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Homepage | Men's Health
Scientists Working on Male Contraceptive Drug
WebMD reports that scientists have made some progress in rats with Adjudin, a drug that has the potential to act as a male contraceptive. WebMD's article says recent lab test on rats showed no signs of side effects and that the effects of the drug wore off in 20 weeks.
Basically, Adjudin nips wannabe sperm cells in the bud. Those cells, called germ cells, ordinarily develop into sperm. But they need the help of other cells, called Sertoli cells, to reach that destiny.
Adjudin interferes with the process.
Cheng's team previously reported from other animal tests that Adjudin, given orally by itself, was too toxic to be a suitable contraceptive because it caused liver inflammation and muscle shrinkage (atrophy).
So the scientists bundled Adjudin with a synthetic version of the sex hormone FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) and injected it into the bellies of four male rats.
A male contraceptive pill that had no side effects and could last for months would be a major breakthrough. There will have to be considerable testing of this drug to make sure there will be no side effects -- like the liver inflammation and muscle shrinkage mentioned above.
Posted on November 3, 2006
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Study Links Cell Phone Use to Male Infertility
The Daily Mail reports that a recent study of cell phone users could mean that men who use cell phones are at an increased risk of infertility. The study found that men who use cell phones for over four hours a day had a 25% lower sperm count.
US researchers in Cleveland and New Orleans, and doctors in Mumbai, India, looked at more than 360 men undergoing checks at a fertility clinic who were classified into three groups according to their sperm count.
Men who used a mobile for more than four hours a day had a 25 per cent lower sperm count than men who never used a mobile.
The men with highest usage also had greater problems with sperm quality, with the swimming ability of sperm - a crucial factor in conception - down by a third.
They had a 50 per cent drop in the number of properly formed sperm, with just one-fifth looking normal under a microscope.
Professor Ashok Agarwal, director of the Reproductive Research Centre at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, who led the study, said "Almost a billion people are using cell phones around the world and the number is growing in many countries at 20 to 30 per cent a year.
The findings are alarming but a much broader and larger study will be need to verify the results. Four hours of cell phone use per day is also a considerable amount of cell phone use but apparently not uncommon since 114 of the 360 men in the study use their cell phones for four hours or more daily.
Posted on October 25, 2006
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Study: Pomegranate Juice Lowers Prostate Risk
A new study has found that drinking pomegranate juice may be beneficial to men. The BBC reports on the study which found pomegranate juice slows prostate growth and reduces PSA numbers.
Pomegranates contain a cocktail of chemicals which minimise cell damage, and potentially kill off cancer cells.
The study, by the University of California in Los Angeles, appears in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Previous research had indicated that pomegranate juice could have a beneficial effect on prostate cancer in tests on mice.
But the latest study has shown that humans can potentially benefit too.
Fighting prostate cancer is just one of the many possible benefits of pomegranates. It has also been linked to other benefits. They contain anti-oxidants and isoflavones. This may be why pomegranates are also a hot shopping trend.
Posted on July 11, 2006
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Virus Might Cause Some Prostate Cancers
CNN reports the scientists have discovered that some prostate cancers may be caused by a virus. Scientists found a virus that is closely related to a cancer-causing mouse virus in some human patients with prostate cancer.
"It is a very exciting discovery," said Dr. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic, who will present the findings Friday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology prostate symposium in San Francisco. "There is now a suggestion that prostate cancer could be caused by an infectious disease."
Infectious disease-causing viruses are already blamed for causing some liver cancers and cervical cancer. That has planted nagging suspicions in the minds of scientists that some diseases may play important roles alongside genetics, environment and chance in causing breast, stomach and several other forms of cancer.
Researchers are not sure how the virus infected people, but suspect it has been passed on genetically for thousands of years.
"This is a class of virus no one would have looked for in prostate cancer," said UCSF researcher Joe DeRisi, who developed the so-called "gene chip" that made the discovery. DeRisi's chip contains 20,000 snippets of vital genetic material from every known virus. It is the same chip that confirmed a previously undiscovered virus in the cold family that caused the SARS outbreak three years ago.
The scientists plan to expand the testing to see if more patients test positive for the virus. They also plan to conduct more studies to determine whether or not that is an actual link between the virus and human prostate cancer.
Posted on February 27, 2006
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