It’s quite strange that something we all do every day of our lives should be so poorly understood. Yet, without so much as a word of explanation, we all fall unconscious for several hours and, when we recover, we usually feel better for this experience. This is called sleep and, despite all their best efforts, scientists have not managed to convert theories into reliable proofs. All they can say is that, without sleep, our bodies begin to fail physically, becoming more prone to diseases as our auto immune system shuts down, and there can be severe psychological disruption – torturers around the world have been using sleep deprivation for centuries. We all know the feeling of getting out of bed after a disturbed night. It has all the features of a hangover without the benefits of the night before. We walk around like the living dead, finding concentration a problem with a headache threatening. . . and some men report erectile dysfunction.

When you look at the company accounts for the major drug producers, they tell the same story, The erectile dysfunction drugs bring several billion dollars worth of revenue into the coffers every year. Currently, the total world market is estimated around $5 billion. Without wanting to be too boastful, we buy about 40% of these drugs. Quite why we should be so dependent is not clear. It could just be that our market is better developed and more men are aware of the drugs, or that distribution is handled more efficiently. Whatever the reason, the ending of Pfizer’s patent protection in 2012 is likely to have a significant effect. All three manufacturers have enjoyed their monopoly protection and maintain a high price per tablet. When the generic manufacturers are allowed into the market, we can expect to see a price war. This will be to our benefit as this top-selling drug becomes more affordable, but it will indirectly lead to less investment in new drugs. This highly profitable drug has been paying for the development of new forms of treatment. With less money coming in from the world’s biggest market, we can expect fewer drugs coming through the pipeline during the next ten years. That said, sales in South America are expected to grow strongly and will, to some extent, replace revenue lost from the US. Curiously, Mexico with a population of just over 100 million currently represents 3% of the world market. Taking it together with South America, this includes a significant percentage of men who belong to a culture of machismo. To sell to these men, the consistent advertising message has been that these drugs keep you ready for sexual action. The implication is that, no matter when or where the opportunity, men will never fail. This also explains the development of faster methods for taking the drugs with chewing gum and tablets that melt in the mouth proving very popular. New research now suggests these drugs are not driving men out into the dating market with multiple partners. Rather it shows men more concerned about keeping strong relationships with their wives. This is not to say that the machismo culture has been changing rapidly, but it has been changing enough to shift the emphasis more to stability in relationships. Indeed, some independent researchers are saying the drug companies are being overoptimistic in their estimates of market growth. Although some of the causes of erectile dysfunction such as diabetes are becoming more common in the developing markets as processed food replaces real food, the opinion is that the only growth in the market will be among older men. As younger men will stay faithful, sexual performance will often be maintained within the marriage with less reliance on drugs. That said, the strongest growth in foreign markets has been achieved by Cialis. The key factor leading it to beat the competition is the length of time for activity. With up to thirty-six hours from a single tablet, there’s little doubt which drug represents the best value for money. This is reinforced by the lower price per tablet for the once-daily version. Cialis really does give a man responsiveness 24/7 at an economic price.

One of the greatest myths through the ages has been that it’s only the women who are obsessed with the way they look. In fact, the display of whatever passes for beauty in each culture is always to capture the attention of the men. Once married, the women need to maintain appearances. They are there to be seen on the arm of the man, paraded around like a trophy. So, for example, women in the Chinese culture have always been obsessed with the need to maintain a pale skin. Only common people must go about the streets or work in the fields. Women of high status stay at home. Even today, whitening creams are the biggest selling cosmetics across China and Asia. The arrival of the Westerners confirmed the Easteners’ impression that white skin is best. Yet, when you look back through history, you see that rich and powerful men have always dressed themselves in line with fashion. This often required clothing to be padded to emphasize certain attributes and, for long periods of time, also required all men of status to wear hats or wigs. The rule was simple. If all men wear hats or wigs, it’s impossible to tell which ones have lost their hair until it’s too late, i.e. when inside their homes and about to go to bed, the truth will always out. It’s only in our more civilized times that we’ve abandoned the wig as a joke, and don’t accept wearing hats indoors except as a uniform for ceremonial purposes. Mostly men are expected to go bare-headed. This forces them into the media spotlight as the paparazzi now sell pictures of anyone even vaguely famous, getting higher prices for those candid shots showing the first signs of hair loss or fat. Yet, as men navigate through their 30′s, their body chemistry is changing. Hormone levels are dropping. In line with now eating more food, this encourages the belly to swell while laziness undermines the muscle tone. Coming into the male menopause, there can be a loss of libido and diseases become more common as blood vessels harden and heart disease stalks the land. Worse, a growth can start in the prostate. The lucky find the growth benign. The unlucky find it cancerous. Curiously, it was the need to develop a treatment for these growths that led to the development of Propecia. Many believe science is all about planing a series of experiments and tests to produce a new invention. In fact, it’s equally about noticing the way the world works. It’s a good story but Isaac Newton was encouraged to think about gravity because an apple fell on his head. The discovery of penicillin was when Alexander Fleming was curious to find out the properties of a mold that unexpectedly grew while he was away from the lab. Many discoveries are accidents that, once noticed are rigorously investigated. So the drug thought best to prevent further growth in the prostate was reported effective in preventing hair loss. Seeing the commercial possibilities, the research team carried out more tests. Now both versions of Propecia are on sale. It works by slightly changing the levels of male hormones. It may not actually make men younger, but it does keep up appearances.

There’s been a slow but steady change in the age at which acne appears. If we go back into the last century, the observational evidence showed the first signs during puberty, i.e. in most cases, this would mean children had a clear run until their teen years. Now, it’s beginning to affect more children before their teen years. The current observational research evidence shows three-quarters of girls in the range 9 to 10 years are suffering attacks of acne. The reason for this is the earlier onset of adrenarche. Previously this was delayed until nearer the time of menarche. Now the sebaceous glands are being triggered into higher levels of production younger and younger. Indeed, there are the first real signs of it affecting both boys and girls as early as 6 to 7 years which is a dramatic shift. Under normal circumstances, doctors would have at least one drug readily available for prescription no matter what the age of the patient. However, none of the standard drugs for the treatment of acne have been approved for use with children by the FDA. This has produced a difficult ethical problem. Should doctors offer prescriptions knowing the FDA has not approved the drugs?

The Federal authorities have had a busy week, swooping hither and thither to keep us safe as we sleep in our beds. Where would we be without these eagle-eyed defenders of the American way? Take the story out of Detroit. It seems the work of repairing US postal vehicles was diverted to a corrupt contractor in return for lap dances and enough erectile dysfunction drugs so that even the oldest of the managers could manage to be excited by the dancers. This is so thoughtful of the corrupter. Just think how frustrating it must be to have this woman squirming around in front of you and feel no reaction. And all this was apparently to secure some $13 million in work. No word on whether the repairs were actually good value for money. Presumably that will all come out at the trial for bribery. In another story, the FDA has clamped down on some more fakes. It should be said this is a real story. So often the coverage of online pharmacies is just propaganda to frighten us into paying the egregiously high retail prices in brick-and-mortar drugstores. Take all the stories about men who send off their hard-earned dollars expecting nights of passion to be couriered their way by return, only to find their money disappears and nothing appears in their mailboxes. Such “news” is designed to stuff yet more dollars into the profit boxes of the drug manufacturers. So long as they protect their monopoly to sell the branded drugs in the US, they can all afford private jets to bring the lap dancers to them – the erectile dysfunction drugs are freely available. Anyway, this is a story about ExtenZe, one of these male enhancement products. Sometimes you just despair of propaganda. Here are these drug corporations spending millions to deter us from buying real drugs online and men continue to buy herbal sex pills from random websites. You would think all men would understand you never trust anything on a site containing the words “herbal” and “enhancement” in the same sentence. None of these products have ever been though tests to prove they work. None of the manufacturers or distributors need a license. Anyone with a website can sell anything so long as they don’t claim it to be a drug. This leaves the FDA policing the Wild West of herbal pill advertising. If there are words suggesting this is a drug, it orders the ads withdrawn or the product confiscated. In this case, the FDA did some secret-shopper work and tested the pills to see what was in them. What a surprise. The pills were full of the same chemicals used to make erectile dysfunction drugs. No wonder the herbals actually worked! This is an increasingly common trick with manufacturers cheating men by selling them erectile dysfunction drugs dressed up as herbal products. It’s also dangerous because, if a man was to take several pills at once, this could be an overdose and end up in the ER. Such an effort when Levitra is the most powerful of the erectile dysfunction drugs and, when you buy online, significantly cheaper than any equivalent herbal product. So next time, give the herbals a miss and buy Levitra.

Even back in prehistoric age men sometimes ran out of steam which was embarrassing and always led to a loss of status within the tribe. So the search for any natural substances or foods encouraging sexual activity began. We start to get detailed records of all the different experiments as we come out of prehistory and into the early days of the Chinese and Roman Empires. Doctors made two very important discoveries. The first was that some seafood like oysters seemed to improve matters.

Modern science confirms that oysters do increase the production of testosterone but, other than encouraging the libido, they do nothing for actual performance. Whatever benefits come are the result of self-confidence. Ask any magician or shaman from a primitive tribe and they will all tell you the same story. If the captive audience believes in “magic” strongly enough, it will deliver the goods. Today, we call this the placebo effect and, in clinical trials, an average of about one-third of the participants report feeling better after taking chemically inert pills. Another problem with seafood or any other “magic” foods is that they often cause strong allergies in many men. So it’s better not to experiment too much.. As for other sexual encouraging products, the early research discovered the so-called Spanish Fly, a green beetle. Their dried and crushed bodies make a mixture that encourages sexual activity. At low concentrations, it was discovered effective in stimulating animals to mate. This was particularly important for selective breeding to produce the best animals for food and work. In humans, it was also not unsuccessful.