Therapist Unlimited Blog

A recent medical study has shown that those women who are positive about their genitals find it easier to orgasm and are more likely to engage in sexual health promoting behaviours, such as having regular gynecological exams or performing vulvar self-examinations.
Debby Herbenick, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation explained their findings is a positive news to women around the world.
Herbenick said our culture often portrays women’s genitals as dirty and in need of cleaning and grooming.
She added some women may have had greater exposure to such negative messages or may be more susceptible to their impact.
Herbenick’s study created a scale for measuring men’s and women’s attitudes toward women’s genitals. Such a scale, she wrote in the study, could be useful in sex therapy, in medical settings to help better understand decision-making that goes into gynecological care and treatment, and in health education settings involving women and their sexual health. The study also found that men had more positive attitudes about women’s genitals than women.
"Women are often more critical about their own bodies and other women’s bodies than men are," Herbenick said. "What we found in this study is that men generally feel positive about a variety of aspects of women’s genitals including how they look, smell, taste and feel."

To achieve orgasm and better sexual health women should feel confident about their sexuality.

Herbenick, also a sexual health educator for The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, offers the following suggestions regarding the findings:
Body image. Parents might consider how they can help their daughters to feel more positively about their bodies, such as by teaching them accurate names for their body parts, including their genitals (e.g., "vulva" rather than "down there") and responding in supportive ways to their self-exploration. "Rather than saying, ‘don’t touch down there it’s dirty,’ parents might let their children know that it’s OK for them to touch their genitals, but in private spaces such as their own bedroom or the bathroom," Herbenick said.
Advertisements and marketing. Health educators might consider ways that they can teach women and men about their bodies in positive, sex-positive ways by openly discussing how some products or marketing campaigns make people feel about their bodies.
The survey component of the study involved 362 women and 241 men, most of whom were white/Caucasian and between the ages of 18 and 23.
"Our study builds on previous research that demonstrates that the mind and body are highly connected in regard to sex," said Herbenick."When women feel more positively about female genitals, they likely feel more relaxed in their own skin, more able to let go and thus more likely to experience pleasure and orgasm."
 

Those individuals who love to regularly check their body weight better consult a doctor now since such actions are strong signs they could be suffering from eating disorders.
A noted psychologist revealed those persons who weigh themselves at frequent intervals, sometimes many times a day could be suffering from a form of eating disorder.
Dena Cabrera, PsyD, a noted psychologist at the Remuda Programs for Eating and Anxiety Disorders revealed those people who regularly check their fatness, bones and any physical change in their body to subconsciously or consciously motivate their eating disorder behavior.
Cabrera explained those persons who frequently examined their weight and body become obsessed with the daily weight fluctuations that are a normal part of the body and would otherwise pass unnoticed.
Cabrera added the movements on the scale then determines their mood and eating patterns.

Do you love to regularly check your body weight? If your answer is yes, better seek medical help since you could be suffering from eating disorders.

She said body checking is influential in maintaining dissatisfaction with shape and appearance.
The noted psychologist identified other common behaviors associated with body checking such as looking in the mirror (or at reflective surfaces); measuring body parts with tape measures or hands; pinching or touching body parts; assessing the tightness of
particular items of clothing or accessories; looking down at one’s body and touching collar bones to check for boniness.
Furthermore, Cabrera said there is a need to assess the time spent on body/weight checking behavior as well as the consequences to determine if there needs to be a change in behavior.
Cabrera said most of the time body/weight checking needs to be stopped in an effort to uncover other influential factors that may trigger eating disorder behaviors, such as emotional regulation issues, trauma and maturity fears.
She hoped her study would serve as driving force to those persons who love to regularly check their weight to be more vigilant so that they would not suffer from eating disorders.

Those people who drink an average four glassess of wine and beer a week are prone to suffer from binge drinking.
This was the result of a study made by the the University of Montreal and University of Western Ontario both in Canada where researchers discovered that that Canadians from all ages regardless of gender, who regularly drink liquor end up suffering from binge drinking.
Binge drinking is defined as the drinking of alcoholic beverages with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time.
Researchers also found our in their study that purposeful drinking style that is popular in several countries worldwide, and overlaps somewhat with social drinking since it is often done in groups.

Those who drink an average four glasses of beer and wine a week are most likely to suffer from binge drinking.

The researchers from both universities also found out that infrequent drinkers rarely exceed two servings when they do consume alcoholic beverages
The co-author of the study Andrée Demers, a Université de Montréal sociology professor and director of the Research Group on the Social Aspects of Health and Prevention explained the relationship between drinking frequency and consumption per occasion might be both cultural and biological.
Demers revealed the Canadian drinking culture has a ‘time-out’ depiction of drinking wherein alcohol is a boundary mark between week and weekend, work and leisure, and therefore between routine and time off.
He said regardless of drinking preferences, the study found that many Canadians consume alcoholic beverages on a daily basis to experience its mood-altering affects.
To get the data, the researchers revealed close to 11,000 respondents consisting of 5,743 women and 4,723 men were asked to report on their alcohol consumption within the last 12 months.

Here is a piece of reminder to all pregnant women around the world.
According to a latest study, those women who gain weight during pregnancy caused the daughter they bore to become obese later in her life.
According to a new study by Alison Stuebe, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, the findings are especially important because of the growing epidemic of obesity in women.
Stuebe said if we can help women reach a healthy weight before they start a family, we can make a difference for two generations.
To get the information, Stuebe earlier analyzed data on mothers’ recalled weights and weight gain for more than 24,000 mother-daughter pairs.
She said the heavier a mother was before her pregnancy, the more likely her daughter was to be obese in later life.
She explained , an average-height mother who weighed 150 pounds before pregnancy was twice as likely to have a daughter who was obese at age 18 as a mother who weighed 125 pounds before pregnancy.
The medical expert said weight gain during pregnancy mattered, too both too little and too much weight gain increased a daughter’s risk of becoming obese, especially if a mother was overweight before she got pregnant.
The researcher said women should aim for a healthy weight before they get pregnant, and then gain a moderate amount.

Pregnant women should avoid gaining weight during pregnancy since it could result to obesity to their babies later in their lives.

Using the Nurses’ Health Study II, Stuebe analyzed data for more than 24,000 mother-daughter pairs. The daughters, all registered nurses, are part of the Nurses’ Health Study. They reported their weight at age 18 when they joined the study in 1989, and they reported their current weight in 2001.
In 2001, each mother was asked to recall her pre-pregnancy height and weight, her weight gain while she was pregnant with her daughter, and her daughters’ weight at birth.
Daughters whose mothers gained 15 to 19 pounds during pregnancy had the lowest risk of obesity. Compared to this group, daughters whose mothers gained more than 40 pounds while pregnant were almost twice as likely to be obese at age 18 and later in life.
Too little weight gain was also linked with a daughter’s obesity risk.
Pregnancy weight gain of less than 10 pounds was associated with a 1.5-fold increase in the odds of being obese at 18 and a 1.3-fold increase in odds of being obese in later life.
Furthermore, Stuebe hoped that through her study pregnant women around the world would strive hard not to gain weight to ensure that their daughter will not become obese in the future.

A recent study from the medical experts has revealed that those smokers who quit their habit without proper planning are most likely to fail in their quest to stop cigarette addiction.
Based on the data, gathered by researchers it was discovered that  almost 40 percent of subjects reported that their most recent quit attempt started without any advance planning, suggesting that for some smokers, setting an advance quit date may not be as necessary as once thought.
The researchers revealed while a period of planning prior to quitting has long been thought to allow smokers time to prepare themselves for their quit attempt, the study explores the various reasons as well as demographic and psychographic data, which may contribute, to a smoker deciding to quit spontaneously.

To gain success, smokers should carefully plan their action or they would end up a failure in their quest.

Dr. Saul Shiffman, professor in the departments of psychology and pharmaceutical science at the University of Pittsburgh and study co-author, explained, the study examines the possibility that while quit attempts may seem like spontaneous efforts on the surface, they may actually be the result of prolonged subconscious dissatisfaction with or concern about one’s smoking.
Shiffman added the results do not discredit planning a quit attempt, however, a smoker needs to determine what may be the best approach to ensure long-term cessation.
Furthermore, Shiffman said all smokers should consider ways to manage tough situations such as cravings and withdrawal symptoms to ensure long-term success.

Old men who have breathing problems in sleep more likely to suffer from irregular heartbeats.
This was the findings of a latest research conducted by medical experts who discovered that increasingly severe sleep-related breathing disorders in older men appear to be associated with a greater risk of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias).
It is said that sleep-disordered breathing is a common condition that causes a number of physiologic events that could be stressful to the cardiovascular system, including inadequate blood oxygen levels at night and activation of the sympathetic nervous system (associated with the body’s fight-or-flight response).
Reena Mehra, M.D., M.S., of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, and colleagues studied 2,911 men who underwent sleep testing by polysomnography between 2003 and 2005.
The number of times they experienced apnea (brief pauses in breathing) or hypopnea (shallow breathing) during sleep was recorded, as were any periods of time in which the oxygen level of blood in their arteries dipped below 90 percent (hypoxia).
The researchers said having more episodes of paused or shallow breathing was associated with increased odds of two types of arrhythmias-one involving the heart’s upper chambers (atria) and one involving the heart’s lower chambers (ventricles).
The team revealed obstructive sleep apnea-the most common type, involving a partial or complete blockage of the airways-was associated with irregular heartbeats caused by a problem with the lower chambers or ventricles.

Old men who have breathing problems in sleep need to go to the doctor fast to determine if they are also suffering from irregular heartbeats.

The researchers also discovered that lower blood oxygen levels also appeared to be associated with this type of arrhythmia.
However, central sleep apnea, involving a malfunction in brain signals controlling breathing muscles, was more strongly associated with arrhythmias in the atria or upper chambers.
Furthermore, the researchers explained more severe cases of sleep-disordered breathing were associated with higher odds of arrhythmia.
The researchers added there also seems to be a threshold effect such that moderate-to-severe sleep-disordered breathing confers the greatest increased odds of clinically significant arrhythmias independent of self-reported heart failure and cardiovascular disease.
The team concluded that the line of investigation also identified hypoxia as the possible culprit pathophysiologic characteristic of sleep-disordered breathing that may serve as the trigger of ventricular cardiac arrhythmia development in older men.
With this, they said the strong associations between central sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation [arrhythmia originating in the heart's upper chambers] suggest that central sleep apnea may be a sensitive marker of underlying abnormalities in autonomic or cardiac dysfunction associated with atrial fibrillation.
 

Workers who do have close ties or smooth relationship with his fellow employees are more likely to suffer burnout from work.
This was the result of a recent study in public health science at Karlstad University in Sweden.
The research wad done on some workers wherein they evaluated the sickness leaves of those who have no friends and those who have close ties with their fellow workers.
The study yielded results that those persons who have weak relationship with their fellow workers ends up getting burn-out from work or sick than those who have strong ties with his or her co-workers.
Ulla-Britt Eriksson, who authored explained those workers who got burn-out from work or end up sick is seen as those who are  gradually emptied of feelings that sustain the life-giving force that provides joy and involvement and serves as a basis for mental well-being.

To last long in work, it would help if you have close ties with your fellow workers.

Eriksson said secure and comforting social relations with other people nourish this force.
The study showed that individuals on long-term sickness leave made it clear that these preconditions were lacking in their surroundings.
To avoid getting burnout from work or even getting sick it would be good to have close ties with your fellow workers.
Workers could have different attitudes and characters but if they have a good relationship with each other burnout and sickness can easily be avoided.

According to a latest study mothers who are brave enough to admit they are formerly hooked on illegal drugs can achieve good results in their action.
Based on the research conducted by the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada some 3,530 Alberta youth Grades 7 to 12 revealed that teens were more likely to use drugs if they knew that their mothers had used drugs but did not pressure their kids to avoid the illegal practice.
Researcher Lori Harach, a professor of human ecology at the University of Alberta revealed the findings suggest that adolescents might benefit from parental talks about the dangers of drug use, especially when their mothers have experience with drugs.
Harach said factor might give extra credibility to the messaging in the eyes of the teen.
She said mothers who have previous illegal drugs experience should not hide their unfavourable past since opening it could their children valuable lesson to avoid using illegal drugs.
As the saying goes, the best testimony is your own experience.
Mothers around the world should keep in mind that their children would not scorn them if ever they admit using drugs since their children love them deadly.
Instead of being scorned, their children would love them more and will keep away from the things that put their mother in the bad light in the past.

To keep their children away from drug addiction, mothers should be bold enough to admit they are using drugs in the past.