Health & Science

Sex after prostate cancer

Some 240,000 American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year, and their doctors generally tell them treatment won’t impair their sex lives. For more than half of them, though, that happy prognosis doesn’t pan out. A new study shows that surgery and radiation actually “have profound effects on erectile dysfunction,” University of Maryland urologist Andrew Kramer tells MyHealthNewsDaily.com. Researchers surveyed 1,000 prostate-cancer patients and found that less than half of those who reported having active sex lives before treatment were able to summon normal erections two years afterward. The chance of a normal sex life after treatment ranges widely, from less than 10 percent to 70 percent, depending on the type of procedure and condition of the patient. An analysis of those factors could help doctors give individual patients “a more realistic view of what to expect,” says study author Martin G. Sanda, a professor of urology at Harvard Medical School. The younger, more sexually active, and slimmer men are when diagnosed—and the less advanced their cancer is—the better their odds are of keeping sexual function. And the type of treatment they choose can also make a difference: Radiation appears to do less damage to erectile function than surgery.

Coffee wards off depression

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The more coffee you drink, the less likely you are to become depressed, a new study shows. After surveying nearly 51,000 women over 14 years, Harvard University researchers found that those who regularly downed four or more cups of coffee per day were 20 percent less likely to develop depression than those who drank one cup or less. The findings are surprising because “caffeine at high doses has long been associated with worsening of anxiety and other psychiatric illness,” Christopher Cargile, a psychiatry professor at Texas A&M University, tells HealthDay.com. But the new findings suggest that limiting caffeine consumption—by drinking decaf coffee or less-caffeinated teas and soft drinks—has no positive impact on mood. Instead, the study bolsters previous research linking heavy consumption of coffee to lower rates of suicide and severe depression. Researchers know the jolt of caffeine in coffee activates neurotransmitters that boost energy and feelings of well-being, at least right after you take a sip. Now, study author Alberto Ascherio says, there is “reasonable evidence” that the stimulant can also protect the brain from mental illness over the longer term.