According to Penn State researchers, high levels of the male sex hormone testosterone may play an important role in the spread of disease.

Previous studies have linked testosterone to immune system suppression and found that males experience more bouts of disease and are responsible for more disease transmission than females.

These findings suggest that even if some individuals in a population have high levels of testosterone, they can impact the behavior of those around, and drive the transmission of diseases transmitted by close contact such as the respiratory pathogen bordetella.

The study was presented Aug. 8 at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America.

A new study says that boys may be more likely to have childhood asthma than girls, but they are also more likely to grow out of it.

The report, published in the second August issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, found that boys also have fewer asthma occurrences in the post-pubertal years.

After an average of 8.6 years, boys became increasingly tolerant over time to larger and larger doses of methacholine, which provokes airway constriction, suggesting a possible decrease in disease severity. By age 16, it took more than twice as much methacholine to provoke a 20 percent constriction in the boys’ airway on average as it did with the girls’.

Statins might quickly help reverse erectile dysfunction among men who have metabolic syndrome, new animal research suggests.

A threat to cardiovascular health, metabolic syndrome is also known to raise the risk for erectile dysfunction (ED). The current finding indicates that statins may reduce levels of a specific protein that contributes to ED.

According to researchers, each condition of metabolic syndrome phenomenon — high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and obesity — independently raises the risk for erectile dysfunction just on their own. And so, when all are present in combination as part of this syndrome, the patient have a situation where he doesn’t even need to be as diabetic or hypertensive as he might otherwise have to be to experience erectile dysfunction.

Men hoping for some fireworks in their love life this Fourth of July may want to skip the burgers and beer at the barbecue and eat plenty of watermelon.

Watermelon may be a natural Viagra, says a researcher. That’s because the popular summer fruit is richer than experts believed in an amino acid called citrulline, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels much like Viagra and other drugs meant to treat erectile dysfunction (ED).

Cancer researchers in Seattle have concluded that prostate tumors shed tiny but durable strips of genetic material. Existing laboratory tests can identify the genetic molecules, called microRNAs, even if present in only minute amounts in a blood sample. Researchers say that suggests the microRNAs could reveal cancers at their earliest stages.

This is a finding that may allow doctors to give a simple blood test to detect hidden cancer.

A team of researchers, including an Indian-origin scientist, says that apart from aging, factors like mental and physical health, demographics and lifetime experiences also lead to sexual dysfunction.

The research paper says that men are more than five times as likely to report sex as non-pleasurable if they have previously had an STD.

Among men, mental health issues and relationship problems contributed to a lack of interest in sex and the inability to achieve orgasm, while being treated for urinary tract syndrome was associated with trouble maintaining and achieving an erection.

The study even found that demographic characteristics and cultural factors also influence sexual performance: hispanic women were twice as likely to report pain during intercourse, and black men were twice as likely to report a lack of interest in sex and more likely to report climaxing too early.

E-medicine-prescribing medicines via the Internet-has been found to outperform the tradition system of visiting a doctor’s clinic, in treating patients with erectile dysfunction (ED), in a recent study.

Using statistical analyses, the researchers compared the safety of both approaches in treating patients who had ED.

The safety comparisons looked at a number of criteria, including prescription appropriateness, how often the prescribers used a diagnostic tool called the International Index of Erectile Questions (IIEQs) and the level of patient education provided by prescribers.

The researchers found that the e-medicine system’outperformed the traditional system in most of the safety variables tested’

In the August 15, 2008, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, (published online August 12) researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center report that targeted radiation therapy had completely controlled all signs of cancer in 21 percent of patients who had five or fewer sites of metastatic disease.

The technique could also be applied after chemotherapy in cases where the drugs had eliminated most the smaller cancer, leaving only a few larger tumors behind.

The Schneck Medical Center Foundation will again sponsor free prostate cancer screening tests on Sept. 11, 16, and Oct. 7. The screenings will be at Schneck’s Cancer Center on the medical center campus. You must have a scheduled appointment to participate in the free screening

To schedule a prostate cancer screening, call Schneck’s Cancer Center at 522-0477. Please leave your name and phone number and your call will be returned promptly. Again, screening times are limited so please call early.

In a recent study, researchers at the University of Chicago concluded that sexual dysfunction is not an inevitable part of aging, but it is strongly related a number of factors, such as mental and physical health, demographics and lifetime experiences, many of which are interrelated.

Among men, mental health issues and relationship problems contributed to a lack of interest in sex and the inability to achieve orgasm, while being treated for urinary tract syndrome was associated with trouble maintaining and achieving an erection.

Daily alcohol consumption seems to have no impact on interest and pleasure of sex.

Demographic characteristics and cultural factors also are related to sexual performance, the study found. Among men, blacks were twice as likely to report a lack of interest in sex and more likely to report climaxing too early.