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Are you tired, listless?

The people who are old will tell you how tired they feel. Not all the time, you understand. But they just seem to run out of steam and lie down in the middle of the day to recover. It never used to be like this. When they were young, they could run around at work and still have enough energy to live life to the full for the rest of the day. Now ask someone younger who’s overweight. It’s the same answer. They feel tired and listless a lot of the time. Their stamina has gone and, with increasingly less exercise in their daily program, what was a slow weight gain becomes an avalanche.

Interestingly, there’s quite a lot of research showing thin people have better stamina. They seem to maintain a better level of fitness. Physically and psychologically, heavier people find moving around more of an effort. They are more content to drop anchor on the couch, pick up a large bag of tasty snacks, and channel hop until something watchable comes along. This reflects a change in the body’s metabolism. As weight increases, hormone levels also change. When the testosterone of youth was pumping through the blood, activity levels were high. Now these men feel and act tired. Many also feel slightly depressed and, as most psychiatrists will tell you, depression is the enemy of libido.

In a recent study of men with a BMI of 30 and higher at the University of Buffalo, 40% were found to have unusually low levels of testosterone. This failure to maintain the level of testosterone rose to 50% in men diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. In a survey of French men, those classified as obese were more than twice as likely to report erectile dysfunction as thin men. Taken together, this could explain why millions of overweight Americans find difficulties in the bedroom.

This is not all bad news. A new study reported in the Journal of Sexual Medicine shows obese men recovered sexual function after going on a strict diet. This happened quite quickly as the weight was reduced. All the men found harder erections after losing 5% of their body weight. Interestingly, the nature of the diet made no difference. The revival of function came with the loss of weight, no matter how it was achieved. Unfortunately, the study failed to monitor the levels of testosterone. The main focus of the research was into Type 2 Diabetes and so the researchers only measured the levels of cholesterol and glucose in the blood. As a side effect, the men also reported less difficulty in urinating. The researchers speculate that just as a fall in the cholesterol levels may improve cardiovascular performance and reduce the risk of a stroke or heart attack, so a reduction in the level of inflammation in the blood vessels connected with the bladder function may ease urination.

So now the choice is yours. Cialis is an excellent drug and, in most men with reasonable levels of libido, it restores sexual activity no matter what your body weight. But if you want to feel better in yourself and improve your self-esteem, lose weight and save money on the Cialis. Would you rather be thiner and more active, or stay at your current weight and rely on a drug to keep you going?

Diabetes and erectile dysfunction

Let’s start this off with a simple definition. Diabetes is a metabolic disease where the human body cannot use the natural sugar in the blood as energy. The cause is the failure of the pancreas to produce enough insulin. It comes in two different forms. In Type 1, the body fails to make any insulin. In Type 2, the body makes some insulin but fails to use it properly. It’s estimated that about 57 million people in the US are in the slide into diabetes, i.e. their blood sugar levels are already too high because their bodies are resisting the effect of insulin. This can only be described as an epidemic in the making. Why should we care? After all, both forms of diabetes are treatable. Well, the answer comes in two steps. Many people do not realize their danger in time. As a result, the diabetes begins to damage the body. Untreated, it can cause heart disease, kidney failure and blindness. In extreme cases, the feet and legs can develop gangrene and they have to be amputated. The second problem lies in the nature of Type 2 diabetes. This is largely a lifestyle issue. People eat and drink excessively, their weight rises and their body’s metabolism is thrown out of balance. Effective treatment requires change. An extreme measure is gastric bypass surgery to bring down the weight fast. Without this, it depends on people sticking with a diet and exercising regularly.

Erectile dysfunction is one of the first symptoms of Type 2 diabetes in men. The arteries leading into the penis are among the smallest in the body. To achieve an erection, the smooth muscle walls must be able to dilate. Unfortunately, as the blood sugar level rises, the walls of all blood vessels begin to harden. This slows down the dilation and the ability to achieve an erection gradually disappears. This disappearance is what drives men into seeking help. In turn, this prompts the diagnosis of the underlying problem.

Then, it’s all up to the man to change. Everything that can be done to prevent the spread of the disease must be done. This means following the treatment program laid down by your doctor and removing all the factors contributing to the erectile dysfunction. So you have to remove all the major causes of stress from your life. Try to be more laid back for all the right reasons. Quit smoking and stop excessive drinking. Some alcohol is OK but not a lot. And then lose some weight. Change your diet and, most importantly, start exercising. Raising your fitness and stamina levels improves the circulation of your blood and gives better erections. This is a high priority. As your blood sugar levels come under control, the damage to your body will slow. You can use viagra as needed to maintain the hardness of your erection but, as your weight drops, you should find erections improve naturally. Congratulations! You brought diabetes under control before all the major health disasters hit you and restored your erections. If you do not take effective action, buy viagra. This will keep you going for a year or so but note the warnings given above. The point of the diagnosis is giving you the chance to prevent a disease from making you seriously ill in a few years time. The longer you delay effective action, the greater the risk of heart disease, blindness and amputations.

Top Weight Loss Tip That Doesn’T Include Exercise

Weight Loss Tips

a new healthy weight loss diet coming out almost every week. There are also numerous weight loss tips and guidelines to help you lose weight. Now many of these healthy eating guidelines and weight loss tips are valid points and should be followed if you want to achieve permanent weight loss. You may be overlooking a major component to successful weight loss. This has nothing to do with healthy eating guidelines or exercise intervals. It has to do with recovery and your downtime. How much sleep do you get each and every night? The make or break tip to your weight loss success could be by the amount of sleep you get. Research studies are showing that those who are sleep deprived have higher levels of bodyfat compared to those who get adequate sleep each night. Studies have also linked a lack of sleep to hypertension and Type 2 diabetes. A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology followed 68,000 Americans for 16 years and found that those who got five hours or less of sleep per night were one third more likely to gain 30 plus pounds over the course of the study than those who slept seven hours or longer. Another study Stanford University reported that subjects who slept the least had higher levels of bodyfat than those who slept 8 hours or more. The commonalities that both studies have are that the participants who lacked sleep had lower levels of the hormone leptin and higher levels of the hormone ghrelin. Leptin is produced primarily by the fat cells and this hormone works to decrease hunger and increase your metabolic rate. The hormone Ghrelin is produced by the gastrointestinal tract and increases your hunger. This is an imbalance of two key hormones that affect your body type and whether you gain weight or not. The simple answer to correct this is to obviously sleep more. There are other things you can and should be doing to keep your leptin level elevated and your ghrelin level low, but the most often overlooked weight loss tip is sleep. Sleep is something we wish we could do more of and just never seem to get it because we are all very busy. If you are one who struggles with losing weight. You have tried healthy weight loss diet after diet and you still seem to struggle with your weight loss than I suggest this. You should record how much sleep you get each night for one week. Before you go to bed each night evaluate how your day was. Were you tired? Did you wake up refreshed? Did you feel that you needed more sleep? After this one week of recording your sleep look at how many hours on average you slept each night. If it wasn’t 7 hours then make it a goal to average 7 hours of sleep a night. If you did average 7 hours and you still felt tired every morning then work to increase that average to 8 hours and see how you feel. Every person is a little different when it comes to required restful sleep. You may need to experiment with this a little. If you are serious about permanently losing weight though I suggest you make increasing your sleep a priority or everything else you do to lose weight may be for nothing.

Jayson Hunter is a Registered Dietitian with more than 10 years of experience helping people breakthrough and discover a healthier life. Learn more powerful nutrition tips at healthy eating guidelines.