Bird Flu Guard

The authors, who surveyed more than 17,000 men 55 and older for seven years, reported their results in the July 4 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study found that men given finasteride reported on average more dysfunction than did men given a placebo. That small effect diminished over the seven years.

The results allay concerns about a negative side effect associated with finasteride up till now. Physicians usually warn that sexual dysfunction is a possibility when they discuss the drug with patients. Finasteride is an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia, but it is not yet FDA-approved for the prevention or reduction in risk for prostate cancer.

The study’s large sample and long follow-up period allowed researchers to examine whether or not finasteride negatively affected sexual function and, if so, whether this effect was lasting, said Carol Moinpour, Ph.D., of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle, the study’s lead author. She coordinates quality-of-life studies for the Southwest Oncology Group, the nation’s largest National Cancer Institute-funded clinical trials network.

The study grew out of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, a large double-blind National Cancer Institute-funded study which found that finasteride, a drug which curbs the proliferation of prostate gland cells, is effective at preventing prostate cancer in men age 55 and older. The 2003 results of that trial, conducted by the Southwest Oncology Group in more than 18,000 men, showed that finasteride could reduce a man’s chances of getting prostate cancer by almost 25 percent.

The authors of the newly published se xual function results wanted to assess how many men in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial reported experiencing sexual dysfunction, and whether the problems decreased or increased over time. In earlier studies, some men taking finasteride reported decreased libido, impotence and other signs of diminished sexual function. But these studies were short-term and didn’t try to assess the effects of age and other health factors, as well as individual variation.

The study authors used two surveys, a widely used sexual problems Scale and another questionnaire which they created, the se xual Activity Scale. They also gathered other data to take into account other health factors that affect sexual function, such as age, medical conditions and smoking status. They surveyed the subjects three times in the first year and then annually for seven years.

“Was this average decrease (in sexual function) an important difference? We concluded it was not,” Moinpour said, adding that there were much larger differences due simply to individual variation among men in the trial.

The study suggests that finasteride will cause little or no sexual dysfunction for most men who decide to take it, conclude the authors.

Source: Spiritindia

We've recently moved into Google's fabulicious Chicago office and brought with us our remaining stock of FeedBurner stickers and buttons. If you are interested in procuring these free delights, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope (or international reply coupon) to our new mailing address. This offer is good until we run out of stickers and/or buttons.

Google
c/o I Want A FeedBurner Sticker!
20 West Kinzie Street
9th floor
Chicago, IL 60610
USA

Here are a few answers to some lingering questions from the original thread:

Can you ship my swag overseas?
We'll send your sticker to the moon if the postage is correct. But to answer the question, yes. We are able to send stickers overseas and can report several successful exchanges from Italy, Malaysia and Japan. Not a peep yet from Reykjavik, but we're cautiously optimistic.

Why don't you save yourselves the hassle and put this stuff on one of those fancy web-based swag fulfillment sites?
What can we say, we're control freaks when it comes to delivering the goods. Besides, we like receiving your cards and letters and save them for posterity. Offline marketing continueth!

What's the postage for [insert your country here]?
Unfortunately, we don't scale well, so you're going to have to figure this one out on your own. A few helpful commenters suggested stamps.com as a resource for calculating U.S. postage. You can also use this postage rate calculator. The weight of an average FeedBurner sticker package is approximately 0.3 oz, based on a standard-sized envelope. The number of FeedBurner stickers that can fit on the head of a pin is still hotly debated.

Why is this a limited offer?
Supplies are, sadly, limited. Should the public start demanding embroidered beanies or highball cozies en masse, we'll talk again.

Keep those flames a burnin'!

— Next Page »