How much sex is enough?

As indicated by a concentrate, just once per week is all it takes for ideal satisfaction among wedded hetero couples and those in long haul connections. The discoveries depend on overviews of more than 30,000 individuals gathered more than four decades.

How much sex is enough?

“Albeit more incessant sex is connected with more noteworthy joy, this connection was no more critical at a recurrence of more than once per week,” said lead scientist Amy Muise, a social clinician and postdoctoral individual, “Our discoveries propose that it’s essential to keep up a private association with your accomplice, yet you don’t need sex each day insofar as you’re keeping up that association.” Researchers noticed that the study was not intended to show circumstances and end results, so it stays obscure whether satisfaction prompts week after week sex, or if week after week sex excites more delight in life.

The study was likewise restricted to individuals in sentimental connections, not single individuals. “Actually, there was no relationship between sexual recurrence and prosperity for single individuals,” said Muise. The discoveries were likewise steady crosswise over age gatherings, sex and the length of the relationship — whether months or decades. Muise said couples ought to talk about whether their sexual needs are being met, as opposed to just press for more sex. “It’s vital to keep up a personal association with your accomplice without putting a lot of weight on participating in sex as often as possible as could reasonably be expected,” she included

08:47 - By Big E 0

Hunger and frustration grow at Ebola ground zero in Guinea

By Misha Hussain

MELIANDOU, Guinea (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A charred kapok tree and around a dozen graves scattered amongst the mud brick houses of Meliandou are painful reminders of the toll Ebola has taken on this village in southeast Guinea.

Scientists traced the source of the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola to two-year-old Emile Ouamouno, who they believe contracted the disease while playing near the tree, home to hundreds of bats that may have been hosting the deadly virus.

The boy’s father, Etienne Ouamouno, said Emile fell ill in December 2013, and infected his sister and mother who was eight months pregnant at the time. Over a year later, having lost all his immediate family, Etienne Ouamouno has difficulty in finding words to describe his grief.

For now, his body language does the talking.

Sitting at the foot of the kapok tree, which has since been set alight by the villagers to smoke out all the bats, Ouamouno nervously lights up a cigarette and takes a number of short drags in quick succession before flicking off the ash.

There is a long, uncomfortable silence as he contemplates the significance of this spot. Almost 24,000 people mainly in hardest-hit Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, have been infected and some 9,700 have died from Ebola as a result of the chain of transmission that started here.

“It wasn’t Emile that started it,” Ouamouno finally says in Kissi, the local language. “Emile was too young to eat bats, and he was too small to be playing in the bush all on his own. He was always with his mother.”

NO INCOME

For Ouamouno and thousands of others in the forest region of southeastern Guinea, once the breadbasket of the West African nation, the suffering has only deepened. Ebola has left them scared, frustrated and jobless.

“There’s food on the market, but not enough money to buy it. Around 100,000 people are out of work since the mining companies closed due to Ebola,” said Jean-Luc Siblot, emergency coordinator for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Guinea.

“Closures of borders with Ivory Coast, Liberia and Mali and the lack of willingness for food transporters to come into the region meant agricultural collectives were stuck with their products,” Siblot told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Jobs have dried up in 91 percent of the communities surveyed by WFP in the forest region. Farmers in other parts of the country say up to 50 percent of their crop has spoiled because they could not be sold across borders.

WFP estimates that up to 1 million people do not get three meals a day and many have to sell their assets to buy food. Ebola has made this worse.

Since September, WFP has distributed over 15,000 tonnes of food aid to around 550,000 people in the forest region, including the prefectures of Macenta, Gueckedou and Kissidougou, where the outbreak was the most ferocious.

MARSHALL PLAN

In the dense undergrowth around Meliandou, children pick mushrooms for dinner while their mothers make palm oil in the village courtyard. But palm oil alone will not feed the family, nor will it sell for enough to put food on the table.

“What we need right now is agricultural support. We need more classrooms, a church, and health posts staffed with doctors and equipped with medicine,” said Ouamouno, who started to open up with the encouragement of the village chief.

In January, global aid agency Oxfam called for a multi-million dollar post-Ebola “Marshall Plan” to help Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — similar to a U.S. aid program to help rebuild shattered European economies after World War Two.

The idea was revived on Tuesday as the leaders of the countries met international donors in Brussels to discuss their response to Ebola.

Back in Meliandou, villagers were skeptical of the government’s intentions ahead of presidential elections due later this year.

“The government has never done anything for us in the past, so why would they change now,” said Ouamouno, reflecting the view of many in this largely anti-government region of the country.

(Reporting by Misha Hussain; Editing by Katie Nguyen)

13:12 - By Big E 0

Old Medicines Give New Hope for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (Essay)

Dr. Subha Raman, cardiologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, contributed this article to Live Science’s Expert Voices: Op-ed & Insights.

People with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, have a genetic disorder where the body does not produce dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact — as a result, the condition causes muscles to rapidly break down and weaken. Because the muscle in the heart is damaged, a majority of DMD patients suffer cardiac failure after only surviving into their 20s or early 30s. 

Now, in a study published in The Lancet Neurology, my colleagues and I have found new cause for hope. We found that a pair of cardiac drugs that have been on the market for years — when used together — appear to be particularly effective at slowing cardiac damage.

Old medicines, new treatment

As a cardiologist and professor at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, I partnered with a team of DMD experts from around the nation in a clinical trial that tested the combination of eplerenone (an aldosterone antagonist that serves as a potassium-sparing diuretic) and either a angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). ACE inhibitors and ARBs help relax the blood vessels and make it easier for the heart to pump blood. [Beyond Vegetables and Exercise: 5 Surprising Ways to Be Heart Healthy ]

We based this trial on our previous lab findings showing this combination of medicines reduced muscle damage and preserved heart function in mice with DMD. In this human trial, we enrolled 42 boys with DMD who showed evidence of early heart muscle damage by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. (Located on the X chromosome, DMD predominantly affects males, because females have two X chromosome copies and rarely show signs of the disease.) 

In the double-blind study, the boys were randomized to receive one daily 25 milligram pill of placebo or eplerenone for one year. All patients continued to receive ACE or ARB and remained under the care of their physician. 

After 12 months, the group getting the eplerenone treatment reported significantly less decline in left ventricular function than the patients on the placebo. The results indicated at least six months of therapy was needed to realize that benefit. 

Early prevention, longer lives

The findings are encouraging. We believe this research offers evidence that supports the early use of these readily available medications. 

We know warning signs show up in DMD patients well before complications like congestive heart failure  and arrhythmias occur. By impacting the earliest detectable change in heart function, we expect to see even greater benefits with longer-term follow-up of these patients. Slowing the progression of heart disease should translate into longer lives and improved quality of life for affected individuals and their families.

Our research was inspired by 26-year-old Ryan Ballou of Pittsburgh, Penn. He’s a young man with DMD who, along with his father, started BallouSkies to raise awareness and funding for research of heart disease in muscular dystrophy patients. BallouSkies was the primary financial supporter of this clinical study — this research progressed much faster thanks to their support — with additional support provided by the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, the U.S. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. 

ur team involved researchers from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, The Christ Hospital Heart and Vascular Center and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Maryland — and our next trial to build upon these results is already underway. 

That trial will test the benefit of combination heart-failure medicines for patients with DMD without requiring evidence of baseline heart muscle damage to start treatment. We will enroll patients at four U.S. sites: Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center/Nationwide Children's Hospital, UCLA, the University of Colorado and the University of Utah.

While there is still no cure for DMD, scientific discoveries are leading researchers like my team and our peers to promising treatments. Medical knowledge of neuromuscular disease is broadening, and children and adults with Duchenne muscular dystrophy are living longer, fuller lives. 

13:02 - By Big E 0

Animal Sex: How Barnacles Do It

Barnacles are invertebrates related to crabs and lobsters. But unlike their crawly cousins, adult barnacles permanently attach to surfaces, raising an interesting question: How do these sessile creatures mate?

Numerous immobile invertebrates, including clams and sea anemones, reproduce via broadcast spawning, in which the animals release sperm and eggs into the water for external fertilization. But as Charles Darwin noted in monographs published in the 1850s, most barnacles actually reproduce via copulation, or more precisely, pseudo-copulation.

Like many other animals, barnacles only reproduce during the mating season. The exact timing of the mating season differs between species, but it generally runs from spring to early fall for intertidal barnacles, said zoologist and barnacle expert Richard Palmer, of the University of Alberta in Canada

Most barnacles are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs, and typically either function as a male or female partner during mating.

It's unclear what factors drive a barnacle to choose the temporary role it does, but "there are some theories that suggest it has to do with the number of immediately accessible partners," Palmer told Live Science, adding that situations involving a high density of closely packed barnacles will favor more of them assuming the "male" role.

The anatomy of barnacle sex

Mating is possible due to the crustacean's incredibly long penis.

Barnacles have one of the longest penises relative to body size in the animal kingdom — in extreme cases, the penis can be up to 8 times the barnacle's body size, Darwin noted in his monographs. [The 7 Weirdest Animal Penises]

Interestingly, the length and thickness of an intertidal barnacle's penis depends on its environment, according to a 2008 study co-authored by Palmer.

In calm waters, barnacle penises are long and slender, allowing them to reach the maximum amount of partners possible. But wave-exposed, intertidal locales favor shorter, stouter penises, which are more easily controlled under turbulent conditions.

What's more, the size and shape of a barnacle's penis isn't set for life. "If you transplant them [from an exposed to calm area], their penises will get longer and more slender," Palmer said.

To mate, a male-functioning barnacle will insert its penis and release sperm into the mantle cavity (space between the shell and body) of a female-functioning barnacle — because sperm isn't released into the actual body, this is considered "pseudo-copulation."

The sperm induces the release of eggs, which are fertilized and develop into embryos and then larvae within the mantle cavity.

Multiple modes of reproduction

Scientists don't know exactly how barnacles know what sex role their neighbors are assuming, though barnacle penises do have chemosensory bristles that may help to zero-in on functional females.

"But if you watch them copulate, they basically just extend their penises and kind of go knocking on everybody's doors," Palmer said. "It doesn't look they're searching for any particular partner."

Once a receptive partner is found, however, mating can occur multiple times over a certain period, and involve multiple partners.

For instance, in a 2006 study of the barnacle Tetraclita japonica, researchers witnessed a single "female" accepting 582 penis insertions from 11 "males" over a period of about 8.5 hours (each insertion lasted, on average, about 2.4 seconds).

Research also suggests some species don't need to be submerged in water to mate. In a soon-to-be published study in the journal Marine Biology, Palmer and his colleagues found that the northeast Pacific gooseneck barnacle (Pollicipes polymerus) could extend its penis in air and mate in between periods of softly breaking waves.

Pseudo-copulation may be the norm for barnacles, but it's not the only way they reproduce.

A few years ago, Palmer and his colleagues found Pollicipes polymerusbarnacles that were too far away from other adults to copulate, yet somehow carried fertilized eggs. Though some species of barnacles are known to self-fertilize, tests showed the fertilized eggs contained genetic material from other individuals, according to the researchers' 2013 study.

The find suggests that barnacles — Pollicipes polymerus, at the very least — sometimes mate via spermcasting, wherein functional males release into the water their sperm, which is then somehow captured by functional females.

12:58 - By Big E 0

Uterine Fibroids: Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

Uterine fibroids, clinically known as uterine leiomyomata, are common, non-cancerous growths in the uterus. These fibroids are made up of groups of muscle cells and other tissues, and can range in size from as small as a pea to as large as 5 to 6 inches (12.7 to 15.24 centimeters) wide. Fibroids can be found inside the uterine cavity (known as submucosal), on the wall of the uterus (intramural) or the outside of the uterus (subserosal).

As many as 20 to 80 percent of women will develop fibroids by the time they reach age 50, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health. However, it's hard to say exactly how many women have them because many women have no symptoms at all. 

A 2003 study of more than 1,000 U.S. women ages 35 and 49 showed that fibroids become more common with age — with 35 percent of women developing fibroids before menopause, compared to 70 to 80 percent after menopause. African American women in the study were also at higher risk for developing fibroids than white women.

Causes

The exact cause of uterine fibroids is not known, but it's thought that hormones — such as estrogen and progesterone — and a person's genes, play a role in their development, according to the Office of Women's Health. Their growth is thought to be influenced by hormones, since fibroids rarely occur before a women starts having periods, and they usually grow during pregnancy and shrink after menopause.

Symptoms

Many women don't have any symptoms, but when they do they can include heavy or painful periods, unexpected bleeding between periods, or periods that last longer than usual, according to the National Institutes of Health. If the fibroid grows unchecked, it can cause acute or chronic pressure or pain against the bladder or the intestines. In such cases, the patient may experience lower back pain, frequent urination and pain during sex.

Diagnosis

Fibroids are often discovered during routine pelvic exams, when the doctor checks the uterus, ovaries and vagina.

To confirm the presence of fibroids, other imaging tests may be done, including:

• Ultrasound. There are two types of ultrasounds: transabdominal, where the transducer is placed over the abdomen to obtain an image (much like prenatal ultrasound), and transvaginal, where the transducer is placed inside the vagina. 
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which uses magnets and radio waves to produce a picture
• Hysterosalpingography, which uses an injectable X-ray dye to highlight the uterine cavity and fallopian tube in order to provide better-detailed X-ray images
• Hysteroscopy, in which a long, thin scope with a light and a camera is inserted into the uterus through the cervix. 

• Complications

  In rare cases, fibroids can distort and block the fallopian tubes, making it more difficult for the sperm to move from the cervix into the fallopian tubes, according to the Mayo Clinic.
  Women with uterine fibroids typically have normal pregnancies, but the condition does increase the risk of pregnancy complications. These include: preterm delivery, a baby in the breech position (not positioned well for delivery), and an increased risk of needing a C-section. Some pregnant women will experience localized pain during the first and second trimester, according to the Mayo Clinic.
  Other complications of fibroids include: severe pain or heavy bleeding, anemia from heavy bleeding, and a twisting of the fibroid that blocks blood vessels, according to the NIH.
  

  Treatment

  Most women with fibroids don't have symptoms, so they may not need treatment. The size of the fibroids, a woman's age, and whether a woman wants to become pregnant in the future, can all factor into the decision to treat fibroids, and which treatment to she chooses. Typically, fibroids shrink on their own after menopause, according to the Office on Women's Health.
  Fibroids can be controlled through medication, surgery or other nonsurgical procedures. Gonadotropin releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa), such as those under the tradename Lupron and Synarel, can provide temporary relief by shrinking the fibroids and controlling heavy bleeding. However, this is not a permanent solution, as GnRHas can cause bone thinning and their use is generally limited to six months or less, according to the Office on Women's Health. In addition, fibroids often grow back quickly once the patient stops taking the drug.
  Birth control pills or other forms of hormonal birth control may be used to control heavy bleeding and painful periods, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
  Certain symptoms, such as excessive bleeding, can be treated with endometrial ablation, which uses heat, microwave energy, hot water or an electric current to slough off the endometrial lining of the uterus. However, the procedure will not alleviate symptoms caused by fibroids growing on the outside of the uterus and it will affect child bearing.
  Surgery may the best treatment option for women with moderate to serve symptoms. Hysterectomy — the complete removal of the uterus — is, so far, the only proven permanent solution for uterine fibroids, according to the Mayo Clinic. In fact, uterine fibroid is one of the three most common reasons why hysterectomy is performed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The procedure eliminates the ability to bear children and, if the ovaries are also removed, initiates menopause immediately.
  Myomectomy removes the fibroids without removing the healthy part of the uterus. While this surgical option is preferable for women who still wish to bear children, there will be a risk of fibroid reoccurrence, according to the Office on Women's Health. The surgery can be minimally invasive and performed through a small incision using a laparoscope. However, if there are multiple fibroids, a single large fibroid or fibroids that are deeply embedded in the uterus, the surgeon may have to create a larger incision to remove all the fibroids.
  Another minimally invasive option is uterine artery embolization. During the procedure, a thin catheter the size of a spaghetti strand is inserted into the arteries that feed into the uterus. Small plastic or gel particles are then injected into the catheter to block the blood supply to the fibroid, causing it to shrink. The procedure is most suitable for women with fibroids that cause chronic pain or compression of the bladder or rectum, or women who experience significant bleeding, according to the University of Maryland.
  Another treatment option is myolysis, which uses an electric current, laser or liquid nitrogen to destroy the fibroids and shrink the blood vessels around them. However, the safety, effectiveness and risk of recurrence of these procedures are still unclear, according the Mayo Clinic.

12:56 - By Big E 0

Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Symptoms & Treatment

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a condition that involves chronic inflammation in all or part of the digestive tract. Often painful and debilitating, IBD can lead to life-threatening complications as well as increase the risk for colon cancer.

The two most common forms of IBD are ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. In Crohn's, inflammation can occur anywhere in the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus. By contrast, ulcerative colitis only involves inflammation of the large intestine, or colon, according to Dr. David Hudesman, a gastroenterologist and director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease program at NYU Langone Medical Center, in New York City." They are two distinct conditions, but there's a lot of overlap of the symptoms and physiology," Hudesman told Live Science.

IBD is not the same as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which does not cause inflammation or damage in the intestines. It is estimated that as many as 1 million Americans suffer from IBD, and most sufferers begin to feel symptoms between the ages of 15 and 30

Symptoms of IBD

With IBD, the intestines (small, large, and bowels) become inflamed, including redness and swelling. Related symptoms, which can range from mild or severe, include:

• Severe or chronic abdominal pain
• Diarrhea, often bloody
• Sudden weight loss
• Lack of appetite
• Rectal bleeding

IBD can also have symptoms unrelated to the gastrointestinal tract, including

• Joint pain
• Skin rashes
• Eye pain
• Mouth sores
• Fever

Symptoms can come on suddenly and flare up at random times, often going away for months or even years at a time. These are known as “relapses” or “flare-ups.” When symptoms are gone (though never permanently, as IBD is chronic), the patient is known as being in remission.

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease have such similar symptoms that doctors have a hard time diagnosing what kind of IBD a patient might have. The most common symptoms of Crohn's are diarrhea (sometimes blood) and abdominal pain, and sometimes nausea and vomiting, whereas the main symptoms of ulcerative colitis are bloody diarrhea or stool, an urgent/frequent need to go to the bathroom, and incomplete evacuation of bowel movements, Hudesman said.

The primary difference between Crohn's and ulcerative colitis is the parts of the digestive tract that they affect.

Crohn’s disease causes patchy inflammation on all layers of the intestinal wall, whereas ulcerative colitis affects only the top layer of the large intestine. Ulcerative colitis causes swelling and ulcers to form on the surface of the lining, which bleed and produce pus. In severe cases, the ulcers can weaken the intestine and cause a hole, spilling the bacteria-laden contents of the large intestine into the abdominal cavity or the patient’s bloodstream.

Though Crohn's can affect any of the digestive tract, it most commonly affects the end of the small bowel (the ileum) and the beginning of the colon. With Crohn’s disease, the inflammation causes swelling and scar tissue to thicken the intestinal wall. The passageway for food becomes narrowed (known as a stricture) and deep ulceration can cause tunnels (known as fistulas). These fistulas can connect the intestines to organs that they shouldn’t connect to, like the bladder or the skin.

In addition to the damage caused to the digestive tract, IBD can create many other health problems for those afflicted. The loss of blood from the intestines can cause anemia, or below-normal levels of healthy red blood cells. Other problems include arthritis and joint pain, weak bones, eye problems, gallstones, skin issues, kidney stones, and delayed puberty and growth issues in children. Many of these problems are caused by the malabsorption of nutrients, since the digestive tract is not working properly. IBD flareups can also cause inflammation in other parts of the body. Some of these symptoms will improve when the IBD is properly treated.

Cause & diagnosis

Although doctors don't know exactly what causes IBD, it has a genetic predisposition (to date more than 160 genes have been linked to the disease), but there is usually some trigger in the environment, Hudesman said — whether it's travel, antibiotics, or infection — that causes a shift in a person's bacteria that results in an abnormal immune response.

Though stress and diet can worsen IBD symptoms, they do not cause IBD.

There are a number of ways to diagnose IBD. Blood tests can find signs of inflammation and anemia, while stool tests can test for blood and signs of infection. Doctors may also use a long thin tube with a lighted camera to look into a person’s intestine, either a sigmoidoscopy, which goes as far as the lower part of the large intestine, or a colonoscopy, which goes through the entire large intestine and the last part of the small intestines, and take a biopsy of tissue. A less invasive way to look for intestinal problems is an X-ray after the patient has consumed liquid barium to coat the digestive tract lining. CAT scans and capsule endoscopies also provide insight into any damage that might be occurring to the digestive tract.

Treatment for IBD

Treatment for IBD varies per patient. Some may require medication, which can range from corticosteroids to biologic therapies and antibiotics. For example, the drug Mesalamine, delivered as either a rectal enema, suppository or pill, works to open up the small intestine, Hudesman said. Patients with more severe flareups may require steroids such as prednisone, but this can have side effects.  Immunosuppressives and biologics may also be prescribed, Hudesman said.

For the most part, changes in diet, reducing stress, and getting enough rest are universal ways of treating symptoms. Some patients avoid greasy foods, cream sauces, processed meat products, spicy foods, and high fiber foods.

Other patients with more serious prognoses may require surgery. With ulcerative colitis, 25 to 40 percent of patients will need surgery, which can include complete removal of the large intestine. Patients who undergo this type of surgery will need to have pouches attached either internally or externally, for waste removal. With Crohn’s disease, 65 to 75 percent of patients will need surgery to correct strictures, fistulae, or bleeding in the intestines. A strictureplasty widens the strictures without removing any part of the small intestine, and a bowel resection involves removing parts of the intestine and sewing the healthy ends together. Crohn’s patients can also have their large intestine removed, but require an external pouch in its place.

Living with IBD can be stressful and taxing, because patients may miss school or work, or suffer from depression and anxiety. There are hundreds of support groups for people with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In these support groups, patients and their loved ones gather to share their stories, seek emotional support, and connect with a community with similar challenges. There are also online communities where patients can chat in a forum and share tips on managing the condition 24/7.

"These conditions are not curable," Hudesman said. "But if patients get on the appropriate medications, they can feel well."

12:52 - By Big E 0