Competing For a Mate May Shorten Men's Lives, Study Suggests

(HealthDay News) -- In certain situations, competing for a mate may shorten a man's life.

U.S. researchers found that when men reach sexual maturity in settings where they far outnumber women, they live an average of three months less than males from areas with a more equitable gender ratio.

While previous studies have examined gender ratios and longevity in animals, this is the first time it's been studied in humans, according to senior author Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medicine and medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, and a professor of sociology at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

"At first blush, a quarter of a year may not seem like much, but it is comparable to the effects of, say, taking a daily aspirin, or engaging in moderate exercise. A 65-year-old man is typically expected to live another 15.4 years. Removing three months from this block of time is significant," Christakis said in a Harvard news release. Read more...

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Vitamin C puts the brakes on cancer cell growth

A half century ago, Linus Pauling began his pioneering research into how vitamin C impacts health (http://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=93&t=19568). Now, almost 25 years after Pauling's death, a new study backs up his contention that vitamin C has remarkable healing and protective benefits. In fact, now scientists have discovered how vitamin C may put the brakes on the growth of cancer cells.

Margreet Vissers, associate professor at the University of Otago's Free Radical Research Group in New Zealand, headed the study which was just published in the journal Cancer Research. "Our results offer a promising and simple intervention to help in our fight against cancer, at the level of both prevention and cure," Dr.Vissers said in a statement to the press.

She pointed out that the role of vitamin C in cancer treatment has been debated for years, with many anecdotal accounts claiming vitamin C can help in both the prevention and treatment of cancer. In earlier studies conducted by Dr. Vissers, she demonstrated the vitamin's importance in keeping cells healthy. And these findings suggested that vitamin C might be able to limit diseases such as cancer that involve cells that go haywire. In the case of a malignancy, for example, cells have unregulated growth. Read more...

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Drowning in soda: America's health problems made far worse

Drowning in soda: America's health problems made far worse by massive soda consumption

The booming popularity of sugary soft drinks has led to 6,000 more deaths, 14,000 more cases of heart disease and 130,000 new cases of diabetes in the past 10 years, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of California-San Francisco and presented at the annual Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention conference of the American Heart Association.

"We can demonstrate an association between daily consumption of sugared beverages and diabetes risk," researcher Litsa Lambrakos said. "We can then translate this information into estimates of the current diabetes and cardiovascular disease that can be attributed to the rise in consumption of these drinks."

The researchers found that sugary soft drinks also contributed to the loss of 21,000 life-years, plus an increase of 50,000 in the life-years spent suffering from heart disease.

"We probably underestimated the incidence, because the rise is greatest among the young, and our model focuses on adults 35 and older," researcher Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo said. Read more...

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A healthy heart slows brain aging

A team of researchers from Boston University has determined that the healthier your heart is, the slower your brain ages. On the flip side, those with less-than-optimal heart health experience more rapid brain aging than those whose hearts have a more healthy blood flow.

The team evaluated 1,500 people for the study and found that, as the brain ages, it actually begins to shrink. When the heart is pumping blood at a healthy rate, the brain is able to keep "fit". But in people whose blood flow is restricted by poor cardiac function, their brains age roughly two years quicker on average.

Interestingly, it is not just old people with heart disease whose brains age quicker; otherwise healthy people in their 30s who have less-than-par blood flow to the heart experience more rapidly aging brains than those with healthy flow. Read more...

Heart health

Sweating in the summer heat promotes good health

Summertime heat is an annoyance to some people, but according to Xu Qian, director of the infectious diseases department at the China-Japan Frienship Hospital in Beijing, sweating from the hot, summer heat is a natural part of keeping your body healthy, and avoiding this heat can actually cause health problems.

People typically run their air conditioners throughout the summertime in order to beat the heat, but doing so can actually compromise the immune system.

"People should go with the rules of nature. Summer is the time to sweat. It's a natural process for the body to respond to the outside environment, and adjust itself through the constricting of blood vessels and nerves. In this sense, air conditioning is a reactive restrain of the body against nature," Qian explained in a China Daily article. Read more...

Female Sexual health