Health and medical information

Monica, an advertising executive, said to me, ‘Very few Indian men know the art of arousing a female. Most of them fumble, are clumsy, heavy-handed and just want to grab the breasts. They think they are peeling mangoes!’ She hesitated, played with the pin-cushion on my table and ruefully remarked, ‘As for intercourse, most of them are what the Americans call ‘Slam-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am’ and discharge in a few minutes. There are classes for shorthand, typing, elocution, advanced management, but there is nothing for teaching males how to turn on their partners and for females how

Tito respond sexually.’ Monica is right. ‘The Tragedy of the Bedroom’, as Tolstoy calls it, could be easily avoided with a little knowledge of how to arouse a woman.

Different women look for different attributes in men. Some want intelligence, social status, wealth, power, while others are attracted by an ability to converse, wit, or skill in sports. Sunil Gavaskar makes the heart of many females throb, and so does the handsome Nawab of Pataudi with his polished batting and impeccable behaviour. Being handsome, is, however, low down on the list of most women.

One frequently finds positively ugly-looking men being ardently pursued and loved by very beautiful and attractive females. ‘I don’t know what she sees in him!’ say the jealous onlookers who have lost the race. The answer: a sensuous man.

A sexually knowledgeable and experienced male once told me, ‘Doctor, contrary to whatever you read in the books, an extra inch of male anatomy makes all the difference to some women. A few become orgasmic just looking at a generously endowed male, whilst others reach many orgasms with such males.’ However, with the majority of women, the size of the penis is low down on their list of priorities. Most “women enjoy sex best if they love their partners, rather than have it with someone for whom they have no emotional attachment What they want most is gentleness, tenderness, a man who cares for them and desires them. Many women get aroused quickly not only because their partner wants sex but because he desires them and appreciates them.

SEX AND THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE: Sexual desire is highest just before the onset of the period and for the first two days of the period. The woman is easily aroused and responds more intensely during this time.

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Nasal or Sputum Smear Tests

Common tests include a nasal or a sputum smear in which mucus from the nose or the chest is examined under a microscope for excess amount of white blood cells called eosinophils. High eosinophils count is the hallmark of an ongoing allergic reaction. Eosinophil count increases dramatically in children suffering from hay fever and asthma. The level of eosinophils in the body can be measured by a blood test called the eosinophil count. Eosinophils normally comprise three to four per cent of all white blood cells, but in children with asthma, the eosinophil blood count is frequently elevated. The level of eosinophils often reflects the severity of asthma.

Blood Tests

It is also possible to detect allergies with blood tests. These tests are very helpful when the doctor cannot perform skin tests because of a skin eruption, or a child’s fear of needles, or when there is a chance of inducing an allergic reaction with skin tests.

However allergy blood tests have three major disadvantages:

1. They are not quite as accurate as skin tests.

2. They are many times more expensive than skin tests

3. The results are usually not available until two to three weeks after testing.

Children are naturally scared of blood tests, believing that these would hurt them. Reassurance by parents and a warm, friendly approach by the doctor often removes any fear from the child.

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There is plenty of research to support a link between poor eating habits and PMS. The main problems are thought to be caused by shortages of:

• vitamins, particularly B-group vitamins

• minerals such as magnesium and zinc

• essential fatty adds

LACK of essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids (EFAS) are not fats, like butter, nor adds like those you might have used in school chemistry

lessons. They are more like vitamins (in fad they were called vitamin F when they were first discovered), EFAS are vital for good health and, because our bodies cannot make them, we have to obtain them from our food.

EFAS belong to a group of polyunsaturated fatty adds (PUFAS for short), PUFAS have several roles’ in the body inducting:

• forming part of the membrane that surrounds every cell in the body 15

• providing energy

• maintaining body temperature

• insulating the nerves

In the case of PMS it’s thought that the effect on prostaglandin production is the root of the problem.

There are several types of prostaglandin (scientists believe there are many more that have not yet been discovered). They are involved in a range of processes from blood dotting, lowering blood pressure, causing the womb to contract, and protecting against stomach ulcers.

In the brain a shortage of prostaglandins is thought to lead to low levels of the body’s natural tranquillizers, the endorphins – hence the symptoms of anxiety reported by some women with PMS.

The most important source of EFAS in the diet are meats, dairy products, oily fish, seafoods such as shrimps and prawns, and green leafy vegetables.

The story is further complicated by the fact that there are two forms of linoleic add. One of them – the cis form – is more easily used by the body than the other – the trans form.

The natural state of most PUFAS is in the this form. But during heating or the process of Tiydrogenation’ (as, for example, in the manufacture of low fat’ spreads) the molecule may become changed into the trans form.

For the body, trying to use the trans form is rather like trying to put a left shoe on your right foot. It looks similar but the ‘fif is wrong.

In effect the trans forms are useless as the body cannot convert them and they prevent the body from using cis forms as they block the spaces in the cells where the chemical conversions take place. If s rather like the battle for space between adrenalin and progesterone.

Since some processed foods such as soft margarines and vegetable cooking oils (particularly those that contain hydrogenated oils) may contain up to 50 per cent trans-fatty adds there is real concern that EFA deficiency is widespread.

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