VIAGRA ERECTION

Guangzhou Culinary Delicacy And Viagra Substitute: Here Kitty!

July 26, 2007

Not all Chinese meat eaters are bothered by the high price of pork, the culprit behind China’s runaway inflation. Consumers in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou savor an alternative delicacy: cat meat.

An investigative report on Tuesday by the city’s famous muckraking newspaper Xin Kuai Bao added cat to the long list of rare meats Guangzhou diners are devouring, including the cat’s favorite prey, rat. While rat has recently been sold as “heavenly dragon meat” in Guangzhou, cats are being packaged into a dish called “a scramble of dragon and tiger.”

In accordance with its longstanding investigative tradition, Xin Kuai Bao sent reporters to pose as customers and took a batch of photos exposing the brutality of the cat-cooking process. Pictures posted online show a skinny white cat being boiled alive while a worker beat it with a wooden stick, said to help mix the blood with the meat and thus enhance the flavor of the dish. Its skin was later stripped off completely by a machine.

Beyond purely culinary considerations, the flesh and blood of cats are considered to have a particular benefit in restoring male sexual potency. In spite of the widespread piracy of Viagra in China — or perhaps because the fake Viagra doesn’t work — men continue to turn to such extraordinary sources for help.

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The newspaper traced the cat consumption trade back to the countryside or the streets of towns in several central Chinese provinces: Henan, Hebei, Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang. Commercial cat owners sell their animals to wholesalers, and stray cats are rounded up and sold by cat catchers, many of them farmers, at less than 3 yuan (17 cents) per creature, a meager price but nonetheless an important income supplement for poor rural dwellers.

At Guangzhou’s largest live animal wholesale market in the suburbs, tens of thousands of cats change hands at a price of 7 yuan (92 cents) each. These are then marked up to sell to several Guangzhou restaurants at about 20 yuan ($2.64) per Chinese jin (500 grams). A full serving of “a scramble of dragon and tiger” can fetch a price of between 150 yuan ($19.80) and 380 yuan ($50) in top restaurants, the report said.

Guangdong province, of which Guangzhou is the capital, was the origin of the SARS epidemic that erupted in 2003. The disease was thought to have spread through the eating of civets, a catlike carnivore that is a carrier of the SARS virus, though some scientists have now fingered bats as the original reservoir of the disease.

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Media & Society | HIV/AIDS Group Reacts to Pfizer’s New Viagra Ad Campaign

July 25, 2007

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has expressed concern over Pfizer’s new television advertising campaign for its erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, Bloomberg/Arizona Republic reports. Pfizer on Monday launched the ad, which features a group of men in their 40s and 50s singing “Viva Viagra” to the tune of the Elvis Presley song “Viva Las Vegas,” according to Bloomberg/Republic. Pfizer said the ad aims to make men less embarrassed about the condition. The ad, which premiered Monday during NBC’s “Nightly News”, will air during programs that have a 90% adult audience. Pfizer has not commented on how frequently the ad will run or how much it is spending on the campaign. “This disease is very stigmatized, and there are a lot of misperceptions,” Ponni Subbiah, Pfizer’s medical director for Viagra, said, adding, “Men are very willing to talk to their doctors about back pain or injuries but not ED.”

Some advocacy groups and officials in the past have criticized Pfizer for its Viagra marketing methods. FDA in 2004 said that an ad featuring a man who grew devil horns while walking past a lingerie store was misleading and did not adequately warn of risks associated with the drug, and Pfizer had to withdraw the ad.

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AHF earlier this year sued Pfizer for its Viagra marketing strategies (Bloomberg/Arizona Republic, 7/23). The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Pfizer for allegedly promoting recreational use of Viagra in ads. AHF said Pfizer’s ads for the drug have increased risky sexual behavior, as well as cases of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, among men. The suit asked that Pfizer stop running ads that promote Viagra as a lifestyle drug and that the company fund ads promoting awareness about the risks associated with Viagra and STIs. In addition, the suit asked that Pfizer forfeit profits gained from the ads and pay for AHF’s costs of treating cases of HIV/AIDS and other STIs that it has linked to Viagra. AHF in December 2006 launched an ad campaign against Pfizer, saying the company’s ads for Viagra promote recreational use. Pfizer at the time denied that the ads encourage recreational use of the drug and said that its advertising states that the drug does not protect against STIs (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/16). According to AHF President Michael Weinstein, the suit has been dismissed.

“Pfizer has been an outlier in shamelessly promoting Viagra as a party drug,” Weinstein said, adding, “All those Sin City references, everything associated with Vegas, that is what they want the association to be. It’s not about a medical condition; it’s about performance anxiety.” AHF has met with FDA in the past to discuss its concerns about Viagra, according to Weinstein.

Pfizer is examining new drug formulations and a possible nonprescription version of Viagra that could increase usage, according to Subbiah, who would not comment on specific research projects (Bloomberg/Arizona Republic, 7/23). AHF in February announced it will petition FDA to reject Pfizer’s request to sell Viagra without a prescription (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/16).

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Group Therapy Helps Men With Impotence

July 21, 2007

Group therapy can help men with erectile dysfunction even if they are already using popular drugs like Viagra.

Group therapy could even be a feasible alternative to some treatments for impotence.

While the number of men studied overall was small, the reviewers found that group therapy appeared to be about as successful as suction devices and injections in terms of promoting erections. One analysis showed therapy worked for nearly two-thirds of participants.

The findings spotlight the importance of “integrating sex therapy and other psychological techniques into office practice” to help impotent patients, said lead author Tamara Melnik, professor of psychiatry at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.

The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

Before the days of Viagra and its sibling drugs, many considered erectile dysfunction to be a difficult-to-treat psychological disorder. Now, drugs allow millions of men to achieve normal erections by allowing blood to flow more freely to the penis; the more serious side effects are rare.

However, drugs are not always an automatic cure for men with erectile dysfunction, especially those whose impotence relates to psychological factors.

A 2001 study of 115 impotent men found that psychological factors were responsible for the problems in 43 percent of the men and physical factors were responsible for problems in another 43 percent. In the rest of the men, researchers blamed impotence on a combination of mental and physical factors.

In the new review, Melnik and colleagues examined 11 studies from the last 32 years to compare the value of group therapy to other treatments such as oral drugs, injections and suction devices.

The review studies nearly 400 men: 141 received group therapy, 109 took drugs, 68 took drugs and took part in psychotherapy, 20 used “vacuum” (suction) devices and 59 were in control groups that did not receive any treatment.

Half of the men in the studies were from the United States and the average age of the men was 47.4 years.

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By pooling data from five of the studies, the researchers found that 36 of 55 men who took part in group therapy reported successful intercourse compared with 5 of 45 who were on waiting lists and had no treatment, Melnik said.

The researchers also combined data from two similar studies from 2000 and 2005 and found that men who took Viagra in conjunction with group therapy were more likely to report successful intercourse than those who took the drug alone.

The total number of men in the two studies was small — just 71.

The review authors did not find much difference in erection success rates between those who tried injections or suction devices and those who took part in group therapy alone.

According to Melnik, the goal of group therapy is to help men gain confidence and reduce anxiety. Most men feel comfortable in the setting of group therapy because they can share their difficulties with other men who have the same problem, Melnik said.

“Most people only wonder about the easiest and most rapid way to reach remission of erectile dysfunction,” Melnik said. “Group therapy takes more time than using medication, but in some cases dealing with psychological aspects is fundamental to achieving a successful outcome and maintaining the results.”

The review does not examine issues of cost nor how group therapy expenses compare to those of other treatments. The review authors did not look at the availability of group therapy for erectile dysfunction patients.

Hossein Sadeghi-Nejad, M.D., a New Jersey urologist, said psychological factors play a role in some cases of impotence. While drugs like Viagra can help people with erectile dysfunction caused by mental factors, the medications “do not work unless the patient is in the right frame of mind,” said Sadeghi-Nejad, director of the Center for Male Reproductive Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center.

Indeed, while some people assume that Viagra and other drugs cause erections on their own, sexual stimulation is still necessary. Moreover, as generations of psychologists have discovered, mental issues can wreak havoc on a person’s sexual thoughts and sensations.

Sadeghi-Nejad added that stress, in particular, could cause problems and reduce the effectiveness of erectile dysfunction drugs

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Researchers Find Why Viagra May Likely Help Patients with Heart Failure

July 17, 2007

In a new study that will be published in the July 17th issue of the journal Circulation, Canadian researchers reveal that the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (Sildenafil), may likely be effective in the treatment of patients with right-sided heart failure, principally because their study shows that only the hearts of these patients exhibit the target molecules that can be blocked by these types of drugs.

The study was led by Drs. Jayan Nagendran, a cardiac surgery resident and Evangelos Michelakis, professor in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Alberta in Canada.

The researchers wanted to gain insight into the mechanism of how Viagra may benefit patients with pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lung vessels). This devastating condition usually leads to right-sided (right ventricle) heart failure.

In their study, the researchers evaluated heart specimens from 9 patients to assess their phosphodiesterase type-5 (PDE-5) activity and their response to specific type-5 PDE inhibitors such as Viagra.

PDE-5 is an enzyme that degrades the activity of cGMP, a chemical that relaxes smooth muscle cells. In the vasculature, relaxation of smooth muscle cells causes vessels to dilate thereby increasing blood flow.

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PDE-5 is preponderant in the corpus cavernosum of the penis. When it’s inhibited, it leads to higher cGMP levels and less dilation (more constriction) of the blood vessels that let blood escape from the corpus cavernosum and thereby leading to a sustained erection.

The researchers essentially found that PDE-5 was not expressed in heart samples from patients that were healthy. Conversely, they did discover that patients with enlarged right heart ventricles had marked increased PDE-5 activity.

When the research team used Viagra (the PDE-5 inhibitor) in their experiments, they found that it increased the activity of isolated cardiac cells and the strength of heart contractions only in unhealthy samples and patients and not in any of the healthy controls.

In the press release from the University of Alberta, Dr. Nagendran stated that “there are a number of medical conditions in both children and adults for which there is a need to boost the performance of the right ventricle, and this drug can be clinically and immediately relevant to help these patients”

Dr. Michelakis also added that “We have a number of drugs and therapies available to treat the left ventricle of the heart to prevent it from failing or to treat it after it has failed, bet we don’t have anything for the right ventricle. The phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibtors, which include Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, may offer some important benefits in this case.”

Viagra (Sildenafil) has been recently approved in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension.

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Weatherman gets his satellites crossed

July 11, 2007

On Monday, the new director of the National Hurricane Center was placed on leave not because of some financial problems or even ethical problems. It didn’t even have to do with the fact that he had issued bogus forecasts.

All he did was be vocal in saying that the country needs to replace the aging QuikScat satellite used by hurricane forecasters to predict the storms.

Personally, I don’t think Proenza was doing a bad thing. He was just being honest with the American people, and he was doing this to help push Congress to fund a new satellite. If I were the head honcho at the hurricane center, I would do the same thing. The government doesn’t want to do anything unless someone is willing to push the issue.

That, however, didn’t sit well with the center’s staff. Because of that, more than 20 of Proenza’s nearly 50 staff members signed a statement last week urging federal officials to dismiss him. They said Proenza had undermined the public’s confidence in the center by exaggerating the forecasting problems scientists would face if the satellite failed, according to an Associated Press story.

Somehow, I don’t really think everyday people trust any weather forecast any more or less because of Proenza’s statement. I really don’t know that many people have a lot of confidence in any weatherman, much less the National Hurricane Center.

The real root of the problem is the majority of the meteorologists at the center felt some kind of affection for the satellite and didn’t appreciate the comments by Proenza. That satellite has become a special friend to them, and they don’t want to see an old friend become obsolete.

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I can just imagine some of the fights and arguments that the meteorologists have had on this issue. I bet the arguments stooped so low as to get into the realm of “yo satellite” jokes.

I bet he said something like, “Yo satellite’s so old it needs trifocals.”

His staff responded by saying something like, “If you don’t shut up, I’m gonna find the worst storm on radar and send it to your house.”

Coming back for round two, Proenza said, “Yo satellite’s so old it saw the Galveston hurricane of 1900.”

A staffer probably said, “I’m gonna QuikScat you if you don’t stop making fun of my satellite.”

The one that probably made the staff mad was, “Yo satellite’s so old Viagra won’t even help it.”

That was probably what made them sign the petition. While the leave isn’t permanent yet, it’s probable that he won’t be back at the head of the National Hurricane Center, all because he didn’t give any respect to the QuikScat satellite. I guess Proenza didn’t get that forecast right.

Note: Brent Maze is the managing editor for The Clanton Advertiser. His column appears each Wednesday.

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ANGEL THOUGHTS

July 9, 2007

At the end of the day, I try to answer several questions before I say my evening prayers.

Was I the reason of someone’s happiness? Or did I anger, frustrate, malign, unjustly treat or hurt a friend, subordinate, colleague or stranger? Did I do God’s will?

Then I mentally rack up my “score,” and most often, offer my repentance.

After prayers of my childhood days, I then lay my head upon the pillow of Hubby, all nice and fluffy with down feathers, and sleep on his side of the bed.

Dr. Albert Atiliano, whom I met last week at the taping of my show “Dee’s Day” with his cardiologist colleagues Dr. Adolfo Bellosillo, Dr. Ken Villanueva and Dr. Valencia sent me this angel thought.

It’s an inspiring spiritual version of the Golden Rule and the need to share God with others in our daily lives.

*****

Now for other matters… I had a long cellphone talk (actually it was more of a one-way conversation as I listened and she talked) with screen legend, Amalia Fuentes, a.k.a Nena Mulach, the other day.

And wow, did I get an earful about her shattered marriage and her estranged husband, ex-champion golfer Joey Stevens.

I told her I thoroughly enjoyed her long and candid interview (not in this paper) about her discovery that while she was away in America, Joey had been openly flaunting his amorous relationship with a 50-something Cebuana with two children and an ex-Italian spouse.

“Betrayal!” she hollered in my ear. “He betrayed my trust, my 28 years of faithfulness to him! He did not show any respect for me.”

Amalia and Joey were married in the US on Aug. 2, 1972 and she was committed to making their marriage work.

She willingly became a housewife, learning how to keep house and cook and attending to her investments which have grown, by dint of her hard work and business sense.

What really rankles her and other women in similar circumstances (giving the best of their years to their spouses who they thought would reciprocate in similar fashion) is the betrayal of trust. And shouldn’t they not be?

Amalia is a woman scorned and she isn’t taking it quietly. While she admitted that she forgave Joey for past “flings,” she doesn’t want to do so with this shameless Cebu affair which Stevens himself admitted.

I guess this is true of most scorned wives — they can turn a blind eye or even tolerate a playboy husband with his one-night stands or casual flings but not a serious affair.

She recalled Joey’s attempted fling with a beautiful society “companion” of a media tycoon some years ago before he died of cancer. The woman apparently just wanted to string him along because she called up Amalia and told her about it!

Amalia can’t be “shut up” by anyone, least of all her now contrite spouse. He no longer stays in the conjugal home because Amalia “can’t stand him anymore!”

As a backgrounder, Joey divorced his first wife Maria Olondriz, and later courted in earnest the beauteous Amalia, then having her tumultuous marriage to actor Romeo “Bobby” Vasquez annulled.

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“We were three in that marriage (with Bobby) and our bed was over-crowded,” she told me matter-of-factly.

Theirs was a fairy tale courtship-wedding which their millions of fans lapped up like honey. Filmdom’s most popular love team ending on the altar was the stuff of fans and entertainment reporters’ dreams.

Amalia had Liezel, now married to actor Albert Martinez, but after two years, her world fell apart with the discovery of the “other woman.”

Like Princess Diana, Amalia married her “Prince Charming” for love. Like the ill-fated Diana, she also discovered that he was a frog, not the prince she dreamt of.

“I did not want to go through all the nightmare and the hurts I had with Bobby so I only said “yes” to Joey after he had divorced his first wife and I was sure I was not hurting anyone.”

And now this mental torture and anguish… at 67, she is, ahhhh, “fat” by her own admission (from her cooking for her husband ) but she is grimly determined to lose weight.

“Not for him anymore, ” she bellowed. “This is for me. I want to look good for me. As Garfield (the loveable, sassy , overweight cat cartoon character of Jim Davis ) says ‘I’m fat but I can always lose weight. You’re ugly, what can you do about it?’”

And will she get even with Joey? “No. As Ivan Trump said, ‘Don’t get even, get everything!’”

And this includes her beloved son Gerard, now a law proper student at the Ateneo de Manila.

Amalia has embarked on a “crusade” to help draw attention to the mental and emotional costs of a marriage that has hit the rocks because of the husband’s philandering ways.

“Why should wives take the emotional battering all the time and the husbands go scot free?”

Yes, why indeed? When husbands play around, the wives are the ones who are in shock and whose lives end with the discovery of the cheating and the deceit.

The philanderers may, as Joey did, say sorry but the costs of the deception may be so high, that many wives cannot accept them back.

“I’ll say sorry and bring her flowers or send her abroad on a cruise or shopping spree and my wife will forgive me.” Sounds familiar?

Well, that won’t work with me anymore, Amalia stressed.

She intends to exact her “pound of flesh,” and get spousal support, lose weight to look stunning and beautiful again and enjoy her freedom “to the max!”

Discarded wives, unite! You have nothing to lose by your “derelict and viagra-king husbands” who think they are still desireable even if they are already fossils!

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Glasgow’s Burning — Run For Your Lives

July 2, 2007

Preliminary, unconfirmed reports indicate a nuclear blast has occurred at Glasgow’s international airport. No one has seen the mushroom cloud or heard the blast, but something by God is happening and it must be terrible. There is smoke and fire. In fact, a car is on fire. It must be Al Qaeda. Only Al Qaeda knows how to set themselves on fire inside a car. Please. Flee to the hills (leave you doors unlocked). Oh the humanity!

As events unfold I’m simply asking that folks take a big deep breath and try to keep things in perspective. Are there jihadist extremists in the world who are willing to kill innocents? Absolutely. Are they amenable to negotiation? No. I am not in the, “have you hugged a terrorist today” camp. However, we need to stop equating their hatred with actual capability.

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If today’s events at Glasgow prove to be linked to the two non-events yesterday in London, then we should heave a sigh of relief. We may be witnessing the implosion of takfiri jihadists — religious fanatics who are incredibly inept. While I am not an explosives expert I am good friends with one of the world’s foremost explosives experts. Propane tanks and petrol (gas for us Americans) can produce a dandy flame and a mighty boom but these are not the tools for making a car bomb long the lines of what we see detonating on a daily basis in Iraq.

My main beef remains that much of the cable news media reacts to this nonsense like a fifty year old guy on Viagra or Cialis — they pop major wood. And the same warnings are appropriate — an erection lasting more than four hours may be harmful. Amen.

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