Dear  Yvonne,
Occasionally, my lover and I will have an entire hour or two for sex. We don’t feel like making love, though, we feel as if we’re on ‘autopilot.’ How can we keep things spicy and stay connected without feeling robotic or just going through the moves?
- Jude

Dear Jude,
What I’d recommend is taking a couples’ yoga class together as a form of foreplay. This provides a different way of becoming intimate and getting to know your partner’s body. Adjusting each other’s bodies, getting pressed together at times, and seeing each other in a new light, while helping your bodies to unwind and feel good, can heighten the desire to make love.  Exercise is often considered an aphrodisiac.

If this can’t happen in an hour, you can practice your own yoga moves at home as a warm up to greater (spiritual) union. Such an interaction also helps to expand the idea of what sex is about and helps to make it an entire body experience instead of one with a “going through the moves” genital-focus. 

Dr. Yvonne Kristin Fulbright is a sex educator, relationship expert, columnist and founder of Sexuality Source Inc. She is the author of several books including, “Touch Me There! A Hands-On Guide to Your Orgasmic Hot Spots.”

Dear Dr. Y,
I am so self-conscious about my body that I can’t get out of my head enough during sex to orgasm.  I worry about what my partner might be thinking about - all of the imperfections and squishy parts - instead of about my pleasure. What do I do about this head game?
Leslie

Dear Leslie,
Socialization and habit dictate the positive and negative response you’re having to your own body. Undoing these notions can be a challenge, but yoga, therapy, massage and other naturopathic/holistic exercises and treatments can be excellent tools for getting comfortable in your skin and accepting yourself as a beautiful living specimen.

 You can also take on this head game by standing in front of the mirror after your next shower. Take a deep breath as you look at each body part as objectively as possible. Watch for programmed responses and move past them by letting go of them. Acknowledge and accept each part of your whole without judging. Labels are so harsh, and can impede your ability to realize that, for example, a potbelly is just a belly - not good or bad, merely a belly. 

 If you still feel terribly self-conscious post-body and soul work, a trainer might be able to help you design an exercise program to trim down, bulk up or change your overall appearance. But make sure you do it for you – to feel better about your figure. Learning to love your self in is a vital part of a fulfilled life, not limited to the realm of sexual satisfaction. Self-love is the cornerstone to being fully capable of loving anyone else.

Dr. Yvonne Kristín Fulbright is a sex educator, relationship expert, columnist and founder of Sexuality Source Inc. She is the author of several books including, “Touch Me There! A Hands-On Guide to Your Orgasmic Hot Spots.”

Many people over the age of 50 have been watching the Olympics from their couches, resigned to be voyeurs, thinking they are too old to exercise themselves. But a study from Stanford University published in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests we may all be much better off watching the Olympics from our treadmills. This study adds to the growing body of evidence showing that moderate exercise prolongs life, and decreases your risk of many diseases.

This study is unique because it looks at the positive effects of exercise on the elderly, at a time of life when many have already given up, believing (wrongly), that the damage has been done. Five hundred runners were tracked for more than 20 years. They averaged four hours of running per week at the beginning, just more than an hour per week by the end of 20 years.  It turned out the elderly runners were half as likely to die prematurely from heart attacks, cancer, neurological disease including strokes, infections, and other causes than the non-runners.

Perhaps even more interestingly, there was no evidence that the patients in the study suffered from more arthritis or needed more knee replacements than non-runners. This is an important finding for aging people who insist they shouldn’t exercise because it will wear down their joints.

The study is limited because it is observational and does not prove that it is actually the running that kept the patients alive longer. Other lifestyle factors may have contributed to longevity. People who run also tend to have better diets, better mood, better sleep habits, all factors that can decrease stress and influence lifespan, especially when combined with exercise.

But there is little doubt that exercise is good for you. It lowers stress, improves circulation, and decreases pressure on the heart. Some common questions my elderly patients ask me:

Q - If I start running tomorrow, will it help?
A - It is never too late to start running. It won’t help much right away, but the benefits accrue over several weeks.

Q - What about my knees and my back? If I’m overweight, won’t it hurt them?
A - You should check with your physician first. If he or she clears you, you should start slow and build up. I advise running on soft surfaces. You can be monitored for signs of arthritis, and the Stanford study suggests no increase over non-runners.

Q - Do I have to run? Can’t I do something else that doesn’t hurt as much?
A - Swimming, elliptical, Nordic track, rowing machines, and bicycles are all good cardiovascular exercise which decrease pressure on the heart while improving circulation to the vital organs of the body. Each can be just as effective exercise as running and may be better tolerated in certain cases.

Marc Siegel MD is an internist and associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a Fox News Medical Contributor and writes a health column for LA Times, where he examines TV and movies for medical accuracy. Dr. Siegel is the author of False Alarm: the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear (Wiley 2005) and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic (Wiley 2006). Read more at www.doctorsiegel.com

As we approach the Olympic Games in Beijing, China this week is time to take note if you find yourself “breathing heavy” during or after exercise.  This may a sign of more than just good aerobic activity.  Exercise-associated asthma can be the culprit; in many cases you may not realize you have this form of intermittent asthma.  Symptoms such as coughing or difficulty breathing during or shortly after exercise are commonly seen. 

In the past several Olympic Games up to one-fifth of athletes have a history of EIA (exercise induced asthma).  It certainly does not keep these elite athletes sidelined.  EIA may be triggered by “oversensitivity” to changing conditions including temperature, humidity as well as air quality, during the workout.  

Strategies in dealing with EIA

·         Hydrate with water before, during and after exercise

·         Warm up with a decent stretch and light exercise

·         Give yourself an adequate period for a “cool down” when done

·         Control your allergies and asthma triggers (especially on high pollen count days)

·         Check out the air quality index (pollution and ozone levels) before you exercise outdoors

·         Pre-treat with inhaled medication as advised by your doctor (after your diagnosis is confirmed) to prevent symptoms

Additional info and tips on “exercise induced asthma” can be found at www.aaaai.org/patients/publicedmat/tips/exerciseinducedasthma.stm.

Dr. Clifford W. Bassett is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Long Island College Hospital and on the faculty of NYU School of Medicine.  He is the current vice chair for public education committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.  No information in this blog is intended as medical advice to any reader or intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition.

If you’ve read health headlines recently, you may think that a pill has been developed to replace exercise, but this isn’t really the case. Dr. Ronald M. Evans of the Salk Institute in San Diego, a noted researcher, has spent many years studying the effects of a cellular protein known as PPAR -delta. Having previously shown that this protein causes fat burning, he and his research group have now discovered that PPAR-delta can be provoked by drugs to increase the production of type 1 muscle fibers rather than the less useful type 2 fibers. This is significant because type 1 fibers contain more mitochondria, the tiny furnace that provides the muscle with its energy. Type 2 fibers, by contrast, are more prevalent in the muscles of folks who are obese, sedentary, or have diabetes.

Evans and his group found that when given a drug known as Aicar, mice increased their exercise endurance by 44 percent in just 4 weeks. When the test mice were given GW1516, they were able to run 75% longer, provided that the drug was combined with exercise. The results were just published in the reputable journal Cell.

Many in the news media have jumped on these findings and begun to speculate that exercise might soon be obsolete, but there are several reasons to be cautious. In the first place, though these mouse proteins are similar to human proteins, mice are not people, and it is not possible to test these drugs for long term safety in mice, since they only live for little more than a year. Even if these pills appear to help heart function, our most essential muscle, there needs to be more study as to how they affect other essential organs including the kidney, liver, and brain.

Exercise itself has many immeasurable effects on the metabolism, and it also has a positive psychological effect that may not be reproducible by a pill. When you exercise, the brain releases endorphins, happy hormones that make us feel good.

Of course GW1516 or Aicar or drugs like them might end up being useful  for patients with disabilities who  cannot exercise, as well as for people who can exercise but need help getting started or building up after months of inactivity. When human trials start, it might be interesting to study these drugs in astronauts , who are faced with long periods of confinement in space.

But there are other concerns. We already have a problem with performance-enhancing drugs in sports, and this could add to it. And it will always be impossible to accurately measure or replace all the hormones released in response to actual exercise, as well as the feeling of wellbeing that ensues.

Marc Siegel MD is an internist and associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a Fox News Medical Contributor and writes a health column for LA Times, where he examines TV and movies for medical accuracy. Dr. Siegel is the author of False Alarm: the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear (Wiley 2005) and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic (Wiley 2006). Read more at www.doctorsiegel.com