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Some inheritances are a curse. I don’t mean your grandmother’s cabinet of porcelain fawns, nor your uncle’s portfolio of watercolor still lifes, nor the 40 years of Model Railroader magazines stowed in the rafters of your dad’s garage. Worse than any of these is the hand-me-down that could be hiding in your genes. No one wants to wind up with the family’s hereditary disease.

Whether it’s diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or heart disease, having a family history of a hereditary disease can cast a shadow over your life. Some folks try to ignore it, others become obsessed with their family’s medical history and genetics. There’s always that uneasy feeling: Will it get me too?

“A history of hereditary disease can cause a lot of anxiety and worry,” says Adel Gilbert, MS, CGC, a genetic counselor at Johns Hopkins University. “It can really affect your quality of life, or even how you live your life.”

I’ve spent most of my life in this gloom. My father died at 43, unexpectedly, of a stroke. And his father died at 64 (heart attack), and his father at 57 (heart attack), and his father at 61 (stroke). So the average age of death for the past four patriarchs of my family is 56 — a lifespan that would be above average for a 19th century coal miner and superb for a Neanderthal. But it’s not so hot for a man of the 20th century, let alone the 21st.

I’d like to beat the odds. I’m 34 now. I’d like to forestall or avoid the cardiovascular disease that felled my forefathers. Not only would I like to surpass the current record of 64 years — I’d like to exceed that life span by decades.

But is that a foolish hope for a guy with my family history? Is an early expiration date already written indelibly in my genes? Are my chances of getting to 80 any better than a mayfly’s? Under the cover of medical journalism, I turned to genetic experts to find out.

Can Genetic Testing Trump Family History?

“I see lots of people who are convinced they’re genetically doomed,” says Carrie Zabel. She’s a genetic counselor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, whose job is to help people better understand their hereditary risks.

It’s no wonder people can feel so hopeless about their DNA. We view genes and genetic testing with superstitious awe. A news report about the discovery of a gene can sound as ominous as the prophecy of an ancient oracle. Genes seem to control everything — our intelligence, our risk for disease, whether we like anchovies. Each breakthrough in genetic medicine seems to erode a bit more of the tiny allotment of free will that we thought we had.

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Via: MedicineNet.Com

Research shows that there is an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease among men with erectile dysfunction and low testosterone levels. The study, conducted by Dr. Giovanni Corona, observed the testosterone levels of men who were seeking treatment for erectile dysfunction.

Many of those men suffered from heart attacks or other major heart problems. A few men that participated in the study died. Corona found that men who had low testosterone levels were more likely to die of heart problems.

“Our work shows that screening for testosterone deficiency in men with erectile dysfunction may help clinicians identify those at higher risk from cardiovascular events,” Corona said in a news release from the European Society of Endocrinology. “However, at the moment we can’t say whether low testosterone levels are the cause or the consequence of this higher risk.”

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FROM SHINE.COM:

Worry can have it’s place in life — if it encourages us to act and incites life-improving change (my worry could have gotten me super prepared for said meeting, for example), it’s serving its purpose. But if worrying has just become habit, with idle fretting and rumination a general way to cope with the world at large, it might be time to nip it in the bud. Here are five ways to deal with worry in your life:

1. Accept uncertainty.

Oftentimes, worry can be a persistent fear of the unknown. But what’s so great about certainty? Think of those movies in which characters ask to know the future of their lives from an all-knowing oracle, only to then feel like prisoners of that knowledge. Ask yourself some questions: Is it possible to be certain about everything in life? How could uncertainty be helpful? If you are imagining the worst case scenarios just as a matter of course, try envisioning a range of outcomes, from good to bad to just acceptable; all are equally probable.

Get Healthier In 5 Minutes, No Exercise Required!

2. Set aside a worry time.

Worry wart ways won’t be undone in a moment, so allow yourself the time and space in your life to worry. Maybe you ought to give yourself 15 minutes on your morning commute. Postpone all worries that spring up at other times in the day by noting them and coming back to them during the worry time. The idea is to confine your worry to one brief part of your day so that your concerns aren’t stretching to fill every waking moment.

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Need An Energy Boost? Try These Quick Fixes

Big little stressor No. 1: Insecurity

Not surprisingly, paying bills, managing debt and sticking to a budget scored highest of all the stressors in our survey. But guess what? It’s not about the money, says Thomas Miller, Ph.D., a University of Kentucky psychologist and the author of Handbook of Stressful Life Transitions Across the Lifespan. “Much financial stress actually has to do with uncertainty—about your money situation, yes, but that really means your job. Not knowing specifics about where you stand eats at you like acid.”

Defuse it: Go on a fact-finding mission, Miller says. Demand answers to those elephant-in-the-room questions at work. Ask your boss how you fit into the company’s plans, or what you can do to make yourself more valuable. If he pauses or doesn’t appear truthful, push him with “Can you be more specific?” or even “So do you think I should be concerned?” “The more answers you’re given about your situation, the more clarity you’ll have—and clarity equals control,” Miller says.

Bonus tip: Worried about your job? Relieve your stress by using these 6 tricks to prevent being laid off.

Big little stressor No. 2: Hair loss

More than half the men in our poll felt stressed about their images, and many specified hair loss as the mane, er, main culprit. They’re not alone: A 2005 Mayo Clinic Proceedings review cites multiple studies showing that male pattern baldness negatively affects men’s feelings of attractiveness and body image. “For those guys who are feeling judged by their hair loss, the stress is very real,” Good says.

Defuse it: Reframe the problem as a medical issue, Good suggests. Treating hair loss with transplants costs $4,500 on average, while drug treatments can cost as much as $60 a month, for decades. Then run the numbers and decide if the expense is truly worth it to you, Good says. If it is, then go for it. But if you think you can deal with it as a mere medical inconvenience, you’ll be more easily able to snuff out this stressor.

Bonus tip: Find out which hair-loss treatments work best—and which you shouldn’t waste your money on—here.

Big little stressor No. 3: Exercise

How’s this for a bitter irony: Exercise is a well-known stress buster, yet nearly a third of the men in our poll rated sticking to an exercise program a 7 or higher on a 10-point stress scale. First, you stress about missing a workout or not exercising at all. Second, as you attempt to carve out time to exercise, your stress skyrockets as you cram in all the other things you need to accomplish that day. “That struggle may affect how and what you’re eating,” Miller says, “and now your food intake becomes a stressor.”

Defuse it: Miller suggests portion control—for your workout schedule. Shrink your exercise “portions” by boosting intensity: Turn your cardio routine into a shorter interval workout that alternates sprints with your normal pace. (You’ll also boost fat-burning this way.) If you’re lifting weights, cut your between-set rest in half—go from a minute to 30 seconds between each of 12 sets, and you’ll save six minutes. Then look for ways to condense other activities: showering, cooking, surfing the Web, and so forth. You have the time. You simply have to own it.

Bonus tip: Always have a workout on hand with the upgraded Men’s Health iPhone app. It’s like having your own personal trainer, 24/7, wherever you go.

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What do you do if you’re feeling blue because of the financial crisis? Or if you’re just having an extremely lousy day? Here are nine strategies that can boost your mood right now in a happiness emergency. In the next thirty minutes, check off as many of the following items as possible. Each one will lift your spririts, as will the mere fact that you’ve tackled and achieved some concrete goals; by doing so, you boost your feelings of self-efficacy, which can boost happiness.

1. Boost your energy: stand up and pace while you talk on the phone or, even better, take a brisk ten-minute walk outside. Research shows that when people move faster, their metabolism speeds up, and the activity and sunlight are good for your focus, your mood, and the retention of information. Plus, because of emotional contagion, if you act energetic, you’ll help the people around you feel energetic, too.

2. Reach out to friends: make a lunch date or send an email to a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Having warm, close bonds with other people is the KEY to happiness, so take the time to stay in touch. Somewhat surprisingly, socializing boosts the moods not only of extroverts, but also of introverts.

Make Positive Visualization A Daily Habit

3. Rid yourself of a nagging task: answer a difficult email, do an errand you’ve been putting off, or call to make that dentist’s appointment. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a big rush of energy and relief.

4. Create a calmer environment: clear some physical and mental space around yourself by sorting papers, pitching junk, cleaning a closet, stowing supplies, sending out quick email responses, filing, or even just making your piles neater. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizable dent. Try to get in the habit of using the one-minute rule — i.e., never postpone any task that can be completed in less than one minute. And always make your bed in the morning! For most people, outer order contributes to inner peace.

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7 Foods Every Woman Should Eat

The smartest plan for attacking a heart attack is, of course, preventing one from ever happening. Choose three of the following strategies and make them a habit. The closer to the beginning of the list, the more you reduce your risk of heart disease.

1. Drink Five Glasses of Water a Day
Men who drink that many 8-ounce glasses are 54 percent less likely to have a fatal heart attack than those who drink two or fewer. Researchers say the water dilutes the blood, making it less likely to clot.

2. Convince Your Wife to Stop Smoking
Nonsmoking husbands of smoking wives face a 92 percent increase in their risk of heart attack. Breathing secondhand smoke boosts bad cholesterol levels, decreases good cholesterol, and increases your blood’s tendency to clot.

3. Work Out for 30 Minutes, Four Times a Week
Middle-aged men who exercise vigorously for 2 or more hours cumulatively per week have 60 percent less risk of heart attack than inactive men do.

4. Lose 10 to 20 Pounds
If you’re overweight, dropping 10 to 20 pounds lowers your risk of dying from a heart attack. A 10-year study found that overweight people had heart attacks 8.2 years earlier than normal-weight victims.

5. Drink Five Glasses of Water a Day
Men who drink that many 8-ounce glasses are 54 percent less likely to have a fatal heart attack than those who drink two or fewer. Researchers say the water dilutes the blood, making it less likely to clot.

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Thank you to everyone who donated money and their time to make this this most successful EVER Cure Kids Cancer RAdiothon! We raised over 118K dollars this year and it will help children in our community!

VIA:  AOLHealth.Com

Colonoscopy:

This procedure is really effective in detecting colon cancer and should be at the top of your list of tests to have.

Heart Tests:

Keeping a close eye on your heart health is essential.  Having your blood pressure checked should be a yearly event.  Blood sugar and blood fats are also important indicators of heart disease.

Testicular Exam:

There are no standard exams to detect testicular cancer, but young men should be aware that they are at risk for this type of cancer.

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