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There maybe hope for men who suffer from Premature Ejaculation, according to pharmaceutical company Johnson and Johnson who are currently seeking approval for their revolutionary drug therapy for this condition. Dapoxetine, originally developed by Eli Lilly and Co, is a short acting SSRI drug which will be entering the final stages of approval later this year. 

Researches at the University of Minnesota, who have lead a trial of the new treatment on 2,600 men effected by Premature Ejaculation, have found that Dapoxetine is capable of increasing the duration of sex for sufferers of the condition by up to three times. News of these findings will be greatly received by the estimated third of the male population effected.

The study, led by Dr Jon Pryor and his team, combined results from two separate trials – one using a 30mg dose of the drug and the other a 60mg dose. At the commencement of the study participants averaged just under a minute before they would ejaculate during sexual intercourse, over the 12 week trial this increased to three minutes and nineteen seconds.

When asked to comment on the conclusions of this study Dr Pryor said “Dapoxetine also improved patients’ perceptions of control over ejaculation, satisfaction with sexual intercourse, and overall impression of change in condition. Partners benefited through improved satisfaction with sexual intercourse.”

A survey recently presented to the American Urology Association, based on data gathered from 1,415 women as part of the Boston Area Community Health survey, has concluded that around 40% of women who have been sexually active with a partner within the last 4 weeks have some degree of Female Sexual Dysfunction, or FSD for short.

The female participants of this study were asked to provide answers to questions relating to their arousal, sexual desire, orgasms, lubrication and if any pain was experienced during sexual intercourse. The findings of this survey concluded that Female Sexual Dysfunction is far more prevalent amongst Caucasian women, with 45% of them showing signs of varying degrees of the condition. The rate amongst Hispanic and African-American women was considerably lower in contrast, with 33% and 31% respectively.

Lead author of the survey, Dr Karen Lutfey of the New England Research Institute, added that although the racial factors where quite significant in her finders there were also many others including age, with women between 60 and 90 being far more likely to report this complaint, as well as those who were married.

Contrary to these high rates of FSD, approximately 40% on average, only 13% of the subjects being dissatisfied with there sex lives and 25% of the women asked being satisfied.

Research comprised by experts in the United States, with data from 838 teenage girls aged between 14 and 19, has concluded that at least one out of ever four have some form of sexually transmitted disease. This study, compiled from data between 2003 and 2004, examined the level of infection amongst the young women for common STD’s including Trichomoniasis, Herpes Simplex Virus, Human Papilloma Virus and Chlamydia.

It is thought that the main cause of this increase in sexually transmitted disease infection amongst teenage girls is the high number of unprotected sex, with many of these young women classifying sex as solely penetrative and not including oral and other sexual practice. This is considerably worrying as out of those who confirmed engaging in full sexual intercourse as many as 40% had some type of STD.

Researches at the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention also found that African-American girls were effected more than any other group, with 48% of these suffering with a STD compare to that of 20% amongst White girls. John M. Douglas, who lead this study, passed comment saying “High STD infection rates among young women, particularly young African-American women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk. STD screening and early treatment can prevent some of the most devastating effects of untreated STDs.”

Scientists based within the US now believe that certain types of bread, mainly those which contained high levels of refined sugar and grain, can cause the body to produce more insulin that it needs. Loren Cordain, who headed up this research, and her colleagues have concluded that as these refined ingredients within the bread are so easy for the body to digest that this leads to an increase in insulin production.

Previous studies have been conducted to examine the possible link between the levels of insulin within and individual and the development of acne. Most of these have strongly indicated, in their conclusion, that the two could very well be linked. Within men, large amounts of insulin have been know to considerably increase the levels of male hormones which can in turn cause the skin to release higher amounts of sebum. This greasy excrete of the body aids the growth of several bacterium, which are know to be responsible for the condition.

The findings of Dr Cordain and her team seem to give weight to previous research indicating a link between the modern western diet, particularly the number of process foods and carbohydrates that we eat, and the condition. You can find evidence of this theory in parts of South America amongst the indigenous peoples who reside along the Amazon, for whom acne is unheard of due to a diet which does not include these processed and refined foods, such as bread.

Government workers in Japan may soon become lab mice in the first large scale tests of a vaccine designed specifically to target Avian Flu, popularly know as ‘Bird Flu’. The plans to conduct this test have been outlined by the Japanese Health Ministry, which will initially propose to vaccinate some 6,000 people between now and March of next year. If deemed successful, there will be further plans to immunise some 10 million people against the possibly life-threatening H5N1 strain of the virus.

The vaccine itself has been specifically designed to target this HRN1 strain amidst fear of a global pandemic, as well as the not so unrealistic chance of the virus mutating into a form which we could be defenceless against. A pandemic, such as this, could have dire consequences which may champion, statistically speaking, the last global killer of this proportion – the Black Death.

Japan are amongst the leading countries when it comes to preparing themselves for such a pandemic, and with good reason. Although Japan may be an island nation it still finds itself within both South East Asia and the immediate reach of the strain which have ravaged parts of the continent, including Indonesia and South Korea. As a result, the government has stockpiled several million doses of the vaccine to prevent what they believe would be some 500,000 deaths.

In recent developments it has emerged that there may be a possible link or association amongst Asian men between Smoking and Hair Loss. The link, discovered by Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen at the National Taiwan University and Lin-Hui Su at the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, was found by the two doctors when conducting a study on 740 Taiwanese Men between the ages of 40 and 90.

The study was conducted by surveying the participants in person, querying the men’s smoking habits, if they currently suffered from Alopecia and if so for how long, as well as the age at which they began loosing their hair. Results gathered from this survey round, which helped to sort the men into different groups based on the clinical stages of their hair loss, established that although the risk of developing Alopecia amongst these men increased with both age and a smoking habit of 20 or more cigarettes a day, it consistently remained lower than the rate for hair loss amongst Caucasian men.

Although the exact link between smoking and hair loss could not be categorically determined as a result of this research, it is believed that the apparent association between the two is most likely caused by the detrimental effect that smoking may have on the body, including hair follicles and blood vessels. A member of the research team, when asked to comment on the conclusions made said “Patients with early-onset androgenetic alopecia should receive advice early to prevent more advanced progression,”

Unlike most of Europe, cessationsmoking in public places throughout Asian’s largest economy is still rife, with it being possible to smoke at most public venues as well as on public transport, government offices and even in schools and child day care centres.  Last month, host city to the 2008 Olympic Games Beijing, pledged to inflict a smoking ban similar to that which is currently enforced within the UK on the city to coincide with the advent of the games which is due to start from the 1^st of May.

China, who are globally the largest producer of tobacco products, have the largest smoking population of any country with an estimated 320 million and growing. In October, the Chinese government’s Health Ministry began their first wave of anti-smoking measures which consisted of a complete ban on smoking in taxis, as well as launching various campaigns aimed at getting Government employees to give up and refrain from encouraging others by offering cigarettes as well as other measures. It is expected that the extension of the ban to cover more public places will be met with stern protest as with the sheer number of smokers within China this recreational habit has now become an integral part of life.

In addition to the Health Ministry’s efforts to combat smoking in public places, they have also rallied for an educational prevention by introducing informative classes on the dangers of smoking into the national curriculum within schools. A spokesman for the ministry when quoted by Beijing News said “Smoking rooms and zones are banned within teaching regions effective immediately. All teaching and administrative staff are vigorously encouraged to quit smoking”.

The exact weight of opposition that these changes in law will bring is at present unknown, however with these measures expected to add to the vast array of political issues, both at home and abroad, already blighting the success of the Beijing Olympic Games you can be sure that the authorities are hoping that this will be minimal at best.

A recent study, published in Paediatrics, has show evidence to suggest that women who smoke during pregnancy increase the risk of their unborn child developing a heart condition or defect. These heart defects, specifically relating to the walls which separate the different chambers of the heart, commonly known as a septal defect, were reported to be considerably higher amongst children whose mother smoked before their pregnancy or during the early stages.

The research, headed by Dr Sadia Malik and conducted on behalf of Medical Sciences in Little Rock at the University of Arkansas, evaluated 3,067 babies who were born with some heart problem that was unrelated to a genial condition. Information gathered from these subjects was then compared with that of 3,947 infants without any defects of the heart. It is important to note that Dr Malik and her team of researchers found no link between the development of septal defects and second-hand, or passive smoking.

When asked to comment on their findings, a spokesman for the study said “If even a fraction of congenital heart defects and other birth defects could be prevented by decreasing maternal tobacco use, it would result in improved reproductive outcomes and a saving of millions of health care dollars,”

Congenital Heart disease occurs in 1 out of every 100 births within the US, and with up to 28% of expecting mothers continuing with their smoking habit, it is hoped that this damning research will do much to sway them.

Scientists, including leading Geneticist Dr Schadt, based in Seattle have discovered three different genes which can be directly linked with weight gain. This research, which employed a new technique used to identify genes, could dramatically increase the success of efforts to combat the modern day obesity pandemic by allowing drugs to be better targeted when treating this condition.

In the UK alone it is estimated that there are now 10 million adults and 2 million children suffering with obesity, with the growth of these figures expecting to continue. So good news for the NHS, whose policy has long been to combat these figures due to the escalating cost of treating obesityas well as other conditions which are commonly contributed to by this condition, including cancer and type 2 Diabetes. It is hoped that with this recent advancement that the same techniques used in this research will at some point be used in identifying and treating other conditions from a genial perspective.

This technique, knows as a ‘molecular network’ approach, identified three separate genes which can promote weight gain, these are – Lpl, Lactb and Ppm11. Under clinical conditions this discovery was achieved by selecting and categorising obesity within several mice and finding which gene traits they had in common.

Dr Eric Schadt’s findings, published in Nature, concluded that Obesity among other conditions are merely complex combinations of molecular networks and outside environmental factors which can be countered both medically and genetically. He Said “Our Analysis provides direct experimental support that complex traits such as obesity are emergent properties of molecular networks that are modulated by complex genetic loci and environmental factors”.

British-Born Pfizer executive, Alan Hesketh, has been arrested and now faces charges on several child porn offenses that he is suspected to have committed. Mr Hesketh, who has been a resident in the US since 2002, was apprehended by US immigration and customs offices at JFK International Airport in New York on the 26^th of March 2008.

It is alleged that the pharmaceutical executive had been trading indecent images of children with a man, who is a resident of Buffalo, New York, via an online chat room from June 2006 and May 2007. The defendant, who used the alias of a 28 year old woman whilst trading these images, has been said to be on a leave of absence from Pfizer in the US.

If Mr Hesketh, aged 61, is convicted who stands to face a minimum term of five years imprisonment with a possible further 20 year term for distributing these images as well as another 10 years for having these images in his possession. In addition to these punishments the defendant could also be handed a $250,000 fine by the courts in New York.