It may be a good idea to resist the comfort of late-night snacks. Recent medical advice from the US says people should not eat for at least 3 hours before going to bed. While not eating before sleep has long been a routine recommendation for those who suffer from reflux disease, healthy Americans who do [...]

Some men describe it as fraying at the edges. While the fabric of their lives appears to be intact, around the age of 45 they begin to sense deterioration. At first glance everything looks normal. They seem competent and in control. At work they function well, their golf handicap is enviable and what they see [...]

Cheer up! It may be the only thing that saves you. New evidence shows that depression is a major risk factor for heart disease.

Some of the latest studies indicate that being depressed can be even worse for your heart than having high cholesterol or smoking. About 10 years ago there was a marked shift in [...]

Few men are lucky enough to have a haemorrhoid-free existence. Most will have at least one or two bouts of these uncomfortable little swellings at some point in their life. Of course, women get them too, but medical literature shows that twice the number of men complain of the symptoms.

It used to be thought that [...]

At night, something that no-one can explain happens to men of all ages. It usually occurs several times a night, and most men neither realise that it is happening nor have any memory of it the next morning.

Most males who are in reasonable health experience nocturnal erections. During a regular 8-hour sleep, they may have [...]

Doctors do not fully understand the complicated relationship between high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries. The two diseases can exist separately, but they often go together. The greatest damage occurs in the latter case.

We have indicated how hypertension injures the heart by making it work against pressure, and how arteriosclerosis causes a narrowing [...]

Although we still do not know the exact cause of rheumatic fever, medical science has accumulated a great many facts about the disease. It is a delayed result of a streptococcal infection, such as sore throat, scarlet fever, tonsillitis, or middle ear infection, which may still be present when rheumatic fever strikes, but which more [...]

This is a thin, flexible sheath worn by the man over his penis in order to prevent the sperm cells from entering the woman’s vagina. It is important to buy condoms at a good pharmacy and to select a recognized brand. The condom should be tested before it is worn. The condom is inflated like [...]

Vaccination has all but eliminated smallpox. The doctor makes a tiny scratch on the person he is vaccinating, and applies some weak germs of a harmless disease called cowpox; the blood promptly creates antibodies that protect it against cowpox and smallpox for a number of years. Introducing material that has been rendered harmless to the [...]

The stomach, which is located in the abdominal cavity, resembles a bag approximately a foot long and six inches wide. The narrow small intestine is about 22 feet long, and the colon, or large intestine, is about four and one half feet long. A tube called the oesophagus connects the throat to the stomach. The [...]