England’s National Health Service also weighed in Friday, stopping short of recommending routine removal of implants made by Poly Implant Prostheses, or PIP, but agreeing to pay to have them taken out in some cases.

French authorities announced last month that the government would pay for the removal of the bankrupt company’s implants, which a British medical group says were made from “non-medical grade silicone believed by the manufacturers to be made for mattresses.”

Authorities in France and England have dismissed fears of cancer from the implants, but have said the devices are prone to rupture and could cause inflammation, scarring and fibrosis.

More than 500 French women have had the implants removed since last year, according to the French government agency that evaluates the safety of medical products. Since then, more than 1,000 implants have ruptured, the agency said.

German medical groups representing plastic surgeons, breast care specialists and gynecologists said Friday that while the implants do not pose any immediate health threat, they raise the risk of ruptures, difficulties with breast imaging and other complications.

“We recommend removal without hurry, just as the French expert commission has recommended,” the groups said in a joint release.

In Britain, David Nicholson, chief executive of the National Health Service, said an advisory medical group found there was no evidence to support routine removal of the implants or suggestions that they could increase the risk of cancer.

“However, the group also acknowledges that many of the implants are made up of non-medical grade silicone and should not have been implanted in women in the first place,” Nicholson said in a letter to medical workers released Friday.

Nicholson said the government would pay to have the implants removed from women who received them as part of reconstructive care provided by the publicly funded National Health Service.

Women who paid for cosmetic implants from private clinics would not be eligible for government funded care in most cases, the NHS said. But Nicholson said he hoped private practitioners would also pay for the removal of implants if patients request it.

“We want the private sector to offer the same service to its patients as the NHS is offering and we are working with them to best ensure an equivalent model of care is provided,” he said.

An estimated 300,000 women in 65 countries received breast implants from the company. The implants were banned in 2010 and the company went bankrupt later that year.
The implants are not approved for use in the United States.

Whether you’re trimming down or developing more muscle mass, there’s no question that your abs are important. But you might have worked on sculpting an eye-catching stomach many times in the past without ever seeing the results you had hoped for. What is it that makes getting ripped abs so hard to achieve?
Let’s take a look at the top 10 reasons you don’t have abs.

10. Low-muscle tone
The first reason you don’t have abs is simple: a shortage of muscle. While everyone has a degree of abdominal development, some people simply have very little of it. The larger your ab muscles are, the more the muscle will be able to show definition through your body fat, and therefore, the more ripped you’ll look. Start performing heavy-weighted ab work to overcome this problem. Weighted decline sit-ups work perfectly

9. It’s not in your genes
Another reason you don’t have abs is that you simply don’t have the genetics for it. Some people are naturally prone to carry more abdominal fat, and even if they get down to leaner levels with ripped arms and legs, the abs still don’t show through. Couple that with the fact that genetics plays a principal role in determining the shape of the abs and the way they look on the body, and you’ll realize that if you have genetics working against you, toning your abs is going to be an uphill battle.

8. You’re not drinking enough water
In today’s world of fast food and excessively processed foods, water retention is the norm. If you have a high-sodium diet and you’re not drinking enough water throughout the day, you can bet your looks will be hindered by what you consume. Up your water intake to at least 10 glasses a day and put down the saltshaker. You’ll see noticeable differences in two to three days’ time.

7. You’re not sleeping enough
Do you find yourself staying late at work and vowing to sleep in on the weekend to make up for it? If you’re hoping for six-pack abs, you’ll have to rethink that strategy. Lack of sleep causes increased cortisol to surge through your system, and this potent hormone actually encourages the accumulation of stomach fat. Get to bed earlier. Not only will you see belly benefits because of it, but you’ll be more productive during the day so you won’t have to stay so late in the first place.

6. You need more carbs
If you’re like many people, you think removing the carbs from your plate is the fastest way to get lean. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case. Low-carb diets may be useful for fat loss, but following a very low-carb diet for a long time will cause you nothing but problems. Certain fat-fighting hormones begin to change when your carb intake is too low, and this actually causes your metabolism to shut down. When your metabolism slows, you end up burning so few calories over the course of the day that fat loss becomes next to impossible. Go high-carb once a week to keep the balance steady. Your abs will thank you.

5. You’re too focused on abs
Some men who have a six-pack as their goal focus the greater part of their workout on training the abdominal muscle group. Sadly, this focus only drives them further away from their goal. Since the ab muscles are very small, they’re hardly going to burn any calories at all (per minute of exercise). Instead, try to focus on compound movements. These work the abs in the course of greater stabilization exercises, and, in the process, they burn 10 times the calories any crunch will.

4. You have poor abdominal control
Abdominal control doesn’t end when you finish a workout. If you train your abs hard in the gym but then let them relax the rest of the day, you’re making a critical error. Instead, focus on keeping them tight and pulled in at all times. Eventually it will become a habit and you’ll immediately look leaner.

3. You drink too much
Headed out for another Friday night with the guys? Before you order another beer at half time, think about its effect on your six-pack goal. As soon as it enters the body, alcohol immediately puts the brakes on fat loss, which means each beer really slows down your progress. Drinking too much too often can also encourage fat to develop around the stomach area, making your job that much harder. While you may take some ribbing when you ask for water, you’ll render your buddies speechless next time you cross paths with them at the gym.

2. You’re too stressed
Just like lack of sleep, high levels of stress also induce the release of cortisol and quickly cause fat gain in the belly area. If you lead a high-stress lifestyle and feel chronic tension, not only are you encouraging stomach fat accumulation, but you’re also risking the loss of lean muscle mass. If you want to stay ripped everywhere else and move closer to a six-pack, you must control your stress.

1. You binge eat
Even the best of us crack under the pressure of too long on a strict diet. If you’re trying to stick with a regimen far too low in calories and carbs, it won’t be long before you hit the buffet with a vengeance. When binge eating rears its head in your diet plan, have a good look at the regimen you’re following and be sure you’re consuming enough calories. A very low-calorie diet is the chief reason why most men binge. Your intake must be appropriate to your size and activity level. Low calorie is good, but too few calories will leave you hungry for a binge.

For six years, the scientists from the University of Birmingham have been studying the influence of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (also known as the narcotic drug “ecstasy“) on cancer cells.

The doctors have found that by their chemical composition some cancer cells are very similar to the substances contained in anti-depressants, medicine for weight loss and the “ecstasy” drug (MDMA). In their opinion, medication based on MDMA can destroy cancer cells.

The experts made this discovery back in 2006. But only a very high concentration of the substance – dangerous for human beings – proved to be effective. All these years, the scientists together with their colleagues from the University of Western Australia have been trying to create methylenedioxymethamphetamine notable for its efficiency and safety.

The new formula proved to be a hundred times more toxic to cancer as compared to the previous one, which allowed to reduce the dosage of the drug. “Ecstasy” with the new formula is attached to the fatty membrane of cancer cells, dissolving them and causing their death. The experiment showed that the formula guaranteed 100% death of cancer cells in the case of leukemia and lymphoma.

Jess Thompson was turning 14 when her 38-year-old mother grew acutely aware of her 27-stone weight and her 32-size clothes. Jess never voiced her displeasure, but Sue was burning with shame notwithstanding. Besides, she was having problems known to every obese person – she couldn’t walk upstairs without getting winded so badly that she was sure she wouldn’t make it to an old age.

But most of all the NHS manager was afraid that her slim daughter might pick up her eating habits. Mrs. Thompson went for Chinese takeaways heavily, used to put down some crisp sandwiches while she was waiting for dinner and could easily empty a family size bag of chocolates as a dessert treat for the evening.

Her obesity had made her extremely self-conscious; “in my head everyone was staring at me and judging me for being so fat,” Mrs. Thompson confessed. Picking up her daughter after school became a torture, because she kept thinking that other parents pitied Jess for having such an outsized mom who was certain to be bad to her.

She had stopped going out for entertainment long ago – “I would have never dared go anywhere” – though she used to love places with music and horse-riding. She admitted she wouldn’t have taken a fairground ride for fear of being unable to squeeze her bulk onto a seat.

Finally, making up her mind not to be an embarrassment for her daughter and husband Shaun, a 42-year-old engineer for EDF, any longer, she took a plunge and joined the Slimming World in March 2010 without telling anybody.

Now, 16 months later, Mrs. Thompson is 150 lbs and 7 dress sizes less, and her family is immensely proud of her! “I’ve never seen her so happy,” said her daughter when they were photographed both standing in her mother’s old trousers that once had been a tight fit.

The happy mother, who had been overweight since her school days, is often out and about the town with her family and thinks of going abroad for her vacation. She enjoys the fun time with her daughter with whom she has grown much closer than before.

Her other plans include opening a Slimming World group of her own to help other people see just how much they can change their lives by losing excessive weight.

Photo: Getty Images //

“Infertility.” Just the word sounds like it’s female business, doesn’t it? It’s the career chicks who “forgot to have babies” that seem to be spending so much time at those fertility clinics, right? Wrong. Infertility is a couple’s problem, and according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, it’s one not often talked about unless it’s a success story.

Infertility is as much a man’s problem as a woman’s. And while women’s fertility issues are sometimes caused by missing that narrow window of opportunity—about 400 ovulations over about 30 years where much can go wrong—men’s problems can be lifelong or created by life choices.

It’s true: In the last 50 years, human male fertility has been declining. Right now, you’ve got half the firepower of a man who lived in the 1960s. And male fertility is continuing to decline by about two percent a year.

About 1 in 10 American couples of reproductive age are mysteriously infertile.

In general, docs say that when a couple is infertile, a third of the time it’s a female problem, a third of the time it’s problems with the dude’s body and a third of the time it could be either. In one English study of 708 couples, sperm defects were the most common cause of infertility.

So what’s slowing, stopping or killing those speedy little guys? Life. The causes of male infertility can certainly be genetic, but they can also be related to your lifestyle. We’ve all heard about hot tubs, but here’s a list that might include some sperm enemies you never knew:

Genetic disorders

A genetic mutation that removes a coating of carbohydrates around sperm reduces their mobility. When men inherit both copies of this mutant gene—one from their father and one from their mother—they have the most problems impregnating women.

Obesity

Being unhealthy affects every cell in your body.

Your job

Painters, printers, welders, builders, drivers, and some office workers can have a low sperm count due to rising scrotum temperature and/or prolonged periods of sitting.

Alcohol abuse

Alcoholics have 30 percent fewer normal cells in their semen.

Sexual problems like premature ejaculation

Duh. If the young swimmers don’t even make it into the canal, they’ll never find the prize.

Tobacco use

One of smoking’s biggest negative impacts is on sperm motility.

Poor nutrition

You need lots of vitamin C , zinc, vitamin E, and beta-carotene in order to have healthy sperm.

Exposure to toxins

Toxins, like pesticides and lead paint (hear that, gardeners, farmers and painters?), can damage sperm.

Marijauna or other drug use

This reduces your total sperm count and semen volume. Plus, sperm in marijuana addicts burns out faster and the race is lost.

Laptops

Yep, the very name should be changed to table-tops because America’s favorite accessory heats up sperm by two degrees during just a one-hour train ride._________________________________________________________________________

The number of Americans newly infected with HIV remained stable between 2006 and 2009, but infections rose nearly 50 percent among young black gay and bisexual men, U.S. experts said on Wednesday.

New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal progress since the peak of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s. But the sharp increases in infection rates among young black men who have sex with men show there is much more work to do, they said.

“We’re very concerned about these increases among young gay men,” Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, said in a telephone interview.

“We can’t allow the health to a new generation to be lost to what is essentially a completely preventable disease.”

According to the estimates, published in the journal PLoS ONE, there were 48,600 new HIV infections in the United States in 2006, 56,000 in 2007, 47,800 in 2008 and 48,100 in 2009. Over the four-year period, that amounts to an average of 50,000 cases per year.

But communities of color, and especially blacks, were disproportionately affected.

While blacks represent 14 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for 44 percent of new HIV infections in 2009. HIV infection rates among blacks were nearly eight times higher than rates in whites, according to the study.

Washington Physicians Committee has issued a statement about the danger of hot dogs. This kind of fast food contains much salt, threatening with hypertension and other problems with the cardiovascular system. But most importantly, American doctors believe that a total amount of 50 grams of processed meat per day (as a hot dog contains) increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 21%.

The expert Susan Lewin equated the hot dogs to cigarettes by the degree of damage to health. The Committee agreed on advertising to convey their message to the people. There have appeared billboards saying “Caution: hot dogs can undermine your health” and demonstrating a pack of cigarettes, stuffed with hot dogs.

Thus, the experts are going to attract people’s attention to the connection of hot dogs and colorectal cancer. According to the expert Susan Levin, fast-food, like cigarettes, should be sold with a warning label.

Xin Zhou made her first plastic surgery at the age of 28 years, and thereafter she regularly turned to plastic surgeons with some new ideas as to changing her appearance. After several surgeries, the Korean woman remained dissatisfied with her appearance and came to see the doctor again.

Zhou was sure that her face could be made more attractive, but the patient was denied a surgery. In fact, the doctors found the lady was addicted to plastic surgery. In addition, the psychologists said that the woman was suffering from dysmorphophobia (painfully negative assessment of one’s weight or body shape), which is also a valid reason for refusing the surgery. However, the doctors’ recommendations did not stop the lady. She learned how to make the silicone injections and bought the syringes and silicone gel. Within a short period of time, the gel was over. The lady had no money to get the licensed silicone gel for injections, but she could not stop either.

She decided that ordinary vegetable oil should be very similar to silicone gel and could replace a professional medicine. But such an injection led to grave consequences and urgent hospitalization. According to the experts, modern women have developed an entirely new disorder which is called “plastic surgery addiction“. As soon as the medical course is over, the Korean woman will be treated for this illness, but in a psychiatric institution.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday it will require health insurance plans to offer a variety of preventive health measures for women at no charge — including birth control and HPV screenings — as part of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The measures were developed by the Institute of Medicine and also include coverage for well woman visits, sexually transmitted infection counseling, HIV screening and counseling, screening for gestational diabetes, breast-feeding support, and screening for domestic violence — all without charging a copay, coinsurance, or a deductible.

# So Safe — studies show it reduces LDL cholesterol and dangerous triglycerides
# So Effective — it’s shown to shed 8.9 pounds and 2 inches of belly fat in just 28 days
# So Inexpensive — it’s just 62 cents per serving; less than a sugary soda at McDonald’s

Move Over Weight Watchers, an exotic super fruit called ‘African Mango’ is quickly becoming America’s hottest new way to lose weight.

And much to the chagrin of the nation’s $40 billion-dollar diet industry, which sells outrageously expensive surgical procedures and drugs that have done little, if anything, to trim America’s ever-growing collective waistline.

Indeed, interest in the use of African Mango extract (irvingia gabonensis) as a safe, effective and inexpensive weight loss alternative surged after Dr. Mehmet Oz called it, mentioning no specific brand, a “breakthrough supplement” and a “miracle in your medicine cabinet” on his Emmy Award-winning The Dr. Oz Show, which aired on September 13, 2010.3

Similarly, one of the show’s leading medical contributors, Dr. Tanya Edwards, M.D., called African Mango extract, mentioning no specific brand, a “miracle pill” after it helped her lose 7 pounds in less than a month without making any changes to her diet or exercise routine.

Subjects Lost an Astonishing 3,990% More Weight

According to a recent study published in the scientific journal Lipids in Health and Disease, men and women supplementing with African Mango extract for just 28 lost an astonishing 3,990% more weight than those taking a placebo (8.9 lbs vs. 0.22 lbs).

Beyond the weight loss, the volunteers taking African Mango extract 30 minutes before meals lost a stunning average of 2.4 inches from their waistlines as well as 1.8 inches from their hips — and their bad LDL cholesterol, triglyceride, and glucose levels all plummeted.

What Is African Mango, and How Does It Work?

Despite the recent frenzy surrounding African Mango and its ability to cause safe weight loss, the fruit has actually been used as a diet aid for centuries in Cameroon, Africa.5

The brightly-colored tropical fruit is native to Cameroon’s west-coastal rainforests. African Mango, or Bush Mango, differs from other mango fruits in that it produces a peculiar seed, which natives of Cameroon refer to as Dikka nuts.

For hundreds of years, an extract from the seeds called irvingia gabonensis has been used among Cameroon villagers for its wide-ranging medicinal benefits, which range from reducing and preventing obesity to lowering cholestrol to regulating blood sugar to treating infections.1,5

Americans Swear by African Mango’s Slimming Benefits

Tiffany Waterson, a 30-year-old mother of three from St. Petersburg, Florida, says she struggled with her weight for years until discovering African Mango.

“I gained 40 pounds with my last child, and I was already 25 pounds overweight,” says Waterson. “I tried several diets and tried to stay away from the foods I loved and nothing seemed to work. I might have lost a few pounds, but it would always come back.”

Waterson says she just about gave up hope of ever losing the weight until she read an article about the slimming and health benefits of African Mango.
“I read all about it and said what the heck, I’ll give it a try and ordered some,” says Waterson. “I have been taking African Mango for six months now, and I am down 33.5 pounds.”

“All I have done is take the pills like the bottle says and drink plenty of water, and I don’t eat past 8 p.m. I still eat what I have always eaten, just smaller portions. And now to tone my body up I’m doing light exercise, and I am loving my new body.”

David Jeffery, a 36-year-old journalist from Columbia, Missouri, says he’s experienced similar weight-loss success with African Mango.

“After just two weeks of using African Mango, I lost 22 pounds of fat, including a lot of fat off my gut,” says Jeffery. “I’m amazed at how fast the weight is falling off me. Already my jean size has dropped from 36 to 34.”

Beware of “Watered Down” African Mango Products

With the recent publicity and fanfare surrounding African Mango, it’s no surprise that sites are popping up all over the Internet claiming to offer African Mango at bargain-basement prices.

However, desperate slimmers should be aware of African Mango products that use “proprietary blends” and don’t list the specific amount of the active ingredient (irvingia) contained in each capsule. Experts warn that it’s a well-known ploy that some manufacturers sell watered down versions of products that contain insignificant amounts of the active ingredient.

Also don’t be duped by products which also contain all kinds of other herbal ingredients that have not been tested scientifically, because these other ingredients can be potentinally harmful.6

July 31, 2011 Update: How To Find a Quality African Mango Product

With dozens, if not hundreds, of African Mango products being sold online, selecting one that’s worth your money can be a difficult and confusing endeavor.

According to consumer and Better Business ratings, the 100% Pure African Mango product offered from Applied Nutritional Research is considered one of the most effective and trustworthy, with laboratory tests certifying the product’s potency and quality.

Each serving of Pure African Mango contains 1,050 mg of Irvingia — one of the highest concentrations currently available.

The website offers a 100% risk-free trial of the product, with each serving working out to be just 62 cents — less than what you’d spend on a small sugary softdrink at McDonald’s.

What’s more, each an every order of Pure African Mango is a one-time-only transaction. In other words, there are absolutely no reoccurring charges or hidden offers.