THE REAL WEALTH

Archive for December, 2011

Until a few decades ago Women’s role was centered around maintaining home and raising children. Their entire life used to be spend cooking, cleaning and tending to each member of the family.They had absolutely no time for themselves. The concept of personal pursuits and space was perhaps unknown to them. Generally women suffered from ill health due to sheer hard work as well as lack of nutrition. They probably did not know that they had to look after themselves and gave no importance to their body. Such a situation perhaps came about due to lack of education as well as lack of money. Today the condition of women is far better. Most women are getting educated. Internet as well as media has contributed to creating awareness of the health concepts as well as health related problems amongst women. Combined with the increasing awareness, the availability of resources in terms of money power in their hands has empowered today’s woman to seek a better healthy style of living. Read the rest of this entry »

When does skin start to age. It is quite difficult to determine since it varies from person to person. Generally, the ability of the skin to retain water starts decreasing in the mid-20s. The oxygen level of the skin also goes down considerably. This results in the skin to start losing its natural health and radiance. However, this is quite early to start using anti-aging products.

Serious signs of aging start appearing in the 30s. This is when the skin starts losing its elasticity and its ability to produce collagen also decreases. The skin starts showing signs of aging with the formation of dry lines that are much deep and harder to remove. At this age, the skin becomes noticeably dull and more sensitive.

However, in your 40s, these signs of aging become prominent with the addition of age spots. There are special intensive anti-aging products and treatments that can be extremely effective. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the older elements in the medicalization of women’s sexuality is The Pill. Credited by many as freeing women and kicking off the sexual revolution, birth control pills have definitely changed the sexual landscape for men and women. But at what cost? Hormonal birth control has long been known to contribute to women’s risk of blood clots, and resulting effects, including pulmonary embolism, heart attack, stroke, and death.

Most birth control pills in use today are what are known as combined birth control pills, whose active ingredients include both estrogen and a progestin, a synthetic hormone designed to mimic the action of progesterone. In response to the risk of blood clots, and discovering that early combined birth control pills were crude in their dosing, newer formulations were developed using different hormones and generally lower doses of estrogen. As a result, women saw a decreased risk from their birth control pills. Recently, what are known as third-generation birth control pills have taken over much of the birth control pills market. We might expect these newer pills to be safer than ever, but numerous studies are beginning to reveal that these birth controls represent a major step backward in terms of women’s safety.

Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella: A Significant ExampleYaz, Yasmin, and Ocella are sometimes styled as 4th-generation birth control pills to separate them from the negative press surrounding 3rd-generation birth control pills, and to be fair they do use a different hormone than the traditionally-discussed hormone in 3rd generation pills. While 3rd-generation pills generally use desogestrel, Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella utilize a unique progestin, known as drospirenone. However, the pills do share one common feature, a similar risk profile. Compared to 2nd-generation birth control pills made with estrogen and levonorgestrel, these pills represent a significantly increased risk of blood clots and resulting negative consequences, according to several studies.

However, despite the risk, Yaz is a blockbuster drug, commanding as much as 20% of the entire US birth control pill market, with sales of over 0 million in 2008. How did Yaz manage to grab so much of the market in the short time between its approval in 2002 and 2008? Aggressive marketing.

Marketing Birth ControlHow Yaz became a blockbuster drug is very similar to the story behind other recent birth control methods, such as the OrthoEvra birth control patch and the NuvaRing contraceptive vaginal ring. All combined birth control methods are essentially equally effective, so if drug manufacturers hope to market a new method, they need an angle. In the case of OrthoEvra and NuvaRing, the angle was convenience. OrthoEvra patches are worn for a week, so no daily pills. NuvaRing is inserted in the vagina only once a month, worn for three weeks then removed.

Yaz is different, though. In promoting Yaz, marketers at Bayer promoted some side effects of all birth control pills: the reduction of acne, and the reduction of Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD, a rare, severe condition of depression related to a woman’s menstrual cycle). All birth control pills reduce acne, and have the ability to reduce hormone-induced mood swings, but only Bayer pursued this angle to get FDA approval for these effects.

Once it had secured approval for treating these conditions, Bayer (over)aggressively marketed them to make sure every woman choosing birth control pills knew about the only one approved to reduce acne. The marketing campaign was so aggressive that in October 2008, the FDA sent Bayer a warning letter, saying that it was over-promoting the benefits of Yaz and downplaying its risks. Among the items Bayer was warned about was implying that Yaz could treat Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS) when it was only approved to treat the much rarer condition of PMDD.

Yaz, Yasmine, and Ocella LawsuitsAs soon as drospirenone-based birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin hit the market, some doctors expressed concern about the unique risk profile of the drugs. Several high-profile instances of women with no risk factors who suffered blood clots, including the death of a 17-year-old woman from massive pulmonary embolism, in the first years since approval raised concern. However, these concerns did not stop Bayer from ramping up marketing of the drospirenone pills, or other pharmaceutical manufacturers from greedily eyeing the market. Barr Pharmaceuticals won the right to launch the generic form of Yaz, Ocella, in March 2008, several years before the drug patent would legally have expired.

As a result of Bayer’s aggressive marketing, its high market share, and the number of injuries, hundreds of women have filed product liability lawsuits against the company over Yaz.

Avian flu, SARS, influenza, epidemic prevention and control of global challenges, but also to vaccine development and production companies to the huge market. In recent years, the global vaccine market has grown rapidly, but also in the pharmaceutical market share of only 2.5%, there is still tremendous room for growth. The scale of the global vaccine market in 2006 was about 14.177 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 18% to projections, the global vaccine market in 2007 was 16.729 billion U.S. dollars, 2008 was 19.741 billion U.S. dollars. The future of the global vaccine market is expected to maintain annual growth of 10%. Global vaccine market concentration is very high. It is understood that there are around 20 companies were identified by the WHO as the vaccine manufacturers, the largest of five multinational companies are GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi – Pasteur, Merck, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Novartis pharmaceuticals, vaccines of which the first four companies in 2007 had sales of more than 2 billion U.S. dollars, which together account for about 85% of global market share. At present, residents in vaccination rates still very low. Read the rest of this entry »

Alternative medicine has been gaining in both popularity and acceptance in recent years. Many cities now have a plethora of shops where a person interested in buying alternative medicines can go to find whatever they are seeking, in addition to being able to take advantage of many alternative medicine services at local practitioners’ offices.

Alternative medicine is simply a way of referencing a type of treatment that is not officially recognized by the medical establishment as a relief or cure. There are literally thousands of practices that fall under this category, and most people would be surprised to find some of the items that either are or were once considered to be against the grain, or categorized as “alternative” medicine. Read the rest of this entry »

The adorable young woman sitting in front of me had been sent by her boyfriend for counseling because she doesn’t orgasm in a few minutes as a porn star pretends to.

The main source of sex education for many young people these days is online porn, and much misinformation is being disseminated. The major inaccuracy is that yang sex is all there is :  sex is only about looking a certain way, vigorous activity, technique, and performance. There is no place for sensual exploration, non-goal oriented play, or relaxation in the presence of the beloved. Very few even get the opportunity to learn that yin sex exists.

When a man and a woman can be totally themselves in each other’s presence, a whole other dimension opens up. When I was studying tantra in India, we spent much of our time doing exercises to get over our fears of the opposite sex and learning to be emotionally real with each other. It wasn’t about performance. It was about learning to take it slow, slower, and slowest. Read the rest of this entry »

The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver conducted a comprehensive study pertaining to condom use and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Interestingly, the group that was most effected by the spread of sexually transmitted diseases as the result of condom error was heterosexual men. Homosexual men and heterosexual women did not seem to be effected particularly when it came to condom error.

The net results of the study demonstrate that even with consistent use, condoms cannot prevent sexually transmitted diseases in all instances. However, condoms still remain the best line of defense short of abstinence when it comes to preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The bottom line of the study was that the spread of sexually transmitted disease depends not only on consistent condom use but correct condom use. Read the rest of this entry »

The term “alternative” medicine is a far-reaching one that describes a number of health and healing methods. Generally, when using “alternative” you are talking about medicinal and general health practices, products, etc. that are not a part of society’s conventional medical systems. Sometimes referred to as “complementary” medicine when used in addition to, as opposed to instead of, conventional systems, the term can cover everything from folk medicine to faith healing to therapeutic massage. In other words, if you can’t learn it in medical schools or get it in conventional hospitals, it’s considered “alternative.”

Because so many different approaches to health and wellness are lumped under the alternative heading, it can be difficult to decide whether or not to take any of them seriously. Fad diets, homeopathy, acupuncture, herbology, yoga, probiotics and new age healing are just a few of the choices that fall under alternative medicine. But how are you supposed to know what is real from what is quackery? Read the rest of this entry »

Sleep disorders are defined as any condition that regularly interferes with or disrupts our regular sleeping habits including our ability to fall asleep, stay asleep or stay awake. For millions of us, sleep disorders regularly interfere with a good night’s rest. Sleep is an important activity for our body. For many years, people thought of it as a passive activity but we now know that this is not true. When we are sleeping, there are a many things that are happening in our bodies. During sleep, we undergo several stages of non-REM sleep from 1 to 4 as well as REM sleep cycles. Generally NREM stages 1 and 2 are the beginning of sleep during which people are easily woken up. When later questioned they may not even believe they were in fact asleep. In NREM stage 3 and stage 4, commonly known as deep sleep, people need a lot more effort to wake up. It is during stages 3 and 4 that people usually are groggy when they awake and may need a few moments before they can get oriented to where they are. Read the rest of this entry »

What should you eat? What exercise program should you try? Who should you listen to? So many questions and so many answers. What’s the best way to steer your way through this myriad of unknowns in order that you can experience better health and fitness?

Sometimes the best answers are the simplest ones. Rather than worrying about all of the what’s that you should choose from how about taking a moment to ask yourself what’s best for you. You are after all the person who knows yourself the best. So all of these questions about what foods to eat, what exercises to do, and who to believe should be looked at only after you take a good look at yourself and decide what you really want in your quest for better women’s health and fitness Read the rest of this entry »