So the real solution?  It’s all about cardio as a first line of offense. Second would be nutrition or a healthy eating plan.  check out theLOFT Fitness Studio’s website for more on how.  www.tlfs.ca

It has caused deaths.  In children.  Children??  Calm down before you scrunch your face so hard you’re a candidate for an injection too!  Apparently there are 2 forms of the product.  One for treatment of spasms and one for facial wrinkles.  Not sure how different the two are though.  For more on the warning

Botox Quick Stats brought to you by Women’s Health Magazine:

Which leads, maybe not, to something that would make you scratch your head:  Why the hell would you pay so much to put a toxin in your body/face that can (A) potentially kill you  (B) isn’t all that effective  (C) makes part of your face look like one of those under-the- skin zits not quite ready to pop  (D) was designed for biological warfare in WWII?

Read more in Sphincter on the ineffectiveness of botox

Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry. (Editor’s Query: does this include lap dances for all parties involved??)

Read More on the Current Buff-oon Award Recipient

FIRST BASE

Exposure of expectant mothers to phthalates, a common ingredient in many plastics, has been linked to smaller penis size and incomplete descent of testicles in their baby boys, according to a new research paper that found the chemical also appears to make the overall genital tracts of boys slightly more feminine.

The findings are sure to add more controversy to phthalates, a chemical that is added to polyvinyl chloride plastic to make it less brittle, and to many types of personal care products including fragrances, hair sprays and nail polish.

(Editor’s Irony: phthalates…phalus..hmmm…see the connection, it’s a conspiracy!  Editor’s Irony part deux:  While Mommy is spending so much effort maintaining MILF status, she’s potentially jeopardizing her offspring’s family jewels)

The research was conducted on children from three different areas of the United States, and found a strong statistical correlation between expectant mothers who had above-average levels of the chemical in their urine while pregnant and the feminizing effect on their sons.

(Editor’s Note: Can you see the homophobic preacher association jumping all over this, they’ll corkscrew this feminizing effect of their sons into a possible reason/connection/cause for gay boys.  Somebody better inform Dan Savage)

Phthalates are “probably reproductive toxins and should be eliminated from products gradually because we don’t need them,” said Shanna Swan, director of the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the University of Rochester’s school of medicine, who led the team of scientists who examined the boys.

The paper is published in the current issue of the journal Environmental Research.

CORPORATE PREMATURE EJACULATION

The Virginia-based American Chemistry Council, which represents the makers of the chemical (Exxon Mobil, BASF, Ferro Corp., and Eastman Chemical), issued a statement saying it “cautioned against over-interpreting any individual study.” (Editor’s Query: Is anyone surprised at this statement?)

Scientists have been investigating the possible effects on boys of phthalates because rodent studies have shown the chemical has the peculiar ability to shorten the space between the anus and the genitalia in male mice exposed during fetal development. This space, known as anogenital distance or AGD, is normally about twice as long in young male mice than in females. For mice, AGD is considered a measure of masculinity and a way to determine the sex of the pups. Scientists are so confident of the effect that they’ve given the impact of the chemical on male rodents a name – phthalate syndrome.

Surveys of children have also found that there is a marked sexual difference for this trait in humans, too, with the length in boys about 50 per cent more than in girls.

Dr. Swan’s research, conducted on 106 boys from Los Angeles, Columbus, Missouri and Minnesota, is among the first to raise the possibility that phthalate syndrome may also be at work in humans, because it found pregnant women with the highest amount of phthalates were markedly more likely to give birth to boys who had shorter anogenital distances.

When the boys were compared, none of the 29 with a shorter AGD were born to women who had low amounts of phthalates, while among the boys with a long space, only one was born to a mother with a high amount of the chemical.

The difference in the genital distance between the high-exposure and low-exposure boys was slight – around 3 to 4 per cent.

The paper also showed that incomplete descent of the testicles was “significantly” associated with mothers having more of the type of phthalate used in polyvinyl chloride plastic.

POLITICAL BLUE BALLS

This phthalate, known as DEHP, has been listed as a toxic substance in Canada, and Health Canada has proposed but not implemented a prohibition limiting the chemical to no more than 0.1 per cent of the weight of toys used by young children.

Phthalates may have adverse effects because they are able to reduce testosterone synthesis by interfering with an enzyme needed to produce the male hormone.  This raises worries that they may alter any process dependent on the hormone that choreographs male development. Phthalates can easily leach out of products, enabling humans to absorb them through diet, skin and inhalation.

Dr. Swan cautioned that the research was conducted on a relatively small number of boys, and the findings need to be independently verified by other investigators. It also isn’t known what effect, if any, the chemical might have on the fertility of the boys, later in life, because the group would need to be followed into adulthood.

Nonetheless, Dr. Swan said she believes labelling laws need to be strengthened to allow consumers to choose whether to buy products or packaging that contain phthalates.

Cosmetics often contain phthalates, but the chemical isn’t specifically mentioned because it is included in other listed items, such as fragrances.

Dr. Swan says she tries to buy phthalate-free cosmetics and doesn’t store or microwave food in plastic containers, among other steps, to minimize her own exposure.

(Editor’s Delirium: Ok, I waited until the end of this article to play with it, the content that is    Dr. Swan?!?  I mean, how could you not jump all over this?   What kind of name is that other than that of a hot pornstar playing out the fantasy of 3 billion males??   Seriously though folks,  this is not something to shake a stick at,  first there was soy with its estrogen mimicking effects and now these cosmetic products.  Does someone out there have it in for the male species??   I can see a Cross-dresser lobby getting excited to endorse these products too.  For real, all you soccer moms out there, take one for the team and boycott these potentially stunting products.)

Source: TheGlobeandMail Oct 2008

City council voted unanimously Tuesday to place a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in an impoverished swath of the city with a proliferation of such eateries and above average rates of obesity.

The yearlong moratorium is intended to give the city time to attract restaurants that serve healthier food.

The action, which the mayor must still sign into law, is believed to be the first of its kind by a major U.S. city.

“Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods,” Coun. Bernard Parks said.

Representatives of fast-food chains said they support the goal of better diets but believe they are being unfairly targeted. They already offer healthier food items on their menus, they said.

“It’s not where you eat, it’s what you eat,” said Andrew Pudzer, president and chief executive of CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl’s Jr. “We were willing to work with the city on that, but they obviously weren’t interested.”

The California Restaurant Association and its members will consider a legal challenge to the ordinance, spokesman Andrew Casana said.

Thirty per cent of adults in the South Los Angeles area are obese, compared to 19.1 per cent for the metropolitan area and 14.1 per cent for the affluent Westside, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Research has shown that people will change eating habits when different foods are offered, but cost is a key factor in poor communities, said Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

73% of South L.A. restaurants serve fast food

“Cheap, unhealthy food and lack of access to healthy food is a recipe for obesity,” Brownell said. “Diets improve when healthy food establishments enter these neighbourhoods.”

A report by the Community Health Councils found 73 per cent of South Los Angeles restaurants were fast-food establishments, compared to 42 per cent in West Los Angeles.

Coun. Jan Perry said the view that there are too many fast-food joints in the area surfaced repeatedly during the five community meetings she held over the past two years. Residents are tired of fast food, and many don’t have cars to drive to places with other choices, she said.

Los Angeles’ ban comes at a time when governments of all levels are increasingly viewing menus as a matter of public health. On Friday, California became the first state in the nation to bar trans fats from restaurant food. Trans fats lower levels of good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol in the body.

The fast-food moratorium, which can be extended up to a year, only affects standalone restaurants, not eateries located in malls. It defines fast-food restaurants as those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping.

The definition exempts “fast-food casual” restaurants such as El Pollo Loco, Subway and Pastagina, which do not have drive-through windows or heat lamps and prepare fresh food to order

As your reading this, carefully consider if there’s a conspiracy going on, because apparently Asians don’t really eat a lot of soy products.  Soy apparently was considered a peasant food. The other thing about this is that yet again, overweight people become an issue.  So, maybe the health benefits of soy are actually aimed at population control and/or wiping out all of the other races.  If there is a lower sperm count the survival of the species becomes limited to fewer and fewer swimming spermies!   Regardless, the fact that soy has estrogenic effects on men, meaning you become more female-ish,  is enough to cut it out of the diet. 

Tofu a day, sperm goes away: study

A new study has found that men who consume more soy products have lower sperm counts, especially if they are overweight.

The study, published in yesterday’s online version of the journal Human Reproduction, found that men who ate the most soy food had 41 million fewer sperm per millilitre than those who did not consume soy products.

“What we found was men that had the highest intake of soy foods had a lower sperm concentration,” said Jorge Chavarro of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study.

He believes this happens because soy contains isoflavones, a naturally occurring compound that can mimic the effects of estrogen.

Previous studies have linked high consumption of isoflavones with infertility in animals, but Dr. Chavarro’s research is the first to show a similar effect in humans.

The study analyzed the semen of 99 men who attended a U.S. fertility clinic between 2000 and 2006. The men were asked how often they ate soy products, including tofu, tempeh, soy milk and other soy products such as ice creams, cheeses and energy bars.

The average intake of soy for those with the highest consumption levels was about half a serving a day, although some men in that group ate as many as four servings a day. (A standard serving of tofu was 115 grams.)

The researchers also found that soy food intake had the greatest impact on sperm concentrations among those who were also overweight or obese.

This may be because overweight men already have higher levels of estrogen, Dr. Chavarro said.

“It’s possible that when you already have very high levels of estrogen, an additional source of an estrogen-like compound may become an issue, but not if you’re a lean man,” he said.

This may explain why soy does not seem to affect fertility among Asian populations, for whom it is a food staple, he said. Obesity is not as common in Asian populations as it is among Western men.

In Dr. Chavarro’s study, it was not clear whether the reduction in sperm count was a factor in the subjects’ fertility issues, and he believes it is too early to warn people away from soy.

“I guess if somebody already knows they have a low sperm count and they’re very avid consumers of soy foods they could try stopping it, but there’s no guarantee that’s going to help them,” he said.

Isoflavones are present in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including black beans, peas and other legumes, but are most concentrated in soy.

The average sperm concentration for men ranges between 80 million and 120 million per millilitre. But even with reduced sperm count, men are capable of conceiving a child, said Dr. Chavarro, and soy seemed to have no other adverse effect on the sperm.

The study corrected for other factors that may affect sperm count, such as age, caffeine intake and smoking.

There have been two other studies on the connection between soy and sperm count. One, a study of 14 young men, found no change in semen quality, while the other, which followed 48 men, found that isoflavone intake had a positive effect on sperm count.

The men in Dr. Chavarro’s study were predominantly white, and he plans to test the connection with different ethnic groups, as well as with larger sample sizes.

Source: TheGlobeandMail.com

Here you have it, the reasoning behind smart bras.  Now the question begs to be asked:  does the same logic apply to Moobs???  (man boobs for those that don’t know)

Source: Women’s Health April 2008

Tell me, how the hell does something like this make it to market only to be recalled?

Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream. Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream is promoted as an all-natural product to help soothe and heal dry or cracked nipples. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that the product contains the preservatives chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol, which could cause serious side-effects, including difficulty breathing and dehydration, if ingested by nursing infants.

Source: Health Canada

Source: Women’s Health Apr 2008

They things come in threes, and the first article on this topic (see Breasts in Motion below) was a light hearted attempt at mockery. Then the mammory goddesses rubbed this in my face shortly thereafter exposing the seriousness of the issue.   However, before all you women run to the gym and start doing flys, chest presses, push ups and hitting the pec dec, stay tuned for the third article in this series revealing why exercise won’t prevent sag-gage.

1984 to some was the year of Big Brother, to the Japs and Cali’s, Big Brother took on a better vibe and self pleasure has never been the same. Methinks men better start worshipping the goddess because they can’t touch this. The Energizer Bunny now has a serious soul mate for tantric pleasure…hahaha. By the way, when you click on the image, the type is still somewhat hard to read, perhaps proof that the five knuckle shuffle does cause blindness, so run out and get a back copy of Women’s Health April 2008.