Entries from December 2009 ↓

Fear can be overcome

One of the most common causes of erectile dysfunction is performance anxiety. Put simply, as men age, they begin to lose confidence that the erections of their youth will continue. It only takes one or two failures to get an erection hard enough for penetration and the worry starts to build. Soon, the worry becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. The anxiety takes over and erections fade away. Continue reading →

Safety when disposing of unwanted drugs

How often have we heard the doctor say, “Remember to take the full number of tablets.” but, when we feel better, we stop. It always seems such a waste. Antibiotics are expensive. We always justify keeping the half-empty bottle alongside all the others. You never know, we say to ourselves, they may come in useful. Except, they never do. So, when the day comes for clearing the shelves, what do we do with all these now unwanted drugs? In more innocent days, we might just have thrown them into the dumpster or flushed them down the toilet. Now we should think more about the consequences. Most of the trash from the dumpsters goes into landfill sites. Water washes through the mounds of rubbish, leaching all the chemicals into the ground. Over time, they move down to the water table and from there into streams and rivers. Similarly, what we flush down the toilets passes through the sewers directly into the local rivers or the nearby sea. Further downstream, river water gets taken up by the next town or city. It goes through the treatment plant and into the drinking water supply. Animals drink from the rivers and fish live in the sea. Water is used to irrigate the fields of produce. Over time, this cocktail of chemicals enters our food chain. We get to eat and drink the dilute mixture of drugs. Continue reading →