20 March,2013

Impotence, a major cause of divorce in India

Impotence is emerging as a major cause of divorce in India, says a recent study, adding that around 20-30 per cent marriages in India are breaking up for want of satisfaction in sexual life.

The study, conducted by Alpha One Andrology Group, an association of doctors dealing in sex-related problems in men, took into account nearly 2,500 Indian men suffering from erectile dysfunction or impotence. The study found that erectile dysfunction affects 50 percent of men over the age of 40 and 10 percent of men below 40.

"The analysis revealed that of the 2,500 men suffering from erectile dysfunction, one in five were divorced while the marriages of one in 10 were on the verge of breaking over their physical health," Anup Dhir, a reconstruction surgeon and andrologist, said. Impotence is the most poorly understood and mismanaged of all medical disorders and results in marriages breaking up, the study found.

"Maintaining a healthy marriage requires time, effort and compromise from both spouses. When one or both spouses find a marriage to be unsatisfactory, it is likely because of problems that arise due to issues with communication, expectations or sexual dissatisfaction," said Dhir.

The study found that a married couple on an average has sex 58 times per year, or slightly more than once a week. "If the number lacks, it means there is a problem with partner. Sexual impotence is becoming a common problem among couples in major cities due to sedentary lifestyle, hypertension and busy schedule," he said.

Diabetes emerged as the leading cause of erectile dysfunction followed by hypertension.

"As many as 48 percent of patients above the age of 40 were diabetic while 45 percent with hypertension have severe erectile dysfunction. Men who have diabetes are found to develop erectile dysfunction nearly 10 to 15 years earlier than men who do not suffer from the disease," the study highlighted. Furthermore, people with diabetes frequently take medication to lower blood pressure.

Common prescriptions for blood pressure like some diuretics and beta blockers are known to cause erectile dysfunction. "These drugs not only affect and at times suppress the central nervous system but can also cause serious damage to the blood vessels, resulting in permanent erectile dysfunction," C.M. Batra, an endocrinologist with Apollo Hospital, said.

According to Batra, other primary causes of erectile dysfunction include lifestyle issues like smoking, drinking alcohol, being overweight and exercising too little, among others.

Dhir said that taking medical help for erectile dysfunction continues to remain a stigma among Indian men as they are not ready to accept the fact until it comes to the breaking up of their marriages. "Men have an ego problem in accepting the fact and most of them remain secretive about their sexual health, which leads to delayed treatment," he said.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

20.03.2013

Rapid HIV treatment points to 'functional cure' for AIDS

Treating people with HIV rapidly after they have become infected with the virus that causes AIDS may be enough to achieve a "functional cure" in a small proportion of patients diagnosed early, according to new research.

Scientists in France who followed 14 patients who were treated very swiftly with HIV drugs but then stopped treatment found that even when they had been off therapy for more than seven years, they still showed no signs of the virus rebounding. The research, published in the journal PLoS Pathogens, follows news earlier this month about a baby girl in Mississippi in the United States being effectively cured of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after receiving very early treatment.

Christine Rouzioux, a professor at Necker Hospital and University Paris Descartes and a member of the initial team who identified HIV 30 years ago, said the new results showed the number of infected cells circulating in the blood of these patients, known as "post-treatment controllers", kept falling even without treatment for many years.

"Early treatment in these patients may have limited the establishment of viral reservoirs, the extent of viral mutations, and preserved immune responses. A combination of those may contribute to control infection in post-treatment controllers," she said. "The shrinking of viral reservoirs ... closely matches the definition of 'functional' cure," she said. A functional cure describes when the virus is reduced to such low levels that it is kept at bay even without continuing treatment. The virus, however, is still detectable in the body.

Most of the some 34 million people with HIV across the world will have to take anti-AIDS drugs known as antiretroviral therapy for the whole of their lives. These drugs generally keep the disease in check but also have side effects and a high cost impact on health systems.

Worldwide, the number of people newly infected with HIV, which can be transmitted via blood and by semen during sex, is falling. At 2.5 million, the number of new infections in 2011 was 20 percent lower than in 2001, according to the United National AIDS programme (UNAIDS). And deaths from AIDS fell to 1.7 million in 2011, down from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005.

Source: www.indianexpress.com

20.03.2013

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear

Mark Twain