New Research-Is Sex is real kind of exercise?

Interesting way to exercise

This is Very interesting research which shows us that how much calories we use when we have real fun.

As far back as the 1950s, couples have been asked to strap on monitors, blood-pressure cuffs, oxygen masks and other paraphernalia and copulate, to scientifically quantify the impacts of sex. The focus is often on whether sex can kill you by precipitating a heart

attack. Happily, these studies generally show that heart rates rise during intercourse, but tolerably. In a 2008 study, middle-aged subjects’ heart rates jumped at the point of orgasm by only 21 beats per minute in men and 19 in women, about the same response as if they’d just done a few jumping jacks. The risk for sex-related cardiac arrest is, in fact, vanishingly small, statistics show, though it may be greater when the act is extra-marital.

The issue of sex as exercise, however, has remained largely unexplored. “There are these myths,” including that sex burns at least 100 calories per session, said Antony D. Karelis, a professor of exercise science at the University of Quebec at Montreal who undertook a study, published in PLOS One in October, to look at how much energy is actually exerted during sex. “But nobody had tested” those assumptions.

How the research was done?

To do so, Karelis and his colleagues recruited 21 young heterosexual committed couples from the local area and had them jog on treadmills for 30 minutes, while researchers monitored their energy expenditure and other metrics, in order to provide a comparison for the physical demands of sex. The scientists next gave their volunteers unobtrusive armband activity monitors that gauge exertion in terms of calories and METs, or metabolic equivalent of task, a physiological measure comparing an activity to sitting perfectly still, which is a 1-MET task. Then the scientists sent the couple’s home, instructing them to complete at least one sex act a week for a month while wearing the armbands, and to fill out questionnaires about how each session made them feel, physically and psychologically, especially compared with running on the treadmill.

When the researchers analyzed all of the resulting data, it was clear, Karelis said, that sex qualified as “moderate exercise,” a 6-MET activity for men and 5.6-MET activity for women. That’s the equivalent, according to various estimates, of playing doubles tennis or walking uphill. The jogging, by comparison, was more strenuous, an 8.5-MET activity for the men in the study and 8.4 for women. (Though some men, according to their activity monitors, used more energy for brief periods during sex than they did jogging.) The sex also burned four calories per minute for men and three per minute for women, during sessions that ranged from 10 to 57 minutes, including foreplay. (The average was 25 minutes.) Men burned about 9 calories per minute jogging and women about 7.

Over all, the data reveal that “sex can be considered, at times, a significant exercise,” Karelis said, worth encouraging in people who otherwise balk at working out. Ninety-eight percent of Karelis’s volunteers reported that sex felt more fun than jogging. The other 2 percent, I suspect, will be back in the dating market soon.

(Source-PLOS One)

Easy Lab exam could form basis of male infertility test

Excellent news for infertile couples

Although some people still think of fertility as a "woman's problem," a third of all cases of infertility involve problems solely with the male partner. Infertility in a man may be the sole reason that a couple can't conceive, or it may simply add to the difficulties




caused by infertility in his partner. So it's crucial that men get tested for fertility as well as women. It's also important that men do it early. Though some guys may want to put off being tested -- possibly to avoid embarrassment -- early testing can spare their partners a great deal of unnecessary discomfort and expense. It's also a good way to quickly narrow down potential problems.

New Research- Good news for man who wants to know whether he has a chance of fathering children.

TORONTO - Scientists in Toronto have identified two proteins that could save men with infertility problems both pain and time. They say the proteins could form the basis of tests to figure out what type of infertility a man has and whether he has a chance of fathering children. More work will be needed before commercial tests using the proteins could be approved and marketed. But one of the scientists says when they are ready the tests will dramatically reduce the need for testicular biopsies in men with fertility issues. And Dr. Keith Jarvi says they will also be able to identify men for whom invasive sperm retrieval operations are likely to fail and therefore probably shouldn't be tried. The work is being reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine and was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. "We're trying to eliminate unnecessary surgery for the patients," says Jarvi, who is head of urology at Mount Sinai Hospital. The scientists are from Mount Sinai and its Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, and University Health Network. The field needs these kinds of diagnostics, Jarvi says. "I think our patients would flock to use this test. Anyone would prefer to do this rather than have the biopsy."

MaRS Innovation, which commercializes discoveries made by University of Toronto hospitals and research institutes, is already working on the project, which Jarvi believes may lead to commercial tests within the next couple of years. Dolores Lamb, who directs a centre for reproductive medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Tex., praised the work, which she predicts will lead to tests that clinics can use when assessing men with infertility. "No one has taken it this far to be able to develop something that potentially could be used for clinical diagnostics," says Lamb, who was not involved in the research. The work began when the team started looking for a test that could be used to see if a vasectomy was successful — if it had actually stopped flow of sperm into the seminal fluid released when men ejaculate.

But they came to realize that proteins in seminal fluid could be used as clues with which to diagnose which type of infertility a man has — obstructive or non-obstructive.

The researchers started by looking at 2,000 proteins, narrowing the search to 79 and then 18 and finally two, says Andrei Drabovich, first author of the paper and a post-doctoral fellow at the Lunenfeld-Tannenbaum Research Institute. The researchers tested the predictive value of the proteins on first 30 patients, then an additional 119. Drabovich says they are working to draw on samples from other clinics to further validate the findings. Urologists refer to obstructive infertility as a plumbing problem — sperm are being produced, but they aren't getting released. Non-obstructive infertility is a production problem; the testicles are making few, if any, sperm. There are three different types of non-obstructive infertility. Men with one of those types produce virtually no viable sperm.

Jarvi says currently men will take a series of expensive genetic tests to determine if they have obstructive or non-obstructive infertility. And some will undergo biopsies which involve inserting between one and three needles into testicles. Men with obstructions can have the problem fixed in some circumstances or have sperm extracted from their testicles to be used in in vitro fertilization. Things are more difficult — though not always impossible — for men in the non-obstructive category. Some produce small quantities of viable sperm. But locating it and extracting it requires an operation that can take several hours and involves cutting open a testicle and searching with a microscope for sperm. Jarvi says that in about 55 to 60 per cent of such operations viable sperm will be harvested. "So about a little less than half the time we're in there for a few hours and we actually can't find any sperm that's usable."

Surgeons who do this type of work are highly skilled, and can often do the procedure without harming the testicle. But the operation can lead to damage and even loss of the testicle. Jarvi says the tests cannot currently predict success, but one of the proteins, TEX101, can predict failure. "It's very good at predicting the complete absence of sperm," he says. "It can tell you: If you don't have sperm, you shouldn't have the operation."

Lamb says that would be very useful. But though she was impressed by the work, she said she would like to see data on this aspect of the TEX101 protein. Jarvi is hopeful the work will help male infertility clinics and the couples they counsel arrive at answers by a faster and simpler route than is currently available.  "You can avoid biopsies in many of the men," he says. "And I think for a lot of the men, they just want to know what their options are earlier on.

(Source-journal Science Translational Medicine)

Why Children who Sleep more gain less weight?

Kids sleep more gain less weight

This is my 4rth article on benefits of sleep. This is very interesting study that if kids sleep more they will be less chance of getting fat. A new study finds that children who sleep more may eat fewer calories and put on less weight, strengthening the idea that obesity risk and lack of sleep are linked. Led by the Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE) at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, the study is thought to be the first to look at the effect of sleep on children's eating behaviors by manipulating their sleep time.

A report on the study is scheduled to appear in a forthcoming issue of Pediatrics. First author Chantelle Hart, associate professor of public health at Temple's CORE, says, "Findings from this study suggest that enhancing school-age children's sleep at night could have important implications for prevention and treatment of obesity.

The researchers enrolled 37 children aged from 8 to 11, among whom 27% were overweight or obese, to take part in the 3-week study. Changing sleep patterns For the first week the children slept as normal, but for the second and third week they were randomized to either sleep longer per night for one week and then less for another week, or sleep less for one week and then longer for another week. The children were weighed and asked about what they ate during the study period. They also had tests to measure fasting levels of leptin, a hormone that regulates hunger and is closely linked to body fat.

The results show that compared with the week of reduced sleep, for the week when the children slept more, they reported consuming an average of 134 fewer calories per day. They also weighed half a pound less and had lower levels of leptin. Prof. Hart says while these are still early results, the intervention looks promising and, The potential role of sleep should be further explored.

The team is now planning to undertake a study sponsored by the NIH's National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to see if getting kids to sleep more leads to significant changes in eating, activity and weight. Other studies have also suggested links between children's sleep patterns and weight gain. For example, in 2011, researchers in New Zealand reported in the BMJ that they found lack of sleep in young children was linked to obesity. Earlier this year, US researchers’ writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences also suggested lack of sleep in adults is linked to weight gain. Given all of its documented benefits, in many ways, you can't lose in promoting a good night's sleep.

(Source- Journal of Pediatrics)