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Sex Drive, sugar cravings, hormones and blood PH

Cravings I struggle to resist the call of chocolate on a daily basis. Most days it is a continuous battle (during the PMS days I generally lose the war). It has only been through an understanding of my hormones (as it relates to sexual desire) in both myself and my patients that allowed me to pull through of the crazy spiral of hormonal fluctuations. I was at Walmart last week and standing in front of the dark chocolate choosing my particular poison. I looked around and saw five other women doing the same thing. We all hear the  call of mood management. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are documenting what women have always understood innately.

Chocolate puts us in the mood.

I tell men that the two greatest pantieremovers out there are red wine and dark chocolate. They bump up our dopamine levels move the serotonin to where it needs to be. It also affects our blood PH and starts cranking up the furnace. Unfortunately, those medicinal  time's start the cravings as we become more acidic. And so the cycle begins again.  And men wonder why we get crazy. I'm learning a great deal more about how our body PH can affect cravings, sex drive and mood.  Hormones

Here is my understanding of it in a nutshell.

Your blood is naturally a PH of 7.3. An optimum range is between 6.2 and 7.4 depending on the time of day. You can test it by licking or peeing on the little PH strips they sell at the health store for about $12. My kids always get a kick out of watching the paper go from orange to yellow to green or purple.  You need a balance of alkaline and acid foods (usually 75% alkaline and 25% acid). If you are too acidic it causes you to get agitated, your energy is good, but it causes a "burn out" as aging is accelerated and minerals from your bones are leeched out to "cool the fire". It is then that you may be craving sugar.

If you are too alkaosis (between 7.5 and 8) you may be sluggish and lumpy.  Dramatically fluctuating PH level results in mood swings and the "crazy" hormonal behavior  women (and those who love them) understand.

So, here is what I do to manage the acidic levels. I drink  a teaspoon of chlorophyll (green plant juice) or lemon juice (it may seem acidic but the body processes it as an alkaline food), and take a couple more Omega 3 fish oil capsules. It keeps me feeling sexy, manages my blood sugar and keeps those happy feelings flowing. I'm up to 8 or so Omega 3's (along with megamagnesium, and Vitamin B6), and some dark chocolate daily to keep my moods level, the weight under control, and my sex drive exactly where I want it. High. 

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Suzanne Somers and the wonder of bio-identical hormones

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My Mother, my partner's Mother and I went to hear Suzanne Somers lecture recently in Ottawa. She looks absolutely fabulous. I mean despite having millions to keep glowing- she is still drop dead gorgeous at 62, and a grandmother of 4. She claims her youth, the success of her marriage of 42 years, and her health is a result of organic food and taking bio-identical hormones.

She was in town promoting her 18th book about health, sex and hormones and she was given a rock star reception from the crowd. This was a group of women primarily between 40 and 65 for whom her message of looking good and feeling great – without pharmaceutical hormones. She said synthetic hormones (like Premerin made of "pregnant mare urine") offers up serious problems to women's bodies – including the big scare about breast cancer. Bioidentical hormones (made to match women's estrogen and progesterone exactly) are made from soybeans and yams and react naturally in the body. There is nothing in horse's estrogen that reacts normally in humans. Bioidentical hormones are approved, extensively tested and safe- but hard to find. The issue is that they are natural, can't be patented and sold by drug companies, thus are badly marketed and then only by small pharmacists and chemists.

I later interviewed Kent MacLeod the pharmacist who sponsored Suzanne's lecture and he said that although he can explain the science (and he has many years more training in hormone pathways that the few weeks doctors get- a big disservice of med schools for women) and although he does a 24/7 business supplying hormones to women around North America, he gets few referrals from doctors. People like Suzanne Somers and Kent are trying to educate people on why we need hormones.  And everyone needs to keep their baseline of hormones intact. I am seeing men with ED in their 20's and young women with no sex drive due to years on the birth control pill (which makes your body think it is in menopause). In a nutshell, nature intended us to die after we stop reproducing. If we plan to live into old age with quality of life, we need healthy hormones. Your doctor simply may not have all the information, and you absolutely, positively need hormones as you age to maintain health, youth, and SEX Drive. I spend my days talking to men and women about sexual dysfunction, that I'm finding these problems can be treated effectively with supplements and bioidentical hormones.

So if you are tired of feeling listless, itchy, with hot flashes, or are a young woman with no sex drive maybe you should look into bio identical hormones as a solution. If you had seen what 62 looked like for Suzanne, and their safe- you would have been sold too.

Suzanne

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The hated fishy vaginal smell. What to do when you have "tuna odor"

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Vulva1 February, cold, wet, and at the height of flu season. With half the population is on antibiotics, and no fresh air blowing up skirts, women often get a little odoriferous. Some, in fact, smell like a fish canning factory. With women paranoid about being strong smelling and not clean enough at the best of times, adding a slight (or not-so-slight) scent to their snatches can be mortifying.

I was astounded at how many women didn't know what to do when this happened, and thought a blog to explain the basics in vaginal health from a sex therapists' perspective was in order.

Both yeast and good bacteria (the happy kind you find in yogurt that helps digestion) are present in the vagina, and they keep each other in check. If you are on oral antibiotics, then the good bacteria are cleaned out, (along with the bad and inbetween bacteria)  and you often get a yeast infection. Red, itchy, thick discharge and you don't want to leave the bathtub. An over the counter anti-fungal is a good treatment. The challenge is that often there is introduced bad bacteria into the vagina and you aren't itchy, but you smell ripe. Daily baths, masturbation to flush out the vaginal cavity and eating yogurt can help prevent it happening, but when you need "fish be gone" treatment here's what you do.

Go to the health food store and look for digestive enzymes and lactobacillius. These are the millions of the good bacteria you can take in a pill. They are usually kept in the refrigerator, and are important to take if you are disrupting the vaginal flora in any way. (ie are smelly girl).  Then you need an antibacterial vaginal cream. My favourite is viaderm-k.c. cream. In some places you can get viaderm over the counter, and in some places you need a prescription. A tube will last me for years, and it is a gentle, soothing goop that works with the bacteria pills to clean up the problem in a day or so. 🙂

I think all women should understand their vaginas, feel their cervixes, and be aware of their cycles. You have the power to manage your own sexual health, and a healthy vagina is a happy vagina.

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Watermelon1 Have you heard about the study of something called citrulline? It’s something in watermelons that dilate the blood vessels and improve sexual performace, giving people a viagra-like benefit.  say cool. Imagine all the hard on’s at church socials, and summer barbeque’s.The nutrients in watermelon can “deliver Viagra-like effects to the body’s blood vessels and may even increase libido,” according to Science Daily

 I’ve been doing even more reading about sexual nutrition (just wait until I regale you with stories of my class on sprouts..), and I’m convinced that much of what ails you can be solved with antioxidents and certain foods. I take these tiny, little cinnamin tablets to regulate my blood sugar, zinc to keep my squishy parts squishy, and now I’ll be buying even more watermelon.

There are three photo-nutrients; in watermelon which are delivering these : lycopene, beta carotene and citrulline. Coupled with a herbal supplement like Thrust which increases the nitric oxide in the blood stream like  an increase in trace minerals (from either a mineral supplement, or drinking mineral water) you should be doing the Bob Doyle thing without the benefit of pharmaceuticals. I had a 89 year old patient who was still having sex with his 84 year old wife. Their diet was lots of fruits, meat, real cream (he used to be a farmer), and he was still chasing her around the house. As his wife told me, “He’s a frenchman, everything else is falling apart, but the protruding part is the only thing that still works right.” I wonder how much watermelon he ate?

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Why a steady guy makes you less interested in sex

There is new research (at least if you listen to a bunch of Germans from Hamburg. And who has sex in Hamburg?), that once women get a steady guy, and frequency of sex starts a slow, but steady decent. Sound like your sex drive? It turns out that once a woman is secure in her relationship, she would rather read romance novels, and eat chocolate (maybe that’s just me projecting about what I want to do if I can’t have sex), than boff wildly. Actually, there is very little I would rather do tha boff wildly, but I’m off topic again. In the German research, which polled a large sample, showed that  less than half of 30-year-old women wanted regular sex after they had shacked up.
Conversely, the team found a man’s libido remained the same regardless of how long he had been in a relationship. Big surprising news there. We were out at the comedy club a few weeks ago, and the comedian was going on about “how much time women spent looking good for men, and worrying about magazine articles that said that if you don’t look a certain way you’ll never get laid.” He said “women shouldn‘t bother worrying about that, as most men would fuck their sofa cushions”.
So I’m doing some research of my own. Not about how many men would actually fuck their sofa cushions, but what women can do to keep ourselves so horny that the guys can’t keep up with us. “Do me now, baby”, instead of “I’ve got a headache”. So I’m researching any and all aphrodisiacs (pass the green M & M’s), looking into drugs, and how much relationship stuff affects our urge to nest, rather than get naked. If you have anything that works for you, by all means drop me a line at sue@sexwithsue.com.  Otherwise, as my new fridge magnet says,” I’m saving myself for my second marriage – or at least until the next full moon.

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Making babies…As much an art as science

Babies I am very grateful for reproductive choices. I live in a country where I have access to free health care, and was able to get the best gynaecologist on the planet to tie my tubes without any fuss or fanfair. I can manage my own fertility, and have had the usual hassles with birth control being messy or giving me headaches, but for the most part, it worked well for me. So glad that chapter of my life is finished.

I’ve been giving some thought of late to couples who are still caught up in those worries or frets. One almost 40 year old friend who was worried she was knocked up, after a taking some porrly planned out chances.  I know another couple who in their late 30’s are desperate for a child and facing the very intense, costly and intrusive invitro fertilization procedures. And then there is another long-time girlfriend I just ran into.  I hadn’t seen her since her fourth child was born.  She always wanted four, and her husband wanted to stop at three. She said that despite his feelings it really was her choice.  She called it "a Friday night and a bottle of wine", and she would get her way. I don’t live in their relationship, and I’m not judging her behaviour, but it seemed a little one sided. But the truth is, that women have much of the responsibility, and control over the reproduction in their relationships.

As I talk to yet another young women about the side effects of the pill, I am again reminded that our fertility, while better managed than any other time in history, isn’t always simple. 

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the power of dopamine

Ask any woman about the power of hormones. Every month fertile women are given on on upfront and personal look at how our biochemistry controls behaviour. Men have the same problem, only its constant, and is what gets them out to bars on a Saturday night.
In a new relationship, dopamine is the “feel good” hormone that causes you to get that honeymoon feeling. Chocolate with it’s high dopamine levels can extend or replicate the feeling, but nothing, I mean nothing is as highly intoxicating as the rush of chemicals you feel in on on new relationship. If you are connected, them BAM – you get the jolt of kick-ass hormones that can leave you jittery. You can know that’s whats going on, but it still can cause your circuits to go haywire. That’s why your job in dating (as I preach to my patients) is to screen out the losers before the chemistry takes over. If you pick right, and the phermones- the scent that is picked up and brings you to your knees- is right, then hang on, it’s going to be a Hell of on on ride.

Choline – Not the stuff they dump in swimming pools.

I’m having fun doing some fairly intensive study into the sexual benefits of certain supplements. That is, pop some African tree bark, or some obscure Brazilian berries and turn in to a raving nymphomaniac, or have the 4 hour hard on. Without the Viagra.

I’m suggesting that men with mediocre erections, and women who are ho hum about sex consider looking into the over the counter supplement Choline. Choline is related to acetylcholine (a mouthful I know), which is one of the important chemicals that helps increase blood flow to the genitals.  It’s inexpensive, and it works by directly by helping relax blood vessels involved in blood flow to those previously mentioned hard or squishy parts.  It’s sold in viatmin stores and the recomended dosage is between 500 and 750 mg, on an empty stomache.  It’s got a three hour window and you may feel increasingly warm and increased sensitivity where it counts within a few hours.

I’ve got a few patients on this, combined with Omega 3, and sometimes a bit of Catuba (Brazilian medicine that gives you stronger erections, and better orgasms), and I’m hearing about some pretty remarkable results.

FYI, and I’ll be posting some more stuff on herbs that make you hot and bothered on my site www.sexwithsue.com

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female sexual desire and the rage of hormones

I’m talking to my gaggle of girlfriends, or out with the cool group of spinmamas the new "red hat society" for women in their 30’s and 40’s, and of course, the conversation turns to sex. Women approaching 40 seem to go one of two ways.  Either their sex drive increases (guess which way mine is going…), or decreases and sex becomes a chore on the list of things to do.

I’ve spoken to a number of men in the last week, whose wives hate sex. They lie back, look at the ceiling (or over their shoulder at the TV), zone out, or avoid it at all costs. These men are feeling rejected, frustrated, and are looking for solutions.  The option of continuing the same way has become intolerable.  These men love their wives, but have basic needs that aren’t getting met.

So if they don’t want to break up families, what are they to do? Mistress?  There is the difficulty in finding one. Escorts?  Ewww, rushed, legal issues, one of many, cleanliness and disease, ethics, ect.  Bars on business trips? Same problem -complications, disease, time in finding an outlet. So, I’m trying to ponder a solution. Mistress for rent?  Sex while you wait?  Toys?

I don’t know, all I hear is that thie is cruel and unusual punishment for kind and loving guys. There’s got to be a solution and I’m going to look for it. Think of the stories that will come out of that service…

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sex, exercise and weightloss

Cabdy So I binged on Halloween candy – again. I had been doing so well, but October has my weight up, not down and I am having difficulty fighting the lure of chocolate. Between Thanksgiving and Halloween , I seem to be surrounded. Sex and chocolate, my two favourite addictions –  so I thought I would look into how much sex I would have to have to burn off the calories from all those Hershey’s Kisses (a whopping 25 calorie per little, delicious chocolate morsel.)  So if I had sex for a half hour (20 minutes of foreplay, and 10 minutes of intercourse) I would burn 108 calories – or roughly 4 kisses. Considering I usually gobble a bag of the damn things, I need to spend the rest of the month on my back. Have a look at the website that will calculate how many calories you burn for each activity.  I found it discouraging, but maybe it will help keep you on the straight and narrow as well. intake versus output
If straight sex won’t do it, try this Great American Sex Diet, or bedrrom workout- lifting weights with your partner in between rounds of shagging. Maybe I can combine both?Sex_and_exercise_1
 
 
 
 

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Not shot necessary for us older sexually active chicks

Needle So there is a new shot that will prevent you from getting the virus associated with genital warts that causes women cervical cancer.  Considering genital warts are rampant, and close to 75% of Canadians will be exposed to the virus in their lifetime, this comes at a great time to get stabbed if you are a sexually active woman.
I asked an infectious disease doctor about it recently.  A few of my recently single, 30-something friends wondered if they should pay (the few hundreds of dollars) to get the shot. It seems, that it is only meant for girls/women ages 9 to 26. Old chicks like me (if I were to choose to run around on the wonder husband) don’t need to get it because our cellular mucosa is too seasoned to adhear to the type of virus that causes the worrisome cervical cancer. It is safe, can’t hurt, and may be a thought if you are an aging party girl out doing the football team, but not as big of a worry for us older broads.  I guess with mamograms and menopause looming, we have enough to worry about.
Cervical_cancer_vaccine
 
 
 
 
 

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To rag or not to rag…hmmm

Menstruation3 So there is a new little pill that will will revolutionize your sex life, and change humanity forever. No, it’s not Viagra, it’s a new female birth control pill called Anya (like the singer) that will forever relegate your monthly curse to be nothing but a distant memory. Imagine, no more tampons, no more missed sexual opportunities, crotchless panties all the time, no more dry cleaning bills, cramping, leaking ect. Are you willing to give up the curse forever? 

Ask women whether they want to give up their periods, and you get many different answers (maybe depending on the time of month).  Instead of being tied to a lunar cycle, this new pill and the Seasonale one (which gives you 4 periods a year), can change your hormones so as not to be inconvenienced.  The downside is that they doMenstruation2n’t know the long term problems with eliminating your periods. I was told by one of the best endocrinologists in the country that it is a spectacularly bad idea. My training made it clear that if you didn’t at least occasionally bleed and clean out your uterus, you could develop polups and other nasties. Being on a pill continuously can also increase the toxicity levels in your body, and it’s really a fake bleed (or withdrawl bleed) anyway.

I wouldn’t go on it, but as I finish up my inconvienient monthly visitor, I certainly understand the appeal for women who choose to do it.