Women Are the More Sensitive Sex

It has long been known that certain pain-related conditions, likefibromyalgia, migraine and irritable bowel syndrome, are more common in women than in men. And chronic pain after childbirth is surprisingly common; the Institute of Medicine recently found that 18 percent of women who have Caesarean deliveries and 10 percent who have vaginal deliveries report still being in pain a year later.

But new research from Stanford University suggests that even when men and women have the same condition — whether it’s a back problem, arthritis or asinus infection — women appear to suffer more from the pain.

There is an epidemic of chronic pain: Last year, the Institute of Medicineestimated that it afflicts 116 million Americans, far more than previously believed. But these latest findings, believed to be the largest study ever to compare pain levels in men and women, raise new questions about whether women are shouldering a disproportionate burden of chronic pain and suggest a need for more gender-specific pain research.

The study, published Monday in The Journal of Pain, analyzes data from the electronic medical records of 11,000 patients whose pain scores were recorded as a routine part of their care. (To obtain pain scores, doctors ask patients to describe their pain on a scale from 0, for no pain, to 10, “worst pain imaginable.”)

For 21 of 22 ailments with sample sizes large enough to make a meaningful comparison, the researchers found that women reported higher levels of pain than men. For back pain, women reported a score of 6.03, men 5.53. For joint and inflammatory pain, it was women 6.00, men 4.93. Women reported significantly higher pain levels with diabetes, hypertension, ankle injuries and even sinus infections.

For several diagnoses, women’s average pain score was at least one point higher than men’s, which is considered a clinically meaningful difference. Over all, their pain levels were about 20 percent higher than men’s.

Unfortunately, the data don’t offer any clues as to why women report higher pain levels. One possibility is that men have been socialized to be more stoic, so they underreport pain. But the study’s senior author, Dr. Atul Butte, an associate professor at Stanford’s medical school, said that explanation probably did not account for the gender gap.

“While you can imagine such a bias,” he said, “across studies, across thousands of patients, it’s hard to believe men are like this. You have to think about biological causes for the difference.”

An extensive 2007 report by the International Association for the Study of Pain cited studies showing that sex hormones may play a role in pain response. In fact, some of the gender differences, particularly regardingheadache and abdominal pain, begin to diminish after women reachmenopause.

Research also suggests that men and women have different responses toanesthesia and pain drugs, reporting different levels of efficacy and side effects. That bolsters the idea that men and women experience pain differently.

One reason for the lack of information about sex differences is that many pain studies, in both animals and humans, are done only in males. One analysis found that 79 percent of the animal studies published in a pain journal over a decade included only male subjects, compared with 8 percent that used only female animals.

In addition, experiments testing pain in men and women have shown that they typically have different thresholds for various types of pain. In general, women report higher levels of pain from pressure and electrical stimulation, and less pain when the source is from heat.

Melanie Thernstrom, a patient representative on the Institute of Medicine pain committee from Vancouver, Wash., said the newest research “really highlights the need for more treatment and better treatment that is gender-specific, and the need for far more research to really understand why women’s brains process pain differently than men.”

Some researchers believe the pain experience for women may be even more complicated. Women who have given birth, for instance, may have a different threshold for “worst pain ever,” causing them to underreport certain types of pain. The bottom line, Dr. Butte said, is that far too little is known about how men and women experience pain and that more study is needed so that, ultimately, pain treatment can be customized to each patient’s needs.

“If doctors have a threshold for when they give a dose or start a medication,” he said, “you could imagine that the number they are using is too high or too low because a person may be in more pain than they are saying.

“In the end, it comes down to what the brain perceives as pain.”

Parenting Apps for ipad and iphone

 

WebMD Baby (free on Apple) and Baby Connect ($5 on Apple and Android). Given WebMD Baby’s pedigree, it’s little surprise that the app offers a deep well of medically related information.

For Apple owners who want medical information that will see their baby through adolescence, though, a very good option awaits. The Portable Pediatrician ($10 on iTunes) is based on the popular book by the medical specialists William Sears, Martha Sears, Robert Sears, James Sears and Peter Sears.

The app is generally well designed. You can enter keywords and phrases like “canker sores” or “asthma symptoms,” and the app returns the relevant information. You can also scroll through a long list of topics that are presented alphabetically.

A Power Outlet With USB Ports Built In

 

There are a lot of approaches to getting rid of wall-warts, those blocky power transformers that let you plug your low-voltage, battery-powered USB products into the wall to charge.

But this one is a little more elegant than most.

Newer Technology has designed a two receptacle in-wall outlet called “Power2U” that also has two USB receptacles arranged so you can use all four simultaneously.

It’s an easy do-it-yourself installation for anyone who knows how to turn off a circuit and use a screwdriver. Just remove the existing outlet from the wall, switch out the two leads, and screw it back into place.

Mobile scanner for xerox -wireless

Several companies sell compact portable scanners that could almost fit inside the cardboard tube from a paper-towel roll: foot-long skinny gadgets with a slot that pulls in photos and papers and spits them out the back. The scan quality is surprisingly good, and the speed is decent (about two seconds a page). The huge drawback is that you can’t scan books, magazines or anything else that won’t slide through that slot.

If you can live with that limitation, you might consider the new, straightforwardly named Xerox Mobile Scanner ($250). It’s battery-powered, so you can scan anywhere (up to 300 scans on a charge). The scans can go directly to a flash drive you’ve plugged into the back, or onto a camera memory card, or over a USB cable to your computer.

But the Mobile Scanner’s truly useful twist is that it can be completely wireless. Not just no power cord, but no cable to your computer, either. It can fling your scanned photos or documents through the ether to almost anywhere: your iPhone or Android phone, for example. Your iPad or Android tablet. A laptop. Or even a Web site, where other people can immediately see and download the results.

I’ll wait here while you let that sink in. This means you: students, researchers, lawyers, real estate types, inspectors, genealogists, artists and business card collectors of all stripes. Now you can whip this foot-long scanner out of your bag, feed in a photo or page (from 2 by 2 inches up to 8.5 by 11.7 inches), and then marvel as it shows up on your phone, ready to forward to anyone in the world. Or onto your iPad, safely copied from the original, ready for instant retrieval. Score one for portability.

If you’re a true-blue technoholic, you might recognize certain themes of this story. You might have heard of the Eye-Fi card: a traditional SD memory card for cameras that, somehow, also contains Wi-Fi wireless circuitry. Pop this thing into any camera model, and it suddenly becomes a Wi-Fi camera, capable of transmitting your photos to your computer, phone or a photo gallery Web site like Flickr.

In creating its Mobile Scanner, Xerox didn’t bother reinventing the wireless wheel. Instead, it worked with the Eye-Fi people to develop a customized version of their magic little card. The chief enhancement: The Xerox version of the Eye-Fi card is capable of transmitting PDF documents wirelessly, not just photos. (It’s worth noting that it’s otherwise a standard Eye-Fi card. When you’re not scanning, you can pop it into your camera and transmit photos wirelessly from it.)

When you unpack the silver plastic Mobile Scanner (it comes with an attractive black carrying case), the only setup is inserting the Eye-Fi card — a 4-gigabyte model — into a slot on the back and charging up the scanner’s built-in battery, either from a wall outlet or from your computer’s USB jack.

There are only two buttons: Power and Mode, which lets you choose which kind of scan you want: a color photo, a black-and-white PDF document or a color PDF document.

Once you’ve made your selection, you feed your photo or paper into the front slot. The scanner gives you a couple of seconds to get the thing straight, and then slurps the sheet in with satisfying speed, grip and confidence.

If you’re in one of the PDF modes, the scanner gives you 10 seconds to feed it the next sheet of a multipage document. The result is a single PDF document with multiple pages. Nice.

The scans are clean, straight and sharp. You’d have a hard time telling them apart from the work of a big-footprint desktop flatbed home scanner.

Except that this time, they’re appearing on the screen of your phone, tablet or laptop — wirelessly.

In other words, Xerox has done a beautiful job of making its machine solid, simple and competent.  

Putting Action Cameras Onto Wi-Fi

LAS VEGAS — At the International Consumer Electronics Show, the helmet camera makers GoPro and Contour have both demonstrated products that can put all of your plummeting, hurtling and rocketing adventures on the air live through a Wi-Fi connection.

GoPro demonstrated the Wi-Fi BacPack, which snaps on the back of a $300 GoPro HD Hero2 camera to connect it to a Wi-Fi network. Once on the network, a wrist-worn remote control can toggle between and turn on and off up to 50 cameras, making it possible to watch, record or photograph different views of a live event on a remote computer. Or the Wi-Fi can connect to a phone to stream the video live to the Internet. The Wi-Fi BacPack and Wi-Fi Remote should be in stores in March. The BacPack and Remote are sold in a combo kit for $100.

Contour has joined with a Japanese company, Cerevo, which makes LiveShell, a device that connects to a $500 Contour Plus or $300 ContourGPS camera with a cable to give it live Wi-Fi streaming. As with the GoPro, when you are hang-gliding out of range of your office router, you can connect to a phone to post live video. When close to a router, LiveShell, which will list for $300 and becomes available Feb. 1, connects directly to the Web site Ustream to simplify live broadcasting. LiveShell can also link to a router by wire for a more reliable connection, although that is not a great option for extreme sports.

 

World's shortest man at 1 foot, 10 inches

Chandra Bahadur Dangi says he is 1 foot, 10 inches tall, which would make him the shortest adult human ever recorded.

A 72-year-old man in Nepal claims to be the world's shortest man, and he may prove to be the shortest adult human in Guinness World Records' history.

Chandra Bahadur Dangi says he is 1 foot, 10 inches tall, which would make him 1.6 inches shorter than the current official record holder, Junrey Balawing of the Philippines, and one centimeter shorter than any adult human ever documented.

Guinness officials will travel to Dangi's village to verify his claim. Guinness posted video of Dangi on its YouTube channel.

The shortest adult human ever, according to Guinness, was Gul Mohammed, who was 1 foot, 10.4 inches tall. He died in 1997 at the age of 40.

"We intend to travel to Mr. Dangi's village in Nepal to officially measure him and are currently making provisions for medical professionals to assist us in the verification," a statement on the Guinness World Records website says.

Dangi has reportedly already become somewhat of a celebrity in southern Nepal, and the Guinness honor would almost certainly add to his notoriety. A previous record-holder, He Pingping of Mongolia, made a celebrated trip to New York City in 2008. 

Top 10 Health Benefits of Love and Sex

Love and its frequent companion, sex. People spend countless hours pursuing these two heights of human experience. But is the rush of positive emotions and the physical pleasure worth all the drama? Or are romantic pursuits, like Valentine’s Day, over-hyped?

When it comes to your health, that swooning in your stomach and aching in your loins offer an undeniable boon of benefits that are supported by reams of research. Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or a hardened cynic, whether you’re growing weary of the search to find love or are wondering where the heat in your relationship has gone, here are the top 10 health reasons to keep seeking that emotional and physical connection with another person.

#1 Less stress

You know a good roll in the hay can take your mind off your worries. Researchers have documented this link and theorize that it is due in part to the release of oxytocin, the hormone that helps us feel bonded to others and triggers feelings of comfort and relaxation. A 2007 study found that middle-aged women who reported having sex one day enjoyed a better mood and less stress on the following day. Even better, this improved mental state predicted more affectionate touching and sexual activity with a partner on the day after that — creating a self-perpetuating upward spiral of satisfaction.

And it’s not just sex that has a calming effect: A 2009 Japanese study found that subjects who were shown romantic films experienced a change in heart rate variability (which measures how quickly the heart rate recovers from a stressful event) that only comes when the parasympathetic nervous system is activated — the portion of the central nervous system that triggers the relaxation response. And in a University of Zurich study of women about to undergo a stressful event, such as a speaking engagement, those who received a neck and shoulder rub from their partner had significantly lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and less intense stress-related spikes in heart rate.

#2 Longer life

Contrary to the messages we get that high levels of sexual activity are somehow dangerous — either through exposure to potentially life-threatening STDs or by fostering an appetite for risky behavior — there is plenty of research to promote the opposite view: More sex leads to longer life. A Welsh study that followed 918 men aged 45 to 59 for 10 years found that those who had two or more orgasms per week had 50 percent fewer instances of mortality than those who had low or no incidence of sexual activity. A similar study followed 252 people in North Carolina for 25 years; at follow-up, men who reported having frequent intercourse lived significantly longer than those who didn’t. Sorry, ladies, the researchers didn’t find the same correlation in women. However, they did find that women who reported enjoying their sexual encounters over the years lived longer than women who didn’t.

#3 More youthful appearance

Forget painful Botox appointments and expensive skin creams. If you want to look younger than your years, have more sex. In a fascinating study, a panel of judges observed 3,500 participants — a group of men and women from Europe and America — through a one-way mirror with the directive to guess the age of each subject. The people who were perceived to be seven to 12 years younger than their actual age were found to have sex an average of three times per week (as opposed to the control group, which had sex an average of twice per week).

#4 Stronger muscles for men and women 
French researchers may have figured out why King Kong was so unstoppable when in pursuit of his beloved. An even mix of male and female participants in a 2009 study were shown a series of pictures that were chosen for their ability to elicit either a negative, neutral or positive state of arousal. After looking at each picture, they performed a feat of physical strength in hopes of winning a monetary reward. The subjects produced more force — and reported feeling the least amount of physical effort — after being shown photographs that were rated the most arousing.

#5 Clearer thinking

You may think that being in love overrides logic, but a 2006 Swiss study begs to differ. Women in love performed much better on a cognitive task when they were subliminally exposed to a beloved’s name. And a 2006 Columbia University study found that experiencing powerful emotions enhanced memory: Both men and women performed better on tests of long-term (in this instance, one week) memory recall after being shown emotionally arousing images.

#6 Improved heart health

Although sex may not qualify as an intense cardio workout, it does offer a demonstrable benefit to the old ticker: A study that followed Welsh men for 10 years found that those who had sex at least twice a week had half the incidences of fatal coronaries than men who had sex only once a month. A 2009 study of American men found a similar result: Those who had sex at least twice a week had a significantly lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease than men who had sex once a month or less.

Sex can also be beneficial for your blood pressure. In a 2006 Scottish study, people who had engaged in vaginal intercourse in the previous two weeks had lower blood pressure after giving a speech to an unfriendly audience than those who had not engaged in any sexual behavior, or had masturbated, or who had sexual activity that did not include intercourse.

#7 Stronger relationships

Relationship satisfaction is strengthened when both partners are sexually satisfied: In a 2008 Finnish study, researchers found that in couples aged 33 to 43, relationship satisfaction was highest in those couples who had sexual intercourse and sessions of kissing and petting as often as they hoped. In fact, a mutually satisfying sex life can even compensate for less than ideal communication in a relationship, according to 2005 study by researchers at the University of Tennessee.

#8 Pain relief

Sufferers of chronic pain, take note: Orgasm has been shown to raise the pain threshold.  “We know that orgasm releases neurotransmitters into the spinal fluid that have a very strong pain-blocking effect,” says Beverly Whipple, PhD, a prominent researcher on women’s sexuality, professor emerita at Rutgers University, and the author of The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality. “We’ve shown in the lab that these neurotransmitters elevate pain thresholds by 80 percent. For women with chronic pain from conditions such as arthritis and whiplash, orgasm can help the pain disappear. Others have reported that it can help headaches go away.” Indeed, research has found that having an orgasm resolves migraines in nearly half of study participants. (There is also a reported phenomenon of orgasm-induced migraines, and 5 percent of study participants reported those happening.)

#9 Stronger immunity

A 2004 study interviewed students at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and found that those who had sexual activity one to two times per week had higher levels of immunoglobulin A — a vital component of the immune system — in their saliva than students who reported having infrequent (less than once a week) sexual encounters. Interestingly, those students who claimed to be having sex more than three times a week had IgA levels similar to those who had infrequent sex, suggesting that perhaps there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

#10 Reduced risk of some cancersA 2003 Australian study interviewed 2,000 men in their fifties and sixties. Those who claimed to have had four or more ejaculations per week (from intercourse and masturbation) during their twenties, thirties and forties had one-third the risk of developing prostate cancer of those men who had three or fewer ejaculations during the same decades. Similarly, a 2004 U.S. study that interviewed 50,000 middle-aged men found that the more ejaculations the men had each week during the course of their lives, the less likely they were to develop prostate cancer.

Leonardo DiCaprio, model Erin Heatherton fly to Mexico for romantic vacation

Erin Heatherton is the latest beauty to catch Leonardo DiCaprio's eye since he dated 'Gossip Girl' star Blake Lively.

Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t appear upset by his Academy Award snub this week when he was spotted on vacation with his latest model fling.

The “J. Edgar” star is currently soaking up the sun in Mexico with Victoria’s Secret bombshell Erin Heatherton, who he’s been dating for the past month.

 By the looks of it, the new couple may be taking a lengthy stay south of the border. They were pictured grabbing their bags from the back of an SUV filled to the brim with designer luggage.

Although DiCaprio, 37, appears to be going strong with his latest leggy gal pal, Heatherton may have some competition.

DiCaprio, who has dated actress Blake Lively and models Gisele Bundchen and Bar Refaeli, recently said any girlfriend of his will have a lot to live up to because he compares them to his mother, Irmelin.

 

"My mother is the centre of my life," the actor told the Daily Express. "To have a woman like that in your life, who is strong, who'll be honest with you about who you are … that's something I treasure. And it's something I look for in a woman." 

David Tutera of 'My Fair Wedding' sued by couple for flaking on duties, running up the bill

Wendylee Perez and Hector Santana are suing celebrity wedding planner David Tutera for, among other things, neglecting to provide invitations, flowers and a wedding cake.

A New York couple sued its celebrity wedding planner for saying, “I don’t” to his duties on their big day.

Reality show star David Tutera, after breaking his vows to Hector Santana and Wendylee Perez, also tripled the cost of their reception, the pair charged in a Manhattan lawsuit.

The star of “My Fair Wedding” was more party pooper than planner in November 2010 when Brooklyn-born Perez and her beloved tied the knot in the Dominican Republic, the suit charged.

“Due to the defendant’s arrogant and heartless actions, plaintiffs have been harmed personally and financially,” the now happily-married couple said in their lawsuit.

After bumping the Punta Cana wedding bill from $10,000 to more than $30,000, the toothy Tutera — whose client roster includes Elton John and Jennifer Lopez — didn’t even provide the invitations, the flowers or a DJ.

His biggest whiff on their prenuptial agreement: Tutera never delivered the wedding cake, leaving the jilted couple waiting at the altar with no dessert, the lawsuit charged.

The egotistical planner even two-timed the bride, jetting cross-country for a taping of his reality show when he was supposed to be working on the wedding, the couple claimed.

It was hardly the affair promised on Tutera’s website: “Turning every bride’s fantasy into a reality. . . . We believe every bride deserves to be treated like a celebrity.”

Tutera claimed he had to tend to a sick relative when he blew off the nervous couple shortly before their Nov. 6, 2010, wedding.

Tutera’s publicist Eda Kalkay, in an email, said the planner was “not interested in commenting at this time” on the marital discord.

But the newlyweds’ relatives expressed distress: “The wedding was not what we expected,” said the bride’s mom, Ercilla Perez. “He didn’t appear. We trusted him so much.”

“He noted the day before he was not coming,” she said. “He said someone was in the hospital but we don’t know.”

Earlier this year, a bitter legal brawl between Tutera and a Boston “Bridezilla” over her $300,000 Singapore wedding was quietly resolved. 

Man, wife, son guilty in Canadian ‘honor killing’ trial

Mohammad Shafia, right, Tooba Yahya, center, and their son Hamed Mohammed Shafia, left, are escorted into the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Canada on Thursday, Jan. 26.

Three members of an immigrant Afghan family were found guilty of first-degree murder on Sunday in what is thought to be Canada's first "honor killing" trial.

Mohammad Shafia, 58, and his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya were convicted, along with their 21-year-old son Hamed, of drowning their three daughters and Shafia's first wife, according to The Associated Press.

They reportedly stashed the dead bodies in the family car, which they pushed into a canal near Kingston, Ontario to make the deaths look like an accident, jurors at the Ontario court ruled.

The bodies of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Shafia's first wife Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, were found in the submerged car on June 30, 2009.

Wiretaps played during the trial caught Shafia on tape calling his daughters "filthy" and "whores" for "betraying" his family by dating boys and wearing revealing clothing.

Prosecutors argued that Shafia believed Mohammad backed the girls' westernized lifestyle and wanted to divorce him.

During one recording, Shafia called for the devil to defecate on his daughters' graves, the AP reported.

"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime," Ontario Superior Judge Robert Maranger said while handing down the ruling.

"The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor."

Shafia and his family had been living in Canada since 2007.

He married Yahya, 42, because Mohammad could not have children, but kept them both as his wives, according to the AP.

School officials, teachers and other witnesses testified during the trial that the girls were terrified of their father and feared for their lives.

The oldest, Zainab, fled to a shelter in desperation at one point, witnesses said.

Defense lawyers argued the deaths were an accident after Zainab took her sisters and Mohammad for a late-night joyride while the family was staying at a hotel during a trip to Niagara Falls.

After the trial, Mohammad Shafia, called the ruling "unjust."

"We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder," he said through a translator.

His sobbing wife Tooba, said, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."