Healthy Andy

All right, you horny little freaks.  I know at least some of you out there are quickly scribbling down 800 numbers listed during late night TV commercials for male sex enhancement pills, but seriously, lay off of that crap. 

The FDA agrees with me, at least in the case of the ridiculously named Man Up Now pills, which they have labelled as dangerous, and rightly so.  Like many other sketchy supplements out there, these pills contain dangerous active ingredients that closely mimic prescription drugs.

For Man Up Now (Really?  That’s REALLY the name?  Jeesh!), we’re talking about Viagra.  Big shock there.  The way Viagra works is, by encouraging the relaxation of arteries (called vasodialation) and therefore an increase in blood flow to the, um, area of interest.  Since an erection is essentially a hydraulic phenomenon (more blood goes in than out, filling up the penis and making it hard), that increase in blood flow helps those with erectile function get what they’re looking for.

Folks, there’s really no way to talk about this stuff without using terminology that’s going to make you snicker.  So go ahead and giggle.  I can’t hear you.

Okay, so here’s the thing.  Vasodialation, or widening of the arteries, lets more blood through, but also reduces blood pressure.  Any time you increase the diameter of a hose, you decrease the pressure of the fluid travelling through it.  The opposite is also true… decrease the diameter, increase the pressure.  You know this if you’ve used your thumb to block off part of the end of a garden hose to make the water shoot out further.

What this all translates to is, if you’ve already GOT low blood pressure, you really don’t want to go making it even lower by gobbling down questionable male enhancement pills and forcing it so low you keel over dead.  That’s really not how you want your body to be found.

I know what (most of) you are thinking.  “Okay, Healthy Andy, but what CAN I take?”

Perverts.

Well, without getting into this too much and thereby turning this site into something that will get filtered out by your workplace internet, remember what I said earlier about the erection being all about hydraulics?  That means that the healthier and more responsive your vascular system (arteries and veins) is, the more responsive your equipment will be as well. 

So anything that helps your cardiovascular system, basically, will help you out down below.  As a prime example, read this post on how antioxidants keep arteries elastic to steer you down the right path.  Pliable, responsive arteries are the key to success with the vascular system.

That’s right, boys.  Turns out the best male enhancement pills are blueberries and other superfoods.  Other than that, good old fashioned stuff like regular exercise will help you out far more than any supplement with a silly name.

Avoid the late night 800 numbers and stay healthy!

Link to the FDA’s warning:  http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm236538.htm

 Nice work, FDA.  The gov-ment put out a warning last week on Slimming Beauty, a dangerous weight loss supplement that, whoops, happens to contain prescription drugs.

If this sounds mildly familiar, it’s because the same thing happened with a weight loss supplement called Que She, which I talk about in this article.  Que She had all kinds of ridiculous stuff put in their formulation; Slimming Beauty isn’t much better.

Specifically, it contains a stimulant called sibutramine, which is a no-joke stimulant.  Like Fenfluramine, a stimulant used years ago in sketchy weight-loss clinics, sibutramine increases the risk of all kinds of fun stuff: heart and kidney failure, and my favorite, “sudden death”.

This isn’t the first time sibutramine has been put in weight loss products.  Earlier this year, “Herbal Diet Natural” was put on Health Canada’s danger list for containing this dangerous stimulant, and a couple of years back, the FDA put out a similar warning on over two dozen weight loss products.

In fact, there were even counterfeit versions of Alli, which is a prescription drug for weight loss, that contain sibutramine instead.  The irony of THAT is, Alli has its own safety problems.

What’s shocking to me about this isn’t that yet another weight loss supplement has been found to contain dangerous substances, it’s that people keep falling for this crap.  Seriously!  How many times do we have to get burned by yet another “weight loss miracle pill” before it finally sinks in that THERE IS NO MAGIC IN WEIGHT LOSS?

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.  You gain or lose weight due to physics and biochemistry, not magic.  If some pill is going to make fat go away, just how it that going to happen?  In the absence of exercise or a proper diet, just how are you going to create an energy (caloric) deficit WITHOUT using some sicko dangerous stimulant to hop up your metabolic rate? Or perhaps some sort of laxative to make you uncontrollably void out everything you just ate (obviously also a dangerous and rather disgusting manuever)?

There is one path to losing weight, and that’s fixing your diet and exercise habits for the long term.  That’s why my weight loss book is all about how to change your fatness habits to fitness habits, not how to explosively poop your way to a slimmer you.

Sure, there’s a few supplements that can help move you in the right direction, but the healthy ones do it by replacing vital nutrients you may be missing, not by trying to create short-cuts with a thinly disguised version of crystal meth.  Things like antioxidants, fish oils, CoQ10 and chromium, all help by making the mechanisms of weight loss work properly… but you still have to eat right and exercise in order for it to work.

In other words, you can remove road blocks to weight loss with healthy supplements (like if excessive cortisol is making it tough to lose weight even if you’re exercising and eating a whole foods diet), but you can’t force the issue.  So rather than wait for the FDA to save you from yet another dangerous weight loss supplement… and believe me, there will be more… avoid the issue altogether by fixing your diet and exercise habits, and losing the weight that way.

Source article from the FDA: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm228801.htm

Link to sales page for my neurologically-based weight loss ebook, “Road Map To Abs”, on my weight loss sister site: http://www.roadmaptoabs.com/info/ .

Learn how to fix your fitness habits for the long term and stay healthy!

Remember that little egg recall thing a few weeks ago, about a couple of cartons of eggs being recalled for being just a little over-ripe?  And by “a couple of cartons”, I mean, HALF A BILLION eggs, and by “a little over-ripe”,  I mean “covered with salmonella”?  Yeah, the egg farmers are real real sorry ’bout that.

The piles of manure heaped so high that doors couldn’t be shut, the dead animals and flies lying around too numerous to count, the loose birds allowed to roam around and track feces all around the farm.  Yeah, whoops, said the egg farmers.  Gee, do we feel embarassed about that little mess.

During a hearing investigating this outbreak, the egg farmers tried to blame the rapid growth of their business on the unsanitary conditions.  Because hey, it’s easy to overlook innumerable rotting dead animals and massive piles of manure choking your farm when you’re making so much money you can make a tailored suit out of hundred dollar bills. 

I’m not really sure how that’s supposed to be a viable excuse.  “We got so big, so fast, that we let our food become contaminated”.  Really?  Greed is an acceptable excuse for illegal and dangerous behavior now? So if I rob a bank and shoot the whole town up doing it, when I get caught, I can just say, “Hey!  I really, really, REALLY wanted a lot of money.”

The bottom line is, this massive industrialization of farming is going to inevitably lead to violations like this being more and more common.  You just can’t stuff zillions of chicken in a little space and then be surprised when chicken poop is all over the place. 

Of course, this doesn’t let the companies off the hook- if you want to sell food, you have to do it safely.  I’m just saying that the bigger these “farms” get, the more likely that they won’t be able to keep up with sanitary or healthy conditions.

I put “farms” in quotes because these huge farms don’t look like what most of us think of as farms.  They look more like factories.

If you haven’t seen it, a great documentary on the subject is “Food, Inc.”, and I highly recommend you watch it.  It’s a real eye-opener into how food is actually produced in America.  You can check out their website here.

Stay healthy!

Source article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/22/egg.recall.congress/index.html?eref=rss_health&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_health+%28RSS%3A+Health%29

Here’s a great post on change.org about just how bad the situation is with our food supply.  Specifically, added dyes.

This stuff doesn’t even make our food TASTE any better, just more bright and cheery-looking before we gobble it down.  Unfortunately, it’s absolute poison.  One of the highlights of the article is that we consume 15 MILLION pounds of dyes- just DYES- in our food every year. Blimy!

And, these chemicals are linked to cancer, allergies, and hyperactivity… but hey, the FDA has got our backs on this, right?  Right?

Um, no.  But I think you knew that already.  The FDA knows all about the risks, and lets it slide.  Hey, there’s big money in the food industry!  What’s a little cancer amongst friends when you can make a buck?

Check it out: http://food.change.org/blog/view/death_by_mm_the_problem_with_food_dyes

Another reason to stick to whole, unprocessed foods and stay healthy!

Odds are, you’ve heard about the recent ginormous recall of eggs due to contamination with salmonella.  Well, the story just keeps getting better and better.

Now that the FDA is involved, they’re apparently finding all kinds of crazy stuff going on at these farms.  They found salmonella in the chicken feed, salmonella in the water used to wash the eggs, and also in the barns that they lived in.

Awesome. 

But wait, there’s more!  The FDA reports that in places the piles of manure were so high- sometimes as much as eight feet high- that some of the doors couldn’t shut.  Uncaged animals were wandering around through the manure piles and tracking it all over the place.  Maggots and flies were apparently all over the place, and protective clothing wasn’t being worn.

The crazy thing is, all this stuff was taking place even AFTER new safety rules regarding eggs had taken effect in July!

I don’t know about you, but this sort of thing makes me paranoid.  More and more, we’re seeing e-coli and salmonella outbreaks from huge industrial farms churning out food grown or processed under filthy conditions.  It seems to me the FDA is overwhelmed.

I mean, think about the scope of this.  A half a BILLION eggs were recalled.  HALF A BILLION.  That’s an omelette for every man, woman, and child in America.  Think of not just the risk, but the waste of food on a planet where many go without.

Source article:   http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/30/eggs.salmonella/index.html?eref=rss_health&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_health+%28RSS%3A+Health%29

In yet another shocking incidence in which medications turn out to actually be bad for you, two studies found that Avandia, a medication for diabetes, increases the risk of heart attack and similar dropping-dead-from-heart-not- working problems.

Of course, GlaxoSmithKline, the makers of Avandia and a very long word to type, claim that Avandia is perfectly safe and will actually make you a better Scrabble player (okay, I made that last part up).  They cite “better, newer” studies (read: studies we bought and paid for) which proclaim Avandia’s safety.

Unfortunately for GSK, the latest released study shows an increased risk of heart attack (39 percent) and heart-related death (43 pecent) from those taking Avandia.  The FDA is convening a special panel of experts to help them decide whether or not these pesky side effects are sufficient to remove the drug from the market, but they’ll probably chicken out, since they’re fairly useless.

One more reason to say no to sugar, folks.

Source article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/health/29drug.html?partner=rss&emc=rss