Children do not eat foods that are unhealthy because they hate them. Unfortunately if you are too strict and never let your children have any treats, they will probably rebel and just sneak it behind your back. The key is moderation and finding healthier ways to include their favourite foods. Most foods have healthier alternatives that can easily be fit into a healthy lifestyle. Burgers and fries are a prime example. You can have this meal in a healthy way if you make it yourself and avoid the drive through.

A burger and fries can be an enjoyable meal that is healthy too. Make your family burger patties made of either lean ground beef or ground turkey. Put those burgers on a high fiber bun and use lower calorie condiments such as mustard, ketchup or even bbq sauce. If you want cheese use a light sprinkling of shredded cheese so you can get the flavor with fewer calories. You can skin and slice potatoes, toss them in olive oil and kosher salt and then bake for a healthy alternative to French fries. The best way to get kids eating healthy foods is to have them help you prepare them. They will feel more involved and will be more likely to eat them.

Get Out and Get Moving

Your children should see you exercising on a regular basis, but it should not stop there. You need to find ways to get them up and moving every day. One way to do this is to limit how much time they can spend watching television or using the computer for non school activities. This will encourage your children to spend their time in physical play instead of sitting in front of a screen. Buy your children a bicycle, scooter or sports equipment instead of video games. Allow your children to choose only their favorite television shows and limit their television viewing to only those shows.

The next step is to get them moving. One of the best ways to do this is to play with them. When you can you should get out with your kids and play tag or go for a bike ride. You can try different activities as a family until you find something that your child really enjoys. You may also want to get your children involved in sports or other physical activities. If being on a baseball team does not thrill your child, you can always try gymnastics, swimming or martial arts.

Finding an activity that your child really loves will go a long way in helping them stick to exercising. Forcing them into activities they do not enjoy will probably not lead to lifelong healthy habits because they will quit as soon as they can. But, if you find some they are excited about doing, they will be excited to exercise. Children who love exercise are more likely to turn into adults who love to exercise.

Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.

FIGHTING OBESITY IN A BIG CITY.

A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence.

When it comes to beverages, you can't do much worse than soda and other sugary drinks. Some experts think sugar-sweetened drinks are a major reason for the obesity epidemic in the United States. They also have been linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease and stroke.

As part of his battle against obesity in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to ban the sale of extra-large sodas and other sugary drinks. The ban would apply to restaurants, movie theaters, sports arenas and street carts. The maximum size for these drinks would be 16 ounces. The city's Board of Health must vote on the proposal. Approval is likely.

Is this good policy or government limiting our individual rights? We could debate this question forever. In my opinion, Bloomberg's heart is in the right place. He is trying to do something to curb the rise in obesity.

But this particular law, if it passes, won't make a difference. A person who wants to drink more soda will just buy two smaller drinks rather than one extra-large drink. And this mandate does not apply to grocery or convenience stores.

A study done by Harvard researchers suggests an option that doesn't involve government. You make the personal choice to drink water over sugary drinks.

The researchers collected information from 82,902 female nurses about their health and diets. At the start of the study, none of them had type 2 diabetes. In the next 12 years, 2,718 women developed the disease. The results of the study were published in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers estimated that drinking a daily glass of plain water instead of a sugary drink was linked with a 7% decreased risk of type 2 diabetes. A glass was defined as 8 to 12 ounces. Fruit juices were not a good substitute for soda. They led to a similar risk of type 2 diabetes compared with plain water.

Even if you are not worried about type 2 diabetes, limiting sugary drinks is a great idea. It can help you to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

Soft drinks have a lot of sugar and a lot of calories. A 12-ounce can of the most popular sodas contains sweeteners equal to 10 teaspoons of sugar and 150 calories.

That may not seem like a big deal, but these calories add up. For example, if you drink 2 cans of cola each day instead of plain water or diet soft drinks, the calories could lead to a weight gain of more than 2 pounds in a month. In the course of a year, that might mean a weight gain of more than 20 pounds.

Substitute at least one glass of plain water daily instead of having a sweetened soft drink or fruit juice. If you are tired of plain water, try flavored calorie-free water.

Another strategy is to dilute your fruit juice if you drink more than a couple of glasses per day. For example, fill each glass with one-half orange juice and one-half water. After you get used to that, try just one-quarter juice and three-quarters water.

Diet drinks are another option. But there is some concern that having diet drinks instead of sweetened ones might not avoid weight gain. Why artificially sweetened drinks without any calories would act this way is unclear.

By the way, just drinking more water and not reducing your amount of sugary drinks doesn't work. In this study, women who drank a large amount of water had the same diabetes risk as those drinking less water.

The 16-ounce limit in New York City won't gain any traction around the country. It is a token gesture. However, we do need to find some way to reward people who choose healthier foods and avoid obesity. The challenge is to create a fair system to accomplish this goal.

Begin where you are; work where you are; the hour which you are now wasting, dreaming of some far off success may be crowded with grand possibilities.

OUR OBSESSIVE BEHAVIOUR

When a man dies, what does not leave him? The voice of a dead man goes into fire, his breath into wind, his eyes into the sun, his mind into the moon, his hearing into the quarters of heaven, his body into the land cheerfully (earth), his spirit into space

We all have our quirks, but obsessive behaviour can be an indicator of an anxiety disorder called obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and the Nature of Anxiety

Everyone has his or her own way of doing things. Sometimes, we're even pretty insistent about them being done a certain way. A little anxiety is normal, even a lot of anxiety is normal. But normal anxiety is not debilitating. And having to do things in just the right way for fear of something bad happening isn't an average quirk or being particular, it's anxiety that needs to be managed.

"When I hear somebody feels anxiety, I don't immediately say, that's a condition. In order [for it] to be a condition, I have to hear evidence that there is some sort of significant disability associated with it," says Charles Goodstein, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University Langone Medical Center.

Dr. Goodstein notes that while there are a number of different anxiety disorders, including OCD, there often aren't clear cut lines between them. "They represent not different conditions, but variants on a certain condition often found in conjunction with each other. The basis of all of them is, in effect, an inability for whatever reason to cope with what, in fact, is part of being a human being, anxiety," says Goodstein.

OCD: The Symptoms

OCD affects more people, and symptoms most often appear before age 30. People with OCD have obsessive thoughts, compulsive behaviors (extreme routines or things that they "have" to do), or both.

Symptoms of OCD include:

Thinking that your actions or thoughts will cause harm to yourself or someone else
Extreme need for a certain order of things
Excessively thinking about germs and illness
Going over and over the same things in your head
Repetitive behaviors
Constantly needing to touch or rearrange objects
Compulsive hand washing or housecleaning
Compulsively checking (up to hundreds of times a day) things like alarms, locked doors, and unplugged fixtures
Inability to throw away items there is no reason to keep.

OCD: The Causes

It's not really understood what causes OCD. It may be related to Tourette syndrome, because as many as 20 percent of people who have OCD also suffer from tics, a common symptom of Tourette. It is often related to eating disorders and other anxiety disorders, and a family history of OCD may increase the risk. OCD may also be caused by an abnormality in the brain or as a result of injury or illness to the brain.

OCD: Diagnosis and Treatment

A physical and a psychiatric evaluation can eliminate other physical and mental illnesses, and help to diagnose OCD.

Treatment often starts with antidepressant medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Other types of antidepressants may be prescribed as well, but their side effects can be difficult to deal with. In addition, behavioral therapy and psychotherapy may be used to manage OCD. Behavioral therapy can teach people with OCD to face their fears and manage them without compulsive behaviors, as well as learn to control those obsessive thoughts. Psychotherapy can help relieve and manage the anxiety that leads to the OCD thoughts and behaviors.

If you have OCD, it can affect work, relationships, and your entire life as the obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors begin controlling you and taking over. You may recognize that your thoughts and behavior are extreme, but just don't know how to stop it, and are controlled by your anxiety. But OCD can be successfully managed once you seek out and receive treatment for it.

It isn't sufficient just to want -- you've got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

TIPS ON SELECTING SUPPLEMENTS

Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a supplement. Before choosing a product, consider the list below of do’s and don’ts.

It is so much more difficult to live with one's body than with one's soul. One's body is so much more exacting: what it won't have it won't have, and nothing can make bitter into sweet.

Do’s
• Research your options—consult with your pharmacist or health care provider and find out as much as you can about the products you are considering. In particular ask if there are any possible interactions with medications or side effects.
• When buying a multivitamin, look for one that contains a complete array of essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in one formula. This will keep the amount of pills you take to a minimum and will also be easier on your budget. Depending on your diet and needs, you may still need to take additional vitamin C, E, and cal- cium as it is difficult to fit all of these nutrients into one tablet.
• Buy from a reputable manufacturer. Ask your pharmacist or health food store ad- viser for a recommendation.
• Remember it may take four to six weeks or longer to notice benefits, and some supplements that are taken for prevention may not offer benefits that you can feel.
• If you are pregnant, nursing a baby, or have a chronic medical condition, be sure to
consult a nutrition specialist before purchasing or taking any supplements.
• Read the labels carefully. Look for an expiration date and make sure the product is
in good date. If there is no expiration date on the label, don’t buy it.
• If you have questions about a certain brand, call the manufacturer and ask your questions.

The only bodily organ which is really regarded as inferior is the atrophied penis, a girl's clitoris.

Don’ts
• Don’t take supplements with sugar, starch, corn, wheat, iron, dairy, salt, artificial flavourings and colourings (dyes), and preservatives. These are unnecessary ingredients that can cause allergic reactions in some people.
• Don’t choose a supplement based on price. Some vitamins are more expensive due to company marketing and advertising costs and are not necessarily made with better
ingredients.
• Don’t continue to take a supplement if you have a bad reaction, such as prolonged upset stomach or rash.
• Don’t stop taking a prescribed drug or substitute a supplement for a prescribed drug unless under the advice and supervision of your health care provider.
• Don’t take a higher dosage of a product than is recommended on the label unless advised to do so by your health care provider.

The body is mortal, but the person dwelling in the body is immortal and immeasurable.

It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse. Only do it when needed to live satisfactorily.

DOES SWEAT STINK AND STAIN?

We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails.

Have you ever used the expression “sweat like a pig”? Think again. Pigs don’t sweat. Pigs don’t have sweat glands, which explains why they have to wallow in puddles and mud to cool off.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they need to, when all they need is one reason why they can.

Humans routinely sweat as a way of eliminating excess heat and maintaining a normal body temperature. The average person has 2.6 million sweat glands distributed over the entire body except for the lips, nipples, and external genitalia.

Creative power, is that receptive attitude of expectancy which makes a mold into which the plastic and as yet undifferentiated substance can flow and take the desired form.

There are two different types of sweat glands, eccrine and apocrine. These glands are different in size and produce different kinds of sweat. Eccrine glands are located all over the body. Apocrine glands are different because they are found mostly in the armpits and groin. They are larger and open into hair follicles.

Though sweat is mostly water, it is the small amount of protein and fatty acids in the apocrine sweat glands that gives armpit sweat that wonderful milky or yellow color. It is also what causes it to stain.

There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.

Sweat itself is odourless whether it comes from the armpits or other areas of the body.

The funk begins when sweat mixes with bacteria that occur naturally on the surface of the skin. This distinctive odor is called bromhidrosis foul smelling sweat.

The work begins when we believe in prevention rather than cure and regular cleansing sounds armoury for general answers.

Physical strength is measured by what we can carry; spiritual by what we can bear. Many are weak helplessly when bearing other's stingy stinky sweaty odour.

CAN YOU LOSE A TAMPON INSIDE YOUR BODY IF THE STRING COMES OFF?

There is something about going to sea. A little bit of discipline, self-discipline and humility are required.

This is a surprisingly frequent question, and often a reason women find themselves in the emergency room. Patients often come in either because they cannot remove the tampon or because it has disappeared and they don’t seem to know where it went.

There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.

Time for another anatomy lesson. The vagina is a potential space, not a hole or cavity inside the body. The walls of the vagina are normally in contact with each other unless something is inserted between them.

The General Order is always to maneuver in a body and on the attack; to maintain strict but not pettifogging discipline; to keep the troops constantly at the ready; to employ the utmost vigilance on sentry go; to use the bayonet on every possible occasion; and to follow up the enemy remorselessly until he is utterly destroyed.

When something enters the vagina, the body makes room for it. At the end of this potential space is the cervix. Therefore, there is no place for the tampon to go. It cannot be lost inside that small area and you should be able to remove it, or it can be easily removed by any doctor.

Often we find nothing inside, and that means you probably forgot you removed it. Leaving a tampon inside too long can put you at risk for a serious infection, so don’t be embarrassed to ask for help.

The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes.

WHY DO MEN WAKE UP IN THE MORNING WITH AN ERECTION?

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.

You must be referring to nocturnal tumescence!

Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has much more patience.

Or do you mean Private Willie Is Playing Reveille, or perhaps Morning Glory? There are many names for this morning starter, but only one good explanation for its presence.

He who knows the darkness shall learn to live in the light. For I always say we dream what we think but the fact is we will always be human with the way our dreams are interpreted, wishing some to happen and preferring to forget others before dawn. Who so regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind.

These erections are experienced in the REM (rapid eye movement) phase of sleep. REM sleep is more frequent just before waking up.

To endure is the first thing that a man ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

Erections can also happen at other times without any stimulus. There is no scientific reason why these spontaneous erections always seem to happen in the most embarrassing places (parties, holidays, movies, weddings, funerals).

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is. A man shall remain the boy, the boy shall be the father of a man and the willie will be his ammunition. All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us and the early bird catches the worm.

WHY ARE YAWNS CONTAGIOUS?

Art for art's sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden...it is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.

Here are several things we can be thankful are not contagious:

drooling
nosebleeds
itching
seizures
farting

That said, there are several theories for what causes yawns and why they are contagious. It was originally thought that people yawned to get more oxygen, but this appears not to be true.

The most common theory is behavioral. In an article examining contagious yawns, Dr. Steven M. Platek and others state, “Contagious yawning may be associated with empathic aspects of mental state attribution and are negatively affected by increases in schizotypal personality traits much like other self-processing related tasks.”

Huh? I find myself yawning right now.
What they mean is that people are unconsciously imitating others when they yawn. Humans are not the only species that yawn. Yawning is seen in many animals, including cats, fish, and birds, although we don’t know what a yawning fish looks like either.

There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist's relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist's concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.

THE BACKLASH OF EXERCISE

For some healthy people, exercise may actually increase heart risk, according to a paper published this week in the journal PLoS One.

The review of six previous studies on exercise found that working out worsened at least one measure of heart risk — blood pressure, insulin level or levels of HDL cholesterol or triglycerides — for about 10% of people. About 7% of people declined on at least two measures.

The lead author of the paper, Claude Bouchard, a professor of genetics and nutrition at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, told the New York Times that the finding was “bizarre.”


At the same time, the data, involving 1,687 people, showed that about 10% of people saw outsized gains in at least one measure of heart disease risk — some patients improved 20% to 50%. For other participants, exercise-related rewards ran the gamut, from none to some to significant benefits.

One of the authors of the study was on the committee that provided the scientific evidence underlying the government’s official exercise guidelines for Americans, which recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate activity.

The implication here is that the government’s physical activity guidelines are based on rather weak scientific data. The Times’ Gina Kolata writes:

The problem with studies of exercise and health, researchers point out, is that while they often measure things like blood pressure or insulin levels, they do not follow people long enough to see if improvements translate into fewer heart attacks or longer lives. Instead, researchers infer that such changes lead to better outcomes — something that may or may not be true.

Some critics have noted that there is no indication that those who had what Dr. Bouchard is calling an adverse response to exercise actually had more heart attacks or other bad health outcomes. But Dr. Bouchard said if people wanted to use changes in risk factors to infer that those who exercise are healthier, they could not then turn around and say there is no evidence of harm when the risk factor changes go in the wrong direction.

Still, the findings are no excuse not to exercise. For one thing, it’s still not clear why some people had adverse responses to working out. The results couldn’t be explained by how fit participants were (or later became), how strenuously they exercised, whether they were taking medications for blood pressure or cholesterol, or their age, race or gender. “I suspect the most important explanation here will be genomics,” Bouchard told the Boston Globe.

Researchers said it’s important to figure out who will benefit from exercise and who won’t, if we want to able to prescribe exercise individually for better health. “Identifying the predictors of such unwarranted responses and how to prevent them will provide the foundation for personalized exercise prescription,” they wrote.

But for healthy people, experts agree that exercise is a benefit overall. It improves mood, makes you stronger and preserves physical fitness as you age.

So, for now, the authors recommend that people continue exercising as before. If you’ve been sedentary and are starting a new exercise regimen, however, it would be a good idea to check in regularly with your physician to monitor measures of heart health.

WHAT CAUSES MORNING BREATH?

It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse.

In Australia, the “poo fairy” comes at night to take a dump in your mouth. In England, they say a long night at the pub leaves your breath “tasting like the vulture’s dinner.” And a Scottish friend with a new Hawaiian bride reports that a late-night fridge-binge of haggis and poi will leave you with the worst morning breath of your life.
So, given all these tales, we should probably start with the anaerobic bacteria, the xerostomia (a fancy word for dry mouth), or the volatile sulfur compounds (which are actually waste products from the bacteria). All these combine to give you that wonderful get-up-in-the- morning feeling of garbage mouth.
Other things also contribute to this oral smorgasbord: medications, alcohol, sugar, smoking, caffeine, and dairy products.

Why do we spend years using up our bodies to nurture our minds with experience and find our minds turning then to our exhausted bodies for solace?

But don’t run off and have your tongue sandblasted; there are simple things that you can do to fight morning breath. Brush regularly (don’t forget the tongue), floss, and drink plenty of water.

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

WHY DO WOMEN CRAVE CHOCOLATE DURING THEIR PERIODS?

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential...these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

There is little scientific support for a link between food cravings and the menstrual cycle. There have been suggestions that chocolate cravings during menstruation are related to a deficiency of magnesium or are linked to carbohydrate consumption to self-medicate depression, but no strong evidence has been found to prove either one.

Nothing is as difficult as to achieve results in this world if one is filled full of great tolerance and the milk of human kindness. The person who achieves must generally be a one-idea individual, concentrated entirely on that one idea, and ruthless in his aspect toward other men and other ideas.

Studies have placed volunteers on liquid diets that provided plenty of calories and all the essential vitamins and minerals needed, and participants still craved certain foods. This suggests that nutritional deficits are not necessary for cravings of any kind and that these desires are more psychologically based.

The fellow who does things that count, doesn't usually stop to count them.

Medical texts, however, are filled with fascinating stories about bizarre “food” cravings.
Pica is the medical term for a pattern of eating non-nutritive substances (such as dirt, clay, paint chips, etc.) that last for at least one month in the body. The name comes from the Latin word for magpie, a bird known for its large and indiscriminate appetite. Iron deficiency can cause pica and can also cause a craving for ice, referred to as pagophagia. “Tomatophagia” has also been reported in a sixty-six-year-old woman with iron deficiency who consumed several whole tomatoes daily over a two-month period. Her tomato cravings disappeared when her anemia was treated.

We always take credit for the good and attribute the bad to fortune.

Codependency within relationships

The word "codependency" gets thrown around a lot — there are codependent couples, codependent companions, codependent caretakers. But what does codependent actually mean (and is it really all that bad)?

“Originally, the term codependent was developed as a way to describe the responses or behaviors that develop from a person living with an alcoholic,” explains Mary Catherine Segota, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist at Executive Health in Orlando, Fla. Now, it’s often used to describe someone who treats a relationship like it’s more important then themselves — a hopeless romantic who becomes “addicted” to his partner, or a caregiver who constantly puts the needs of her loved one first.

The number of codependent personalities out there is hard to estimate — that’s because codependency is typically researched in the context of drug and alcohol addiction. But the two are not all that different. In fact, one of the key aspects of today’s “codependent personality” also pertains to people who have relationships with addicts: Enabling.

Segota describes “enabling” as a behavior that is used to ease relationship tension that’s caused by one partner’s problematic habits. Enabling is rarely seen in healthy relationships — these behaviors include bailing the partner out, giving him another chance, ignoring the problem, accepting excuses, trying to fix the problem, or constantly coming to the rescue.

“Individuals who are codependent tend to get involved in relationships with individuals who are unreliable, emotionally unavailable, or needy,” says Segota. “The codependent individual tries to provide and control everything in the relationship without addressing their own needs or desires, which perpetuates the lack of fulfillment in the relationship.”

Signs You’re in a Codependent Relationship

Codependent personalities usually follow a pattern of behaviors that are consistent, problematic, and directly interfere with the individual’s emotional health and ability to find fulfillment in a relationship. According to Sharon Wegscheider-Cruse, a consultant, educator, and author of numerous books including Understanding Co-Dependency, “Signs of codependency include excessive caretaking, controlling, and preoccupation with people and things ‘outside of ourselves.’”

A codependent individual is hyper-vigilant, like a bear protecting its cub. She may also exhibit compulsive behaviors — which can be sexual or come in the form of excessive work, exercise, eating, spending money, anorexia, or nicotine addiction.

Here are eight signs of codependency:

Having difficulty making decisions in a relationship.
Having difficulty identifying your own feelings.
Having difficulty communicating in a relationship.
Valuing the approval of others more that valuing yourself.
Lacking trust in yourself and having poor self-esteem.
Having fears of abandonment or an obsessive need for approval.
Having an unhealthy dependence on relationships, even at your own cost.
Having an exaggerated sense of responsibility for the actions of others.

Are Codependent Personalities Really That Bad?

While being completely codependent will have negative effects on an individual’s emotional health and relationship, exhibiting some signs of codependency isn’t always awful.

“A touch of codependency occurs in all of us from time to time,” says Wegscheider-Cruse. “It is when the behaviors become exaggerated, when we lose choice and deny these behaviors, and hide our true feelings that our behavior interferes with our daily living and the quality of our relationships.”

If you seek out or maintain — even feed off of — relationships that are not fulfilling or healthy, you could be codependent. But according to Wegscheider-Cruse, once codependency is identified, it can be successfully nipped in the bud — and the individual can recover.

Contemplating suicide or just suicidal thoughts.

College is often referred to as the best years of your life, but many college students suffer from serious depression, and even contemplate suicide. Consider these statistics:

As many as 10 percent of students meeting criteria for clinical depression have seriously contemplated suicide.
Suicide is the second most common cause of death among college students. Suicide is most commonly caused by untreated depression.
Every 2 hours and 12 minutes, someone between the ages of 15 and 24 dies of suicide.
Of every 100,000 college students, an average of 7.5 commit suicide each year.
Related: When a Loved One Is a Suicide Risk

College Suicide: The Warning Signs

Some people may actually be screaming for help, even if they aren’t vocalizing what they're thinking about. Typical signs of depression include:

Difficulty handling schoolwork
Disinterest in activities that used to be enjoyed
Changes in sleeping and eating habits
Lack of energy or feeling drained
Emotional outbursts, from crying to being easily irritated
Self-destructive behavior, serious substance abuse, changes in relationships — particularly sexual promiscuity — are all warning signs of serious depression and potential suicidal thoughts that might not typically be recognized.

This kind of behavior "may be rationalized as a normal thing, but in reality it's a sign of somebody who's caught up in hopelessness, despair, and issues of self-esteem," says Kaveh Zamanian, PhD, a clinical psychologist and owner of East End Psychological Associates in Louisville, Ky. "Certainly the most obvious sign is any declaration of hopelessness and thoughts of suicide. Sometimes people say it to minimize it or in jest. My tendency is to take those seriously."

Any mention at all of suicide warrants immediate attention. Don't waste time wondering whether your friend is for real or contemplating if he would go through with it. If he even mentions it, regardless of whether he would follow through, he’s asking for help.

Related: 10 Ways to Reduce Stress in College

College Suicide: How to Get Help

Whether you're the individual experiencing these symptoms or you're witnessing a close friend, it's essential to get help now.

Speaking with a mental health professional or counselor is a great first step, says Zamanian. They're trained to help students in this situation. You can also go to your resident adviser or floor supervisor in your dorm.

"Mental health issues have been on the rise," says Zamanian. So college counseling centers are becoming better equipped to deal with these life-threatening situations. They can offer suicide screenings and follow up with appropriate interventions.

"If you're in doubt, I think you should get a consultation from someone," says Zamanian. You can also run it by friends — if you're suspicious, it's likely they are, too. Talk to them about your concerns and get their perspective. They can give you the confidence you need to approach your friend or get help. When it comes to contacting family members, says Zamanian, things get a bit trickier. If you don't know the family situation, involving relatives might not be much help.

A mere thought or passing statement about suicide is a cry for help. Be aware, listen, and get the help that’s needed.

GO ON LOSE THE BELLY FAT

Someday will never come and take you by the hand.

The desire and need to lose belly fat is not just a matter of vanity, but also a necessity for staying healthy. Abdominal fat is linked to major health issues such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. In fact, studies have shown that men with waists greater than 40 inches and women with waists greater than 34 inches have the highest risk of heart disease, especially if the fat is stored around the organs.

Losing Belly Fat
No matter how many twists, side-bends or crunches you do, you will not shred belly fat. Spot reduction seems like it should work, but it doesn’t. You need a well-rounded exercise program that includes cardio and strength training to shrink your belly. Here are some exercises and tips that may help:

Aerobic activity draws upon fat that is stored for energy. Perform aerobic exercises that elevate the heart and breathing rate, such as bicycling, brisk walking, dancing or jogging. If you’re just starting out, five to ten minutes may be all you can do comfortably. Over time, progress up to 30-60 minutes three or four times a week to really see results.
Exercise also reduces stress and insulin levels. When insulin levels go up, cortisol – another hormone – goes up as well, which makes you more predisposed to storing body fat. Regular exercise is a key factor in reducing stress and maintaining healthy insulin levels.

A genius can't be forced; nor can you make an ape an alderman.

Build Muscle to Lose Fat
Strength training offers many benefits, including building lean body mass or muscle. Muscle tissue is metabolically active and burns more calories than fat tissue; so as you increase the amount of muscle you have, you will also increase your resting metabolic rate. Not only does strength training exercise consume a lot of energy, it also raises your metabolism! If you’re just starting, it’s a good idea to work with a certified professional trainer or instructor to get you moving in the right direction.

Total Body Transformation
In your quest to lose belly fat, you may start to lose fat from all over your body. Although fat can be lost throughout the entire body, the last areas to become lean are those areas where we tend to gain fat first. For many people, the abdominal region is the most difficult area to trim…so try to be patient, continue to remain motivated and you’ll eventually get your midsection to a place you can feel good about!

Remember to get extra movement in anytime you can. For example, take the stairs or park farther away from the office. The more physical activity you can get during the day—even if it seems minor—the more calories you burn, and every little bit helps you move closer to your goal! Consistent physical activity isn’t simply important to shedding belly fat, it can also help you prevent health risks and make you feel better about being in your own skin.

Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

If one doctor doctors another doctor, does the doctor who doctors the other doctor, doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors? Or does he doctor the doctor the way the doctor who doctors doctors?
The doctor was actually the Smothers brothers' father's mother's brothers and the Smothers brothers' mother's father's other brothers doctor. The smother said to the other doctor, You've no need to light a night-light on a light night like tonight, for a night-light's light's a slight light, And tonight's a night that's light.
When a night's light, like tonight's light, It is really not quite right to light night-lights with their slight lights on a light night like tonight.
The doctor explained, when a twister a-twisting will twist him a twist, For the twisting of his twist, he three twines doth intwist; But if one of the twines of the twist do untwist, The twine that untwisteth untwisteth the twist.
Untwirling the twine that untwisteth between, He twirls, with his twister, the two in a twine; the smother smiled. Then twice having twisted the twines of the twine, the doctor twitcheth the twice he had twined in twain. The twain that in twining before in the twine, As twines were intwisted he now doth untwine;

Twirling, the smother told his story, Once upon a barren moor There dwelt a bear, also a boar. The bear could not bear the boar. The boar thought the bear was a bore. At last the bear could bear no more of that boar that bored him on the moor, and so one morn he bored the boar, that boar will bore the bear no more.

Alzheimer's drug effective in trial

To the sick, while there is life there is hope.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish drugmaker Lundbeck said patients who took its Alzheimer's drug candidate Lu AE58054 in a phase 2 clinical trial achieved statistically significant improvement in cognitive performance when the compound was added to donepezil.

Lundbeck said the clinical study in 278 patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease had achieved its main target and that Lu AE58054 was also well-tolerated in combination with donepezil.

"These results are very encouraging, and we are now evaluating how to best proceed with the development of Lu AE58054," Anders Pedersen, head of research and development at Lundbeck, said in the statement.

Lundbeck said Alzheimer's disease affects over 26 million people worldwide, and the cost to society has been reported as $600 billion per year.

The men whom I have seen succeed best in life always have been cheerful and hopeful men; who went about their business with a smile on their faces; and took the changes and chances of this mortal life like men; facing rough and smooth alike as it came.

female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD)

Symptoms of female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) improved significantly during treatment with a topical prostaglandin compared with placebo, results of a randomized clinical trial showed.

Women who used alprostadil (Femprox) cream had as much as 63 percent improvement in the primary outcome of satisfactory sexual encounters, as defined by responses to a validated sexuality questionnaire.

Women who used the highest concentration of alprostadil cream had significant improvement in all primary and secondary endpoints compared with placebo, as reported here at the American Urological Association meeting.

"I think these results are exciting," Irwin Goldstein, MD, of San Diego Sexual Medicine in California, told MedPage. "Women have sexual problems, and we really haven't been addressing them. We haven't been giving them choices, like men have choices, and women need choices just like men do."

Topical alprostadil was generally well tolerated, and adverse events were consistent with drug's known effects, he added.

Some women may find certain nonprescription products helpful with minor problems related to sexual arousal. However, more severe forms of FSAD have proven unresponsive to multiple therapies, including phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors and, most recently, topical testosterone preparations.

Alprostadil (Muse) has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of erectile dysfunction in men. An injectable formulation is approved in the U.S. and a topical formulation has approval in Canada. The topical formulation's vehicle contains a proprietary skin-penetration enhancer that temporarily relaxes tight skin junctions to enable alprostadil delivery and penetration.

Effective tissue penetration by alprostadil results in vasodilation, smooth muscle relaxation, and increased blood flow. Men apply the cream to the head of the penis, whereas the higher dose developed for women is applied to the clitoris and distal anterior vaginal wall, considered the G spot.

"Everyone understands that when you have desire it leads to sexual activity, which is followed by blood flow to the genital tissue, causing an arousal and engorgement response," Goldstein said. "If a woman has issues with arousal, it's problematic. We understand that. That's what erectile dysfunction is in men. There's absolutely no reason not to think that there is a subgroup of women who are unhappy with their sex lives and who could improve their sex lives if they had an appropriate topical agent that's a little stronger than what is currently available."

Overall, 33 percent of women allocated to placebo had improvement in satisfactory sexual encounters, compared with 46.3 percent, 43.5 percent, and 53.9 percent of women in the alprostadil groups.

The study population consisted of 168 women ages 21 to 45 and 206 women ages 46 to 65, for a total of 374 in an intent-to-treat analysis. Evaluation of the primary endpoint by age group showed that 33 percent of placebo-treated patients had improvement regardless of age.

Age-stratified response rates differed across the alprostadil dose groups, but a higher proportion of women in each group had improvement compared with placebo. In the 500-µg arm, 49 percent of older women and 42 percent of younger women improved. In the 700-µg arm, 46 percent of younger women and 41 percent of older women improved.

The highest response rate occurred among younger women randomized to 900 µg of alprostadil, as they reported that 61 percent of sexual encounters were satisfactory. Older women had a 47 percent response rate.

With respect to secondary endpoints, younger women randomized to the highest concentration of topical alprostadil derived the greatest benefit versus placebo.

EXCESSIVE GAS TO LIT THE CHAMBERS WITHIN

As your stomach gurgles, cramps, and expands, and you pass gas, you may wonder what could be causing all this flatulence. If you're passing gas and burping more than 25 times a day, and this is affecting your comfort and digestive health, it might be time to do something about it.

That “something” may include making changes in your diet and perhaps talking to your doctor about what else can be done to control your excessive gas. But first, you need to figure out what's causing this problem, and see if you can bring it under control.

Causes of Excessive Gas: Foods

Have you ever eaten a meal or a particular food that bothers your digestive system and afterward experienced painful gas and bloating for hours? Foods are a major cause of excessive gas. Beans are a well-known culprit, but there are many others.

Try These 6 Ways to Treat Excessive Gas

Each food affects everyone differently, but here are some that commonly cause flatulence and burping. You may need to avoid them to manage your excessive gas:

Milk and dairy products
Apricots, raw apples, and bananas
Prunes and prune juice
Beans
Onions
Cabbage and sauerkraut
Carrots, celery, corn, and peas
Foods with artificial sweeteners, such as sorbitol
Oat bran
Wheat
Pasta
Potatoes

In general, foods with natural sugars, high-fiber foods, and starchy foods are all likely to cause gas because of the way the body breaks them down, or has difficulty breaking them down. Pay attention to the foods you eat and how your body reacts. If you notice that you seem to suffer from bad gas after eating the foods listed above or any others for that matter, cut back on them to prevent gas.

Causes of Excessive Gas: Swallowing Too Much Air

You probably don't sit and gulp mouthfuls of air, but whether or not you realize it, you're ingesting a lot of air when you eat and drink. Fifty percent of gas is caused by swallowing too much air.

Here are a few common activities that can cause you to swallow too much air and may lead to problems with gas:

Chewing gum
Sucking on candies or food
Eating or drinking very quickly
Wearing dentures that are too loose
Smoking
Drinking from a straw
Drinking carbonated beverages
Swallowing often, which may happen when you're nervous

Causes of Excessive Gas: Medications and Health Conditions

Excessive gas may be a side effect of certain medications, such as acarbose (Precose), a medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, or those that contain the sugars sorbitol or lactulose. Fiber supplements may also cause flatulence.

Learn How to Build a Better Food Pyramid

Excessive gas may also be a result of many health conditions. These include:

Lactose intolerance
Celiac disease (intolerance to gluten)
Irritable bowel syndrome
Gastroesophageal reflux disease
Peptic ulcer disease
Crohn's disease

There are many things that can cause excessive gas. See if you can connect it to a particular food, and reduce activities like chewing gum that promote air in your belly. If your excessive gas doesn't improve with those changes, check with your doctor to rule out another cause.

THE UNFUNNY SIGHT OF FAT

There's beauty all around our paths, if but our watchful eyes can trace it midst familiar things, and through their lowly guise.

The photo (beneath), taken by professional photographer Substantia Jones (her pseudonym), was meant to convey that big is beautiful. Jones started a Web site to promote her Adipositivity Project, a series of artful photographs of female bodies considered overweight by conventional standards. "Trying to change attitudes about the aesthetic validity of big women, one fat fanny at a time," Jones writes.

Act, don't react!

But blogger Mike Pomranz — who writes for the Comedy Central show Tosh.0 — misappropriated the photo, posting it on his page on the Comedy Central Web site and asking readers to create captions. Soon, it was noticed by Jezebel, a sometimes irreverent Web site geared to and about women.

Here we go, beauty in the wrong hands at an abysmal time on unholy sites, becomes a weapon.

Pomranz's post on Comedy Central drew a barrage of comments, mostly unflattering, making fun of people considered overweight by conventional standards. "She'll get picked up soon," writes one commenter, according to Jezebel. "I see a garbage truck coming."

Critics reacted swiftly to Comedy Central and Tosh.0, the network's highest-rated show, hosted by Daniel Tosh, that averages 3.7 million viewers in its fourth season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Over and over, fat people are the butt of jokes, and it must stop," blogged playwright James Carter, who used his Web site to exhort others to protest Tosh and Pomranz. To have Tosh.0 "or anyone steal these photographs for the explicit use of mean, snarky jibes continues a cycle of bullying culture... It’s angry, spiteful and hurtful."

A Habit at Comedy Central

The Comedy Central-Tosh page was taken down. But other pages — with titles like "Giant Fat Baby," "Fat Guy on a Plane," and "Fat Gunman" — remain, all making fun at larger bodies.

"This next video will not help this girl's self-esteem issues," scoffs Tosh on a Comedy Central video titled "Fat Girl Gymnastics." The girl attempts a vault, falls short, appears to land on her head, and crumples into a heap outside the safety mats. "Springboards can only do so much. They're not magic,” Tosh observes. “She deserves points for fitting into that leotard."

Comedians poked fun at humans since there were stages and spotlights, but the Internet adds a new dimension: Online pictures and video have the potential to reach a vast audience — the amateur video of the girl attempting and failing a gymnastic vault, and possibly hurting herself, got 111,064 views online after the show aired. And people can comment anonymously and remain unaccountable for what they write, without considering the consequences for the person they're insulting or making the butt of jokes.

Does the Web Make Us Meaner?

When people can't be easily identified online, they engage in behaviors they wouldn't in normal social circles, says Sam Gosling, a University of Texas-Austin psychologist who specializes in online behavior. "Even if they're not anonymous, they sort of feel anonymous because it's not face-to-face."

Online personas and communities can bring together people who have negative feelings about certain health conditions but don't know how to express them, Gosling says. "You may have a negative feeling about anorexics that you can't really voice," he said. "If another character is voicing it, you can retweet it or follow it, and a community forms that's bound together by a shared value."

Gosling adds that the pithy, fast nature of Twitter has made it a domain of playful, but sometimes hurtful, banter. "When we see a comedian, they're able to say things in that context — ageist things, sexist things — they couldn't say in an everyday context. Similarly, Twitter could be a domain for characters like these, whereas it might be considered inappropriate on Facebook."

A 'Fat Girl' Who Wasn't Either

Twitter is the domain of choice for Fat Girl — a round-faced, obese black woman in a pink spaghetti-strap tank top — who boasts nearly 40,000 followers. She brags about the amount of food she consumes — "I tweet while eating" — and writes in an over-the-top way about food that conveys obsession and gluttony: "I need to clean out my necks but I'm afraid of what I might find" and "I ate Precious."

But Fat Girl is not a she. The real person behind this Twitter handle is a 17-year-old boy from Virginia, a 5-foot-5-inch, 123-pound high school teenager of Asian background who aspires to be a body builder. (Everyday Health has withheld his name because he is a minor.)

"It's just funny," he says, shrugging off the phantom fat girl. "Fat people have got to realize they need to change their eating habits." He said he hasn't received any negative feedback on his handle.

Jones says the swimsuit model in her photo was threatened with rape and murder in the comments on the Tosh site, and calls for a line to be drawn “between humor and cruelty.”

“Not only is it hurtful and dangerous, but studies have shown that shaming fat people is undeniably bad for their health,” she says.

"People think it's funny," says Fat Girl’s originator. "I can see how people could be offended, but if they're offended, that probably means that they need to lose weight."

Humor at the Expense of Others

Tammy Colter, editor-in-chief of Obesity Help magazine, says she believes health conditions such as obesity shouldn't be a source of amusement. "Fictional characters or not, the disease of obesity is no laughing matter," Colter says. "It is estimated that over 300,000 people in the United States die each year due to obesity related illnesses ... We know all too well the impact of discrimination against obese members of society."

Golda Poretsky, 34, who blogs at BodyLoveWellness.com, says one of her issues with the Fat Girl Twitter account is that "it promotes the idea of health conditions as being within your control and something that can be made fun of. A lot of people struggle with their weight, and people make assumptions about what that says about your habits or who you are."

“I don't see how humor like this helps people feel better about their bodies, but maybe it does for some people,” Poretsky says about a Tumblr called Fat Girl Problems. “To me, most of the posts are jokingly referring to things that fat people deal with in a fat-hating society, like not being able to find clothes that fit them and constantly going back and forth between dieting and binging.”

The Negative Power of Stereotypes

Indeed, some comedians, such as Monique, use their personal weight issues as a source for stand-up. But Poretsky says she believes that the Fat Girl Twitter page is a mean, rather than a kind-hearted look at obesity. "I really enjoy Monique," Poretsky says. "She also promotes this message of confidence with her body, that it’s okay to be sexy and fat. Also, she’s talking about her own experience, and that's very different from making up what you think others’ experiences are."

Although she disapproves of the content posted by Fat Girl, she said it doesn't make her feel bad about her weight: "I don't feel hurt by it because, to me, he just seems like a hateful person who is looking to capitalize on stereotypes. That angers me and disgusts me, but it doesn't hurt me."

The 17-year-old creator of the Twitter handle says he didn't choose an African-American woman on purpose; he searched on Google for pictures of overweight people and found the one he used for Fat Girl particularly humorous. "It had nothing to do with her being black," he says.

Julia Starkey, a 37-year-old black woman from Boston, is unconvinced. She says she is offended by Fat Girl, not just because of the fat-hating language, but also because of the racist tone she believes it takes. "The language he's using is awful," she says. "It's faux ghetto. He's using [the n-word] constantly, which is obnoxious and offensive.”

"He's also portraying fat people as being smelly, as constantly eating, as poor and unhealthy,” she says. “Being fat doesn't mean you can't bathe. It doesn't mean you are constantly eating food. Being fat means you're fat. That's it."

Beauty is whatever gives joy.

THE AWARENESS OF A LIFE WRECKER

It's our big opportunity to increase understanding of dementia and to get people to remember that there's more to a person than the dementia.

I would like everyone to know the following 5 things about dementia and likewise to share with others:

DEMENTIA;
1. It’s not a natural part of growing old.
2. It’s caused by diseases of the brain. The most common of these is Alzheimer’s.
3. It’s not just about losing your memory – it can affect thinking, communicating and doing everyday tasks.
4. It’s possible to live well with it.
5. There’s more to a person than the dementia.

A man without decision can never be said to belong to himself. Decide to support the awareness of dementia, let's leave the professionals to thrive for even in vain to find the cure for dementia, for you and me, let's begin with getting the awareness of dementia widely spread enough to reach millions and even the remotest unfortunates.
If you've made up your mind you can do something, you're absolutely right. If you've made up your mind you can't do something, you're absolutely right.

THE G-SPOT AND IT'S SPOTLESS BLISS

By now you've no doubt heard that a surgeon in Florida, Dr. Adam Ostrzenski, has claimed to have found the first anatomical evidence of the controversial G-spot. In a study published online in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Dr. Ostrzenski details his finding of the disputed female pleasure zone deep inside the front vaginal wall of a recently deceased 83-year-old Polish woman.

But while Ostrzenski's study has given rise to loud cheers of "Finally!" in some quarters, others have taken a more skeptical view of his findings. A commentary on the study by three sexual health experts (including Dr. Beverly Whipple, co-author of the groundbreaking 1982 book The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality) also published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine is pretty scathing in its critique.

"We submit that the author's claim to have discovered 'the' G-spot does not fulfill the most fundamental scientific criteria," the experts write. They go on to say that Ostrzenski is lacking the evidence to prove his claim and that "In the absence of such evidence, it is not valid for the author to claim more than that he has identified a possible anatomic constituent of whatever is 'the G-spot' — a still scientifically unresolved issue."

So what's the deal here? Is this the classic case of a man claiming he's found a woman's G-spot, only to be told, "That's not it!" The truth appears to be, well, confusing.

A Narrow View of Sexual Pleasure?

The commentators in The Journal of Sexual Medicine appear to be willing to grant Ostrzenski that the structure he is calling the G-spot is possibly something significant. But they also say his reducing the G-spot to one discrete anatomical structure "betrays the rich complexity of what others have appreciated and characterized as the G-spot — a variable anatomical and functional zone of erotogenic complexity, not a single structural entity." In essense, they're saying what he may have found is just a part of the G-spot, but not its entirety.

The commentators' wariness about narrowly defining zones of female sexual pleasure is echoed in a blog post about Ostrzenski's study on Kinsey Confidential, the sexual health and information website of the famed Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. In the post, doctoral candidate Kristen Mark warns against "hype around the existence of the G-spot as the central pleasure point," saying such focus could result in an increase in dodgy, and dangerous, medical procedures claiming to enhance women's G-spot function. Mark also makes the very reasonable sounding point that instead of researchers desperately trying to hit the G-spot, "more emphasis should be placed on the diversity found in women's sexual pleasure and directed away from one anatomical structure being responsible for pleasure."

Still, given the decades-long debate on the G-spot, and the fact that several sexual health experts (including our own Dr. Laura Berman), not to mention women the world over, swear it exists, it seems unlikely the search will stop anytime soon.

Found fantasies, hot and steamy woman

Need a little help getting your fantasy life going? Here are 10 hot and steamy stories to get you started. And remember, fantasy comes from relaxing and letting your mind wander!

1. Sexual Submission
Women often imagine themselves being ravaged and taken control of — it doesn't mean you want it in your real sex life, but it's fun to entertain the idea. Fantasize about someone powerful having his way with you sexually. Maybe there are blindfolds or restraints. Maybe you're taken by surprise!

2. Voyeuristic Sex
You're being watched while you're having sex, maybe being forced to have sex in front of other people. You might also be the one spying on someone else having sex. Anyone, a stranger or someone you know, can be the subject of this fantasy. You would be ashamed — maybe ruined — if anyone ever found out. But that's exactly what makes it so good!

3. Knight in Shining Armour
This is the romantic's fantasy. Your perfect man courts you, seduces you, and makes you feel everything you've ever desired. He treats you in all of the ways your partner does not. He pampers you, understands you, and totally worships you. He also makes all of your sexual fantasies come true, without your even asking.

4. Being a "Bad" Girl
Women who follow all the rules in daily life may dream of letting the bad girl out to play. Maybe you strip for a roomful of men or seduce a man you've just met for casual sex. You're aggressive, and you go after who and what you want with no apologies!

5. Taking Control
Many women dream of taking charge in their favorite sexual fantasies. You could be a dominatrix leading a man back to your hideout and planning to make him your sex slave. You'll tie him up until he promises to be submissive, and then you'll tell him when, where, and how to touch you.

6. Sex With an Ex
Do you, like many other women, have an ex who rocked your world sexually or who loved you and left you (giving him a permanent place in the land of unresolved relationships)? Imagine running into him unexpectedly and beginning a passionate affair — because the sex is still that good.

7. Girl-on-Girl
It's you and the woman of your dreams. Whether Angelina Jolie is your idea of a hot babe or you'd rather make someone up, fantasizing about lesbian sex is especially appealing for women who've never actually experienced it. Imagine what her female body feels like (so different from your partner's) and how you'll stimulate each other.

8. Group Sex
Everything from an orgy to a threesome falls into this category. Maybe you're watching a group of other people have sex. What about having a threesome with two guys? Two girls? A guy and a girl? You kiss one person but your hands are on another. Anything goes!

9. Sex on the Beach
You're on vacation, so everything is tropical and lazy. You've met someone intoxicating and you're having sex on the hot sand, the water about to crash onto you. Sex has never been so good! You're in paradise, but you know it has to end.

10. Kinky Sex
Dreaming of something even more outrageous? This is the fantasy about your deepest desires — the ones you would probably never share with anyone — but that arouse you and provoke you. Maybe they are desires that go against all of your morals, or are even societal taboos. Use your imagination. No one has to know.