Obesity is a plague on modern society and the health risks associated with excess weight are well documented and well known. The risks to the individual increase as weight increases as occurs during pregnancy. Whilst most pregnant women take on their baby weight around the tummy staying very normal elsewhere on their bodies a small number of women balloon into dangerous territory. Despite being a minority of people, obesity rates amongst pregnant women are on the rise and around 5% of pregnant women are severely obese meaning their BMI or Body Mass Index exceeds 35.

BMI is a measure of weight to height used as a quick reference to check whether someone is within an ideal weight range for their height. Anyone with a BMI of 25 or more is considered to be heavier than is recommended, and anyone with a BMI of 30 ore more is classed as obese and at risk of developing serious illnesses as a consequence.

Overweight expectant mothers put themselves at risk of blood clots, high blood pressure, internal bleeding and other complications, and put their unborn babies at risk of death. The incidence of stillbirth is twice as likely in obese expectant mothers compared to mothers of a normal weight. Babies born to obese mothers are also more likely to become obese themselves. (more...)

Discover what lies in store for the world’s biggest drug blockbuster once Pfizer’s patent expires in 2012. What will it look like it, will it cost the same and how can you be sure that the generic version will be manufactured according to the original formula? Viagra was first licensed in 1997 and quickly took the impotence market by storm. Imagine the alternatives: implants; injections or vacuum pumps. None particularly effective and some downright gruesome. Viagra changed the game and as most people know, was born by accident rather than by design. Pfizer, by testing a new heart drug on patients, discovered a startling (and rather wonderful from their point of view) revelation – 80% of treated patients reported improved erections. Once licensed, Viagra had a huge impact on the sex lives of middle-aged men. The surprising thing is how long it took the competition to catch up with Eli Lilly entering the market in 2004 with Cialis and Bayer in the following year with Levitra. the future of generic viagra

Fast forward 15 years and Pfizer’s Viagra patent will expire in February 2012. What this means is that any drug manufacturer will be able to manufacture Viagra although they will not be able to copy the name or the design. The generic version of Viagra will be known as Sildenafil Citrate and it will be sold in exactly the same strengths as present, namely: 100mg, 50mg and 25mg.

One of the things that is likely to happen is that the drug cost will come down though it is hard to say exactly by how much. When drugs go off-patent, what tends to happen is the drugs industry conspires to keep the price of the generic version artificially high in order to maximise profits. Hardly surprisingly when profits are boosted by the fact that there are no research, development or testing costs. (more...)

When it comes to erection problems, we are used to expecting medicine to give us all the answers, and when things do not go as we had hoped we feel frustrated and deflated. Viagra claims to solve male erectile dysfunction, or at least many people convince themselves it does. The Magique pilule bleue is by no means a magic bullet, and for men who are really struggling with impotence this can serve to complicate matters further.

Impotence by definition is the inability to get and keep an erection long enough to have full sexual intercourse. For many men the worry of keeping an erection is also detrimental to the quality of their sex life. Impotence is a medical condition that is not considered to be an illness per se, but rather something which is “not quite right”, or even a signal for another problem lurking beneath the surface which has nothing to do with the male sex organs.

A decade or so ago 9 out of 10 cases of ED were dismissed as being caused by psychological factors, and little was done to remedy the problem. Since the discovery of Viagra, and its lesser known alternatives: Cialis and Levitra, further research into the causes of ED have highlighted physical risk factors previously overlooked by the medical profession. In fact in many cases the men suffering with erection problems also suffer from vascular illnesses such as atherosclerosis (the narrowing and hardening or blood vessels), hypertension (some medications involved in its treatment cause ED), as well as hormonal imbalances, alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, anxiety and a whole host of other diseases. (more...)

Pharmaceutical companies plough huge amounts of money, time and research into developing and producing drugs, and essentially the fake drugs market erodes their profits. Whilst, many people would argue that pharmaceutical giants cream a massive profit from the drugs and overcharge for medications, unfortunately without the financial rewards of discovering sought after medications no one would bother making these drugs in the first place. If you do not feel sorry for the billion pound pharmaceutical industry think about problems closer to home. Aside from passing your personal and financial details on to a criminal group and their associates there are other potential damages incurred through people buying medicines online. Ordering generic Viagra on the internet internet means risking having your financial and personal details hijacked, which can leave you out of pocket and can even ruin your credit rating. Buying fake drugs online also means buying from people who do not care about counterfeiting tablets; this means there is no guarantee on the quality of the ingredients used in making. You could be receiving tablets which contain no active ingredient, or too little a quantity to have the desired effects. You may be falsely overdosing on your medication risking side effects, and even death. If that still does not worry you then maybe this will: the most expensive components in making drugs are often the agents which give a tablet a nice consistency, which means that any enterprise looking to save money will substitute for any manner of alternatives. Your generic tablets may contain washing powder, rat poisoning, cement, talcum powder, dust, powdered ceramic and everything in between. Now if you would not liberally choose to eat a teaspoon of any of these ingredients why would you ingest a pill which could contain any of these, or ingredients which are far more dangerous?

If your health is compromised following ingestion of a counterfeit medicine there will be no compensation due. Instead you will be left to deal the consequences yourself.

How can this crime be countered? (more...)

Just a few months since the release of Bayer’s new dissolvable version of their well-known ED medicine comparisons are being made with the film-coated tablets. In particular there has been much speculation about just how quickly the new Levitra Orodispersible tabs begin to work. Discussions on the topic have seen estimations starting at under 10mins ranging to almost an hour, so in just how much time will Levitra Orodispersible get to work?

The UK patient leaflet supplied by the drug manufacturer Bayer suggests that patients wait around 60 minutes before the expecting the desired effects to show. Whereas the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) patient leaflet for Levitra Vardenafil film-coated tablets suggests the patient reaction time may in some cases be quicker than 60 minutes: The recommended dose of Levitra is 10 mg, taken with or without food, about 25 to 60 minutes before sexual activity. If Levitra is taken with a high fat meal, the onset of activity may be delayed. The EMEA is the agency responsible for the scientific evaluation of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies for use in the European Union, and the text above can be located on the European Bayer ED help site in-bed.info.

The type and amount of food consumed before taking Levitra and resulting speed of digestion are therefore important factors in the absorption rate of the medicine. As the Vardenafil Orodispersible version by-passes the digestive tract altogether the average reaction time is expected to be quicker compared to the film-coated tablets. Based on this information, a reaction time of under 20minutes is realistic in some people especially when either no food has been consumed in the hours prior to taking the medication. (more...)

Female sex tourism is a phenomenon describing travel undertaken by women for the purpose of having sex. Female sex tourists are predominantly white and over the age of 35 – many of them struggle to have relationships with men in their home countries and so travel to other countries where they can hire the services of a local male gigolo. Gigolos receive money, gifts, food and accommodation for their services.

The most popular destinations for female sex tourists are Southern Europe (in particular Italy and Greece), the Caribbean islands, Southeast Asia (mainly Thailand and Indonesia) and Africa.

Many female sex tourists are seemingly unaware or unconcerned by the health implications of sex tourism. The countries most widely associated with sex tourism also have relatively high rates of AIDS and HIV, something which does not put female sex tourists off their travels. This is particularly worrying because many women are not concerned about the potential risks of infection enough to ask their partners to wear a condom. Prima-med warn against the risks of sex tourism and advise that all possible precautions be taken in order to avoid the risk of infection.