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When, a few months ago, it became public knowledge that Fern Britton had undergone gastric bypass surgery there was a public outcry that she had somehow ‘cheated’ in her attempts to lose weight. The media accused her of taking an ‘easy' option rather than the more traditional weight loss treatments. The fact that Britton took considerable amounts of exercise, something shown by her commitment to running in public, was barely mentioned. Neither was the fact that the surgery that Britton underwent, a gastric bypass, is a dangerous procedure with a very real chance of compilations and even death. The procedure is not something that would be undertaken lightly and is a last resort after all other weight loss treatments have failed.

Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are extremely effective treatments for mild to moderate cases of erectile Dysfunction. For most men suffering with ED, these PDE-5 inhibitors provide the most suitable option. Viagra has been available for over ten years and has helped millions of men across the globe. There are, however, men for whom oral Erectile Dysfunction medication is not an option. For these sufferers it might then seem that there is no real option available to them. This, however, is not the case.

Dr Peter Muench, a prominent urologist has said this week that the improvements in penile implants over the last few years mean that it is the best and most suitable option for many men suffering from serious ED.

The kind of Erectile Dysfunction cases which are untreatable by oral medication are usually those which have been caused by prostate cancer. Research has shown men who are prescribed Viagra post operatively have a far greater chance of achieving a spontaneous erection after three months. Some men, however, do not respond to this method of treatment and it is this category of men that Dr. Muench thinks is most suitable for penile implants.

He says that implants have the best level of satisfaction in both the patients and their partners than any other type of treatment, including oral medication. He says that the implants provide maximum rigidity, durability and concealability. Improvements in the implants have also meant that the risk of infection is now much less than it used to be thanks to the fact that the manufacturers coat the implants in antibiotics.

Dr. Muench also says that a penile implant not only restores erectile function but improves on it. He says that a penile prosthesis can actually help a man to perform better than his peers and better than he did in his prime because the implant stays erect until he chooses to deflate it.

Dr. Muench, perhaps, slightly overstates his case in suggesting that a penile implant will help a man to become some kind of super stud. Most of the men who have this operation would probably be delighted in the fact that they have restored erectile function without having to perform all night to prove it!

How difficult is it to eat a healthy, balanced diet? Surely most people in the United Kingdom would have a fair idea of what this would consist of, even if they themselves did not follow such a diet. The World Health Organisation’s published recommendations of the daily allowances for salt and sugar intake, for the minimum amount of fruit and vegetables we should eat, the maximum level of saturated fat and the maximum amount of all fats have been around for more than a decade but is it really necessary to be so prescriptive?

Research published this week suggests that the circumference of someone’s belly is a better indication of whether or not that person is at risk of stroke than body mass index (BMI). The study was carried out by Dr Yaroslav Winter from the University of Heidelberg in Germany and was published on Friday 14^th August in the journal Stroke. Previous studies carried out on stroke risk have already suggested that the circumference of someone’s waist is a better indicator or risk from cardiovascular disease than a person’s body mass index.

Scientists in the United States have made interesting discoveries about possible links between childhood ear infections and obesity in teenage years and adulthood. The research was presented at the American Psychological Association annual meeting in Boston. The scientists have found that children who had their tonsils removed or who suffered from severe ear infections as children were more likely to be obese when they grew up. The reasoning for this is the fact that severe ear infections or the operation to remove the tonsils (tonsillectomy) often may cause damage to the taste nerves which means that children will favour high-fat-foods as these often have a stronger taste than healthier options. These people, it was found, tended to opt for junk food and sweets.

New research from the University of Chicago debunks a popular myth about Erectile Dysfunction. In it scientists suggest that ED is not an inevitable part of the aging process but rather that it is related to a number of factors. The fact that physical health, that is to say general well being, is one of the factors is not surprising, neither perhaps is a man’s mental health and well being. What the research has also found, however, is that social demographics and past sexual health history also play a significant role in whether or not a man will suffer from ED.

This week marks the publication of a book called The Anti-Aging Protocol: How to Live for Up To 30 Years Extra. It is by a scientist called Dr Malcolm H. Goyns and is based on research conducted by The University of Liverpool’s School Of Biological Science.  In it he claims that by following two steps you will be able to add many years to your life and, and this is where it gets really good, lose a significant amount of weight and then be able to eat a normal calorie diet without putting it back on!

On The Online Clinic blog last week we reported that most of the British men questioned in a survey on Erectile Dysfunction were unaware that forty percent of them would suffer from the condition at some point after the age of forty. It is not a particularly surprising fact. Unless men go out of their way to research health issues in the media, either printed or on the internet, they are probably not going to going to be particularly well informed about the various health risks which may occur at certain ages. So nothing revelatory there then!

Ask the average person in the United Kingdom what is the one thing that poses the greatest threat to this country and you would probably not be surprised if they said terrorism. After all, it is a threat that is real, as we have seen in the July 7^th bombings in London. Anyone is able to visit the MI5 website and look at the terrorist threat level in this country. At present it is listed as ‘severe’.

The official list of threats and risks which face this country has, however, until now been kept confidential. On Friday the information was released. It was not shown as a numeric list, however, but as a graph with two lines. One shows the ‘relative impact’ of each threat and the other shows the ‘relative likelihood’. In terms of immediate likely occurrence, terrorism is highest on the graph in terms of likelihood. In terms of potential impact, however, it is flu pandemic which tops the graph.

In a previous article published on The Online Clinic blog we reported the findings of a government committee regarding the potential flu pandemic that stated that it was not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’. The report said that the number of deaths from the pandemic would be between 50,000 and 750,000 in this country alone and that more than one million people would require hospital care.

It is not possible to predict exactly when the pandemic might occur but experts say that when it does it will come in several waves of between three and six months over the course of two years. The Ministry of Defence has said that the flu pandemic will generate “unprecedented levels of public fear, stress and panic.”

3.3 million doses of vaccine for the H5N1 strain of avian flu have been purchased for the NHS, but it will be impossible to create a vaccine for the pandemic until it actually hits. The virus will need to be identified and a vaccine will then take between four to six months to manufacture, by which point there will have already been a massive loss of life. So although terrorism might have a higher media profile than the predicted pandemic, its effects will be in no way as far reaching as a human flu pandemic.

Last week on The Online Clinic health blog we reported a new government initiative to make men over the age of forty aware that forty percent of them would suffer from Erectile Dysfunction after reaching that age. The initiative was based on a survey of men’s health concerns that highlighted the fact that men were not aware of potential risks to their health or how to recognise them. These risks included prostate problems, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes. The report did not, however, refer to the health issue which men were most concerned about over the age of forty. What was it you may ask? The answer was hair loss.