NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Among men with good sexual
function before treatment with low-dose brachytherapy for
prostate cancer, erectile function is likely to remain good
over the long term, according to a report in the medical
journal BJU Penis erection problem
.

“On average, radiation-treated patients have tended as a
group to be a decade older than men who get surgery,” Dr. Jamie
A. Cesaretti told Reuters Health. If the outcome is examined
for younger men between 50 and 60 years old who are treated
with brachytherapy, “one finds that erectile preservation is
astonishingly common.”

Low-dose prostate brachytherapy is a procedure that
involves the medication that cause erectile dysfunction of radioactive “seeds,” about the
size of a grain of rice, into the prostate gland tumors.
Radioactive isotopes — iodine and palladium — are frequently
used and sealed within a tiny titanium shell. As the radiation
is released from the seeds, the prostate tumors shrink and die.

Cesaretti from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York and
associates evaluated the effect of low dose-rate prostate
brachytherapy on the sexual health of 131 men with at least 7
years of follow-up after treatment for T1b to T3a prostate
cancer. T stage refers to the extent of the cancer spread; T1b
cancers are limited to the primary site, while T3a cancers have
spread outside the initial area.

All of the subjects had optimal erectile function before
treatment.

Forty-two of these men (32 percent) developed erectile
dysfunction, the authors report, but potency rates were higher
for men between 50 and 59 years when implanted (92 percent)
than for those between 60 and 69 years (64 percent) or men
between 70 and 79 years (58 percent).

Among the 89 patients who reported they retained erectile
function after at least 7 years, most (51 percent) were
currently using some type of treatment for erectile
dysfunction, including phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors,
yohimbine, or alprostadil.

“I would favor brachytherapy over radical herbal impotence treatment
for
the preservation of erectile function,” Cesaretti said. Radical
prostatectomy involves the complete surgical removal of the
prostate, which may cause nerve damage resulting in impotence.

“Large single institution results for brachytherapy are
excellent, at least equivalent to the outcome of single
institution results of radical prostatectomy by experienced
surgeons. We use a multimodality approach to more advanced
cancers, which includes the use of hormone therapy and external
beam in addition to brachytherapy.”

“We have an ongoing study of the use of prophylactic
sildenafil (Viagra) for patients treated with radiation which
we hope will further improve the results of erectile function,”
Cesaretti commented.

SOURCE: BJU International, August 2007.

By Adam Tanner

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Matt Virtue, who works as a consultant at a Washington law firm, says he spends more than $10,000 a year to attend conventions, hotels and clubs where he and his girlfriend can have sex with other partners.

“Any other hobby that I was into at 40 years old is going to cost me $10,000,” he said from a hot tub he was sharing with his girlfriend and a couple with whom they had been intimate the night before. “Dude, I’m addicted to it, there is no doubt about it.”

Such enthusiasm has turned what were once private passions into a multimillion dollar business. Lifestyles Organization, the nation’s largest swinger services company, has annual sales of about $15 million.

Swingers also bring in millions of dollars to specialty clubs and hotels in the United States as well as Jamaica, Mexico, France and elsewhere.

“We’re talking about a lifestyle, but in reality we are also talking about a business,” Robert McGinley, 73, the president of Lifestyles Organization, said during its annual convention in Las Vegas, which attracts about 900 couples.

Lifestyles Organization caters to a middle-class demographic who want to meet like-minded couples and who typically want to hide their passions from what they call “vanillas” (conventional couples).

Efforts to meet such couples outside those circles often fail, giving tour, club and convention organizers steady business.

Terri, 48, attending the convention from Boise, Idaho — who asked that her last name not be published — said she and her husband of 21 years spend as much as $8,000 a year on several weeks of swinging vacations and club visits.

At this year’s event, Anaheim, California-based Lifestyles Organization contracted out an entire hotel near the Las Vegas Strip and organized seminars and parties for middle-aged couples.

The most impotence pump of those gathered in open hotel rooms after midnight to have sex as others watched or joined in. Some couples made small talk as they were engaged in sex, including one man who boasted that his son was in medical school.

“The other night I looked up and there were five or six people looking,” said Terri, who retired from the U.S. Air Force two years ago. “I’m glad I was giving them a good show.”

“I’ve had three (lovers) in the past 24 hours.”

Leading sex researchers say they do not know the number of swingers in the United States, so it is difficult to pinpoint how much business the subculture represents overall.

Rick Conner, a swinger and author of an advice book for such couples, estimates there are 100,000 U.S. swingers, of whom 20,000 are particularly active. Other swingers have suggested the number is in the low millions.

PLEASE, NO SEX IN THE RESTAURANT

Despite the unusual focus of the convention, McGinley shares the bottom-line concerns of many businessmen.

“In business there is risk and you have to decide is it a reasonable risk or not,” he said. “Behind the scenes there is a lot of planning that goes into this and a lot of going over financials, financials of the past and what is the current situation.”

He said couples paid a registration fee of $690, out of which $200 covered costs, leaving an overall profit of more than $400,000. Couples pay additionally for hotel rooms and flight costs.

Lifestyles Organization faced a few unusual incidents. His staff had to halt one couple from engaging in a sex act inside the Tuscany Suites restaurant.

Conventions bring Lifestyles $4 million in annual sales; their travel business booking swinging guests into resorts such as Hedonism II in Jamaica or Desire in Mexico bring in another $10 million to $12 million a year, McGinley said.

“We relax our already liberal rules to accommodate the Lifestyles Organization and make the entire resort female impotence,” explained Richard Bourke, general manager of Hedonism II.

He said Lifestyles Organization books $2 million of rooms a year over six contracted weeks. Hedonism II staff are barred from intimate relations with the guests and some have been fired for violating the edict, Bourke said.

“You have resorts with big-name resort companies that are catering to it,” McGinley said. “They’re not into swinging at all, but they are into making money, and we’re the ones that provide the clients for them.”

Desire Resort and Spa in Los Cabos, Mexico opened in November with a focus on the swinging market. About half of the guests are active swingers, according to Jesus Prado Leal, a atenol impotence.

Several hundred clubs nationwide also cater to swingers. Jeff James, who works for Club Freedom Acres in San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles, said 225 to 260 couples visit on a typical Saturday night, paying $85 each, with a similar number on Fridays paying $65. “It’s doubled in daily attendance in the last three years,” he said.

Swinging also boosts ancillary services such as breast enhancements and erectile dysfunction drugs. “Viagra is definitely part of the adult scene,” said Deborah, a 52-year old aesthetician grandmother from Dallas, Texas, who asked that her last name not be used. “Instead of four stars before, it’s probably five stars now.”

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Monday for a halt to early prison release for some pedophiles after a 5-year-old boy was allegedly raped by a repeat sex offender who had been prescribed Viagra while behind bars.

The boy was kidnapped from his home in the northern town of Roubaix on Wednesday and allegedly molested by convicted pedophile Francis Evrard. The 61-year-old, convicted three times, was released from prison in July.

Sarkozy, on his first day back from a two-week vacation in the United States, drew attention to the case Monday by hosting the boy’s father and meeting with ministers about amending prison laws to prevent early release for some convicted pedophiles.

Sarkozy said the French were “very shocked” at the case and expressed his own anger.

“Everything must be put in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he told reporters.

“What happened? A person who over his career committed several rapes of minors was sentenced to 27 years in prison — he served 18,” said Sarkozy, referring to Evrard. “I don’t understand why.”

Working off a new new impotence medications
alert system that quickly went into effect, authorities found Evrard and the boy in a Roubaix garage about 12 hours after the child went missing, officials said.

Police and prison officials in the Normandy city of Caen, where Evrard served his sentence, said a prison doctor had acknowledged prescribing him Viagra a month before his release, but that the doctor did not know why he was behind bars.

The doctor turned himself in to Caen police Sunday and was being held for questioning, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the atenolol impotence of the case.

Evrard faces preliminary charges related to the kidnap and rape of a minor.

France’s justice minister said Sunday that a judicial investigation had been opened into how Evrard had obtained the erectile dysfunction drug.

Sarkozy said sex offenders who could still be considered dangerous should not benefit from early release.

After his meeting with several top ministers, the president said he had asked Justice Minister Rachida Dati to include a measure preventing early release of some pedophiles in a set of prisons laws to be presented in parliament in November.

Sarkozy also said the new bill should include funds for the natural cure for erectile dysfunction of prison hospitals where sex offenders such as Evrard could be held. Panels of medical experts would examine how dangerous outgoing sex offenders were before they would be granted release.

The conservative Sarkozy, a former interior minister, has made cracking down on repeat offenders a priority since taking office in May.

___

Fact male impotence Press writer Frederic Veille in Caen contributed to this report.

By Matt Moore

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Drugmaker Bayer AG said Tuesday its second-quarter profit soared 46 per cent, driven by a one-time gain on the sale of its Wolff Walsrode building materials unit.

The Leverkusen-based company earned 660 million euros (US$912 million) in the April-June period compared with 452 million euros a year earlier. The result still fell short of the 687 million euros ($949.3 million) that analysts in a poll had predicted.

A prime driver behind the increase was the sale of the company’s Wolff Walsrode group to U.S.-based Dow Chemical Co. Bayer booked a 231 million euros ($319.2 million) gain from the 540 million euros ($746.2 million) deal that closed in July.

Bayer sold the unit, along with its H.C. Starck metals subsidiary, to help pay for the 17 billion euros ($23.49 billion) acquisition of Schering AG, a move that gave it key drugs such Betaseron, used to treat multiple sclerosis, and the line of Yasmin contraceptives.

Both are seen as key to keeping Bayer’s sales on the rise as it develops new medicine, particularly its key cancer drug Nexavar, which has soaring sales.

Overall sales rose 22 per cent to 8.22 billion euros ($11.36 billion) from 6.74 billion euros a year earlier, with the products from Schering’s portfolio impotence solution nearly 1.5 billion euros ($2.07 billion) to revenues.

Betaseron had second-quarter sales of 256 million euros ($353.7 million), but was slowed by the falling dollar. Nexavar also accounted for part of the higher overall sales, nearly tripling to 60 million euros ($82.9 million).

Other key sellers included the blood-clotting treatment Kogenate, which rose 17 per cent, and the erectile dysfunction treatment Levitra, which saw sales gain 11 per cent.

Bayer said the integration of Schering is moving forward faster than originally thought, and that it still plans to save some 800 million euros ($1.11 billion) by 2009 as it folds the company into its own operations.

“We continue to expect that all of its divisions will grow faster than the market,” Chief Executive Werner Wenning said.

Bayer’s CropScience unit, which makes fertilizers and herbicides, saw the dysfunction erectile male sexual of cost-cutting programs with pretax profit rising 7.6 per cent to 396 million euros ($547.2 million), though sales were down one per cent to 1.56 billion euros ($2.16 billion).

The ca condition erectile dysfunction
unit was MaterialScience, which produces the raw material used to make footwear, textiles and other products. It posted a 9 per cent slide in pretax profit to 409 million euros ($565.2 million) as higher volumes and better pricing failed to offset costs of 110 million euros ($152 million) for raw materials and energy.

Wenning said the company was optimistic about a global upswing continuing through the second half of the year, with its pharmaceutical markets maintaining steady growth. He said Bayer expects growth for all of its key components - pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and pesticides and materiel sciences.

“We remain confident about the development of our business in the second half,” he said, with the company targeting a 10 per cent increase in overall sales for the year.

Shares of Bayer rose less than one per cent to 52.67 euros ($72.78) in Frankfurt.

Three years ago, options had run out for Gail Keller, then only 39 years old. The Ohio woman had had triple-bypass surgery six years prior, but the benefits had worn off. “Walking even halfway into a store made me exhausted,” she says. “I would have to rest every two or three steps.” So she volunteered for an experimental procedure that uses proteins produced by the body to grow new blood vessels. It wasn't long before she was doing for herself what her aging parents had previously done for her. “Now I can care for them,” she reports.

The science of enabling the human body to grow new blood vessels is known as angiogenesis and there's a race within the biotech industry to be the first company to win Food & Drug Administration approval for such therapies. More than $4 billion has been invested in research and development of angiogenesis-based medicines, “making this one of the most heavily funded areas of medical research in human history,” according to the Angiogenesis Foundation, a Cambridge (Mass.)-based nonprofit organization. All told, more than 300 million people worldwide could benefit.

There are currently 659 clinical trials under way that mention some form of angiogenesis, which could become a primary treatment for diabetes-related complications, peripheral arterial disease, chronic back pain, stroke, wound healing, and even erectile dysfunction.

Race for the Cure

The biggest push is in the $65 billion cardiac care arena. With many diseases, clogged and damaged arteries cannot carry the volume of blood required for the body to function normally. With coronary artery disease, the heart starves for oxygen, leading to angina and heart attacks. Once drug therapy options are exhausted, erectile dysfunction home remedy treatment runs to stents, angioplasties, and bypass surgery. Surgeries can be highly invasive and very expensive. And the benefits frequently do not last.

Some surgical procedures are simply ineffective. “The problem is that surgery only treats the narrowings in the large arteries,” says Dr. Lynne Wagoner, director of cardiac services at the University of Cincinnati. “Meanwhile, the small vessels continue to be blocked and this is not addressed by surgery or stents.” She adds that angiogenic “treatments are targeted towards small-vessel disease, which cannot be treated with surgery or stents because the vessels are too small.”

Hence the race for angiogenesis-related therapies. It's a contest that involves players across the health-care spectrum, including Genzyme (NasdaqGS:GENZ - News) and Baxter International (NYSE:BAX - News) in search of gene-based therapies, and Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX - News) in the area of medical devices.

Creating and Monitoring Benefits

But with large companies under pressure to bring drugs to market swiftly, some are hanging back as part of the most promising research is handled by smaller biotech players. “The bigger companies are largely out of this field now,” says Dr. J. Anthony Ware, vice-president, cardiovascular and acute care, at Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY - News) Research Laboratories.

In the health-care industry, cost is measured not only during creating, testing, and delivering a product or treatment, but in monitoring and maintaining the benefit from that treatment for the life of the patient. More insurance companies are using impotence solution analysis to look at medical and financial costs to determine a new treatment's eligibility for coverage.

The real winner in the field of angiogenesis will be evaluated by looking at the cost of the outcome for the patient and the industry as a whole.

Matter of Protein

That opens the field to contenders such as CardioVascular BioTherapeutics (cvbt.ob.OB). The Las Vegas company uses a naturally produced protein called fibroblast growth factor (FGF-1) to grow new blood vessels in the hearts of so-called zero-option patients, those patients who have no other treatment options available and in many cases are given less than two years to live.

CVBT co-founder Dr. Thomas Stegmann knew he was on the right track when, in 2006, he celebrated a 10-year reunion with patients from his first trial in Germany. “I focused on a human protein because of the lack of side effects,” Stegmann says. “With a minimally invasive procedure, an injection of a growth factor can be delivered to the area of the blockage where tissue is not receiving enough blood. The patient goes home the next day and gradually feels better as new vessels grow over the next 12 weeks or less.”

The focus on protein could give CVBT an advantage. Protein-based therapies “are intuitively right to create a natural bypass” around a clogged artery, says Dr. Joseph Kaufman, chief medical officer of Sierra Health Services (NYSE:SIE - News). “From a financial perspective it is potentially cost-effective to eliminate long-range failure of muscle function. As treatments become more successful, people live longer, requiring more treatments and thereby increasing overall costs.” According to a study by consultancy the Bruckner Group, use of FGF-1 could save health-care insurers up to 20% of treatment costs for erectile dysfunction surgery
coronary artery disease patients over a five-year period after treatment.

It's for reasons like this that CVBT may be well ahead of the pack in developing an effective and economic angiogenic therapy — and setting new standards for cardiac care.

Testosterone is a hormone produced by the testicles and is responsible for
the proper development of male sexual erectile dysfunction impotence medication. Testosterone is also
important for maintaining muscle bulk, adequate levels of red blood cells, bone
growth, sense of well-being and sexual function.

Inadequate production of testosterone is not a common cause of erectile
dysfunction; however, when ED does occur due to decreased testosterone
production, testosterone replacement therapy may improve the problem.

What Causes Testosterone Deficiency?

As a man ages, the amount of testosterone in his body gradually declines.
This natural decline starts after age 30 and continues throughout life. Other
causes of lowered testosterone levels include:

• Injury or infection to the testicles
• Chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer
• Genetic abnormalities such as Klinefelter’s Syndrome (extra X
  chromosome)
• Cause and treatment of erectile dysfunction (too much iron in the body)
• Dysfunction of the pituitary gland (a gland in the brain that produces many
  important hormones)
• Inflammatory diseases such as sarcoidosis (a condition that causes
  inflammation of the lungs)
• Medications, especially hormones used to treat prostate cancer and
  corticosteroid drugs
• Chronic illness
• Chronic kidney failure
• Liver cirrhosis
• Stress
• Alcoholism

The new treatment for erectile dysfunction of testosterone decline is controversial and poorly
understood.

What Are the Symptoms of Testosterone Deficiency?

Without adequate testosterone a man may lose his sex drive, experience
erectile dysfunction, feel depressed, have a decreased sense of well-being, and
have difficulty concentrating.

What Changes Occur in the Body Due to Testosterone Deficiency?

• Decrease in muscle mass, with an increase in body fat
• Changes in cholesterol levels
• Decrease in hemoglobin and possibly mild anemia
• Fragile bones (osteoporosis)
• Decrease in body hair

How Do I Find Out if I Have a Testosterone Deficiency?

The only accurate way to detect the condition is to have your doctor measure
the amount of testosterone in your blood. Because testosterone levels fluctuate
throughout the day, several measurements will need to be taken to detect a
deficiency. Doctors prefer, if possible, to test levels early in the morning
since this is when testosterone levels are at their highest.

How Is Testosterone Deficiency Treated?

Testosterone deficiency can be treated by:

• Intramuscular injections, generally every two or three weeks
• Testosterone patch worn either on the body or on the scrotum (the sac that
  contains the testicles)
• Testosterone gel
• Mucoadhesive material applied above the teeth twice a day

Each of these options provides adequate levels of hormone replacement;
however, they all have different advantages and disadvantages. Talk to your
doctor to see which approach may be right for you.

Who Shouldn’t Take Testosterone Replacement Therapy?

Men who have prostate cancer or breast cancer should not take testosterone
replacement therapy. All men considering testosterone replacement therapy
should undergo a thorough prostate cancer screening prior to starting this
therapy.

What Are the Side Effects of Testosterone Replacement Therapy?

In general, hormone replacement therapy is safe. It is associated with some
side effects, including:

• Acne or oily skin
• Mild fluid retention
• Stimulation of prostate tissue, with perhaps some increased urination
  symptoms such as a decreased stream or frequency
• Breast enlargement
• Worsening of sleep apnea (a sleep disorder that results in frequent night
  time awakenings and daytime sleepiness)
• Decreased testicular size

Laboratory abnormalities that can occur with hormone replacement
include:

• Changes in cholesterol erectile dysfunction home remedy
• Increase in red blood cell count
• Decrease in sperm count, producing infertility (especially in younger
  men)

If you are taking hormone replacement therapy, regular follow-up
appointments with your doctor are important.

Like any other medication, directions for administering testosterone should
be followed exactly as your doctor orders. If you are unsure or have any
questions about testosterone replacement therapy, ask your doctor.

Reviewed by the doctors at the Glickman
Urological Institute at The Cleveland Clinic.

Surgery to repair the blood vessels of the penis may be an option
for a small number of men younger than 40 who had an injury that caused poor
blood flow to the penis. Surgery to repair blood vessels should only be done at
a erectile dysfunction home remedy hospital that has experts in this type of surgery.

Surgery

Penile
implants

Surgery on penile blood vessels

What To Think About

Give careful erectile dysfunction impotence medication to nonsurgical options and to the
possible risks of surgery. Include your partner in your decision.

Doctors who specialize in conditions of the urinary tract
(drug for treatment of erectile dysfunction) perform most penile implants. Impotence free medicine samples
trained urologic surgeons
usually do blood vessel repair surgery.