Deans' stroke musings: 7 Meds That Can Wreck Your Sex Life

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, May 7, 2012

7 Meds That Can Wreck Your Sex Life

From AARP but talk to your doctor before doing anything.
http://www.aarp.org/health/drugs-supplements/info-04-2012/medications-that-can-cause-sexual-dysfunction.html
These 3 are the most likely to be applicable to us.

1. Statins and fibrates

Why they’re prescribed: Statins and fibrates are used to treat high cholesterol.
How they can cause sexual dysfunction: Researchers say that by limiting the availability of cholesterol, a building block of hormones, these drugs likely interfere with the production of testosterone, estrogen and other sex hormones. Additionally, statins can cause rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle tissue, leading to joint pain and fatigue.
A review of studies of statins and fibrates, published in 2002, concluded that both classes of drugs may cause erectile dysfunction (ED). And a six-month, government-funded study published in 2009 found that men and women taking statins reported increased difficulty achieving orgasm. In the study, people’s levels of sexual pleasure dropped along with their levels of LDL cholesterol.
Options: If you’re among the many millions of older Americans without known coronary disease who are taking these drugs, ask your doctor or other health care provider about treating your slightly elevated cholesterol with a combination of sublingual (under-the-tongue) vitamin B₁₂ (1000mcg daily), folic acid (800mcg daily) and vitamin B₆ (200mg daily).

2. Blood pressure medications

Why they’re prescribed: All blood pressure medications — and there are eight different categories of them — are used to lower the pressure inside blood vessels, so the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood throughout the body.
How they can cause sexual dysfunction: While high blood pressure in itself can lead to sexual dysfunction, studies show that many of the drugs used to treat this condition also can cause sexual difficulties. In men, the decreased blood flow can reduce desire and interfere with erections and ejaculation. In women, it can lead to vaginal dryness, a decrease in desire, and difficulties achieving orgasm.
Three types of blood-pressure medications — diuretics (or “water pills”), beta-blockers and alpha-blockers — have been found to have the highest incidence of sexual side effects. Some diuretics, for example, not only interfere with blood flow to the sex organs but increase the body’s excretion of zinc, which is needed to produce testosterone. And beta-blockers can sabotage a satisfying sex life at least three ways — by making you feel sedated and depressed, by interfering with nerve impulses associated with arousal and by reducing testosterone levels.
Options: Talk with your doctor or other health care provider about switching to another type of blood pressure medication. For older patients, a benzothiazepine calcium channel blocker is often the best choice, and drugs in this class have been shown to cause fewer adverse sexual effects than other antihypertensives.

3. Antidepressants

Why they’re prescribed: While antidepressants are typically used to treat depression, they’re also frequently prescribed for anxiety disorders, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, chronic pain, smoking cessation and some hormone-mediated disorders, such as severe menstrual cramps.
There are many different kinds of antidepressants, including tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), dopamine antagonists and lithium, among others.

How they can cause sexual dysfunction: Antidepressants cause problems in all areas of sexual function, probably by blocking the action of three brain chemicals that relay signals between nerve cells: acetylcholine, serotonin and norepinephrine.
The adverse effects of clomipramine (Anafranil), for instance, include ejaculation failure (reported by more than 40 percent of men taking the drug), impotence (reported by at least 15 percent of patients) and decreased libido (reported by at least 18 percent of patients).
Options: Talk with your doctor or other health care provider about lowering your dose (sexual side effects are often dose-related) or whether nondrug therapies might work just as well or better for you than a drug. You might also want to explore switching drugs, especially if you’re older and taking one of the tricyclic antidepressants, which are considered to be potentially inappropriate drugs for older people.