Sweet Heart – Sex, Love, and Rock and Roll

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How we long to hear those three little words… “sex is great”. (You were thinking maybe “I love you”?) Hey, they both work. And we’ve been working on them both before man started walking upright. Love and sex both come from the heart (well, actually, sometimes a bit lower). It’s a bit of scientific foreplay that the act of loving actually improves your heart health. Sex figures into that, too. Any way you look at it, it rocks.

Cupid’s Not Stupid

Remember when you were in kindergarten and Mrs. Whoever-She-Was had the class make paper Valentines? For most of us, it was pretty fun. Mostly we made them for our Moms. (Big hit.)  As we start to develop sexually, Mom was replaced in the picture with the amazing Blond in Chem (male, or female). Getting crushy gives you butterflies in your stomach and a racing heartbeat. As an adult, those feelings intensify, making your brain release hormones such as dopamine, adrenaline, and norepinephrine, which make your heart beat faster and stronger. Being hit by love’s arrow is a heart health bullseye.

Lust’s a Must

Lust is a hormone-driven phase of attraction that stimulates desire…alright…, “the hots”. Our bodies tell us we “just gotta get it.” When broken down, there are actually millions of reasons to have sex. (Oh, what luck!)  Here are just a few:

  • Sex relieves tress
  • Sex lowers your blood pressure
  • Sex helps you lose weight
  • Sex helps you sleep
  • Sex boosts immunity
  • Sex burns calories
  • Sex boosts self-esteem
  • Sex improves intimacy
  • Sex strengthens pelvic floor muscles
  • Sex reduces the risk of prostate cancer
  • Sex can stop heart attacks

A recent study showed that men who had sex at least twice a week had a 45 percent drop in the rate of heart attacks, even when factors like age, weight, and cholesterol levels were taken into account. If that isn’t a big-time reason to hop into the sack, what is?

The Sweetest Taboo

Sade, made this thought a big hit when they recorded The Sweetest Taboo, in 1985. Consider one of the lyrics, “And I never felt this hot before.” Sex is identified with reproduction and power in our youth-oriented culture.  So, older people “wanting it” and “doing it”, is appalling to them. Horny old broads, dirty old men. Sorry, guys, there is no age limit on sexuality. According to a survey by the AARP (the organization formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons), in 60- to 70-year-olds, 46 percent of men and 38 percent of women have sex at least once a week, as did 34 percent of those 70 or older. (Shocker alert!) A Duke University study shows that some 20 percent of people over 65 have sex lives that are better than ever before. Which keeps their hearts beating more. Ah…sweet.

Birds, Bees, and Hormones

Low libido is just one of the endless list of symptoms that could be the result of an imbalance in your hormones. (No Valentine cards to cover that fact.) That’s where bioidentical hormones come in. They are completely identical to the hormones in our bodies. They’re not chemically altered like synthetic hormones which could alter your sex drive, driving it right into reverse. That’s where Dr. Stephan A. Goldstein, M.D, F.A.C.S at Denver Hormone Health comes in. With years of experience and expertise in successfully treating hormone imbalances, he knows just how to get your sex engine roaring again. With simple tests, he gets a clear picture of what’s going on. Which allows him to create a treatment plan uniquely tailored to your needs. So, call to make an appointment to see Dr. Goldstein now.

He’ll put you totally in the mood.

Sweet Heart – A Little Heart-to-Heart

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Risk factors are conditions or habits that make a person more likely to develop a disease. They can also increase the chances that an existing disease will get worse. Important risk factors for heart disease are:

  • High blood pressure
  • High blood cholesterol
  • Diabetes
  • Smoking
  • Being overweight
  • Lack of exercise
  • Having a family history of early heart disease
  • Age

You really have to take these things to heart.

Lub-Dub

Can’t you hear your heart beat? In healthy adults, there are two normal heart sounds described as a lub and a dub, (could not possibly ever make that up) that occur in sequence with each heartbeat. It’s o.k. if you can’t really hear it, the docs or nurses in the white coats all have an ear for it. But there are a lot of sounds that aren’t so normal, such as heart murmurs. Heart murmurs are sounds during your heartbeat cycle — such as whooshing or swishing — made by turbulent blood in or near your heart. Sometimes innocent, sometimes not so good. For such an important organ, there are a host of things that could go wrong. The one that frightens people most is having a heart attack. A heart attack occurs when the flow of blood to the heart is blocked, most often by a build-up of fat, cholesterol and other substances, which form plaque in the arteries that feed the heart (coronary arteries). The interrupted blood flow can damage or destroy part of the heart muscle. A heart attack, also called a myocardial infarction, can be fatal, but treatment has improved dramatically over the years. Some of the symptoms can include:

  • Fatigue
  • Weakness
  • Shortness of breath
  • Dizziness
  • Palpitations
  • Chest discomfort and/or pain
  • Chest heaviness
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Pain that radiates to the jaw, arm, or throat

People with the symptoms above persisting for longer than five minutes should call 911 immediately, for emergency medical care. Sadly, Americans typically wait over two hours before calling for help when they have symptoms of a heart attack. A dangerous mistake.

Achy Breaky

Billy Ray Cyrus produced a No. 1 song called Achy Breaky Heart more than 20 years ago. What you might be surprised to know, is that a broken heart is bad for your health. True. Absolutely true. While having love in your life can benefit your health, a broken heart can sometimes have physical side effects. Broken heart syndrome, also called takotsubo cardiomyopathy (say that quickly three times in a row), is a very real medical disorder. It’s more common in women, although either gender can have symptoms. In rare cases, this condition can be dangerous and even fatal. As Neil Sedaka sang in 1962, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do.”

Take Heart

You want what’s best for your heart. And it’s simpler than you might think. These lifestyle changes can help prevent a heart attack and heart disease:

  • Eat for your future-starting a healthy diet can always make a positive difference
  • Don’t wait to lose weight
  • Take it easy–for example, yoga can steam up your sex life
  • Keep tabs on your blood pressure
  • Watch your blood sugar-too much sugar in your blood can damage your arteries, even if you don’t have diabetes
  • Be smart about cholesterol-one is bad for your heart (LDL), and the other (HDL) can protect it
  • Ask about aspirin-in some people, taking an aspirin every day can reduce the risk of heart attack
  • Get a move on-exercise, exercise, exercise. (Even more important than location, location, location…and how often have you heard that one?)
  • Be social
  • Take responsibility for your overall health
  • Don’t avoid your Doctor like the plague
  • Stay informed. Science changes daily

Does a Heart Good

You don’t need cards and candy to know that there is someone out there who really cares about you and your heart health; Dr. Stephan A. Goldstein, M.D, F.A.C.S. at Denver Hormone Health. No one understands better how unbalanced hormones can take a hit on your heart. Hormones are the chemical messengers that attach directly on the DNA of the trillions of cells in your body. When they don’t do their job, they do a job on different parts of your body, including your heart. With simple tests, Dr. Goldstein can see what’s really going on, and develop an integrated program of hormones, healthy eating and exercise that will make you love the way you feel. So, call now.

One visit and you’ll see the attraction.

Sweet Heart – Once Upon a Time

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Once there was a guy named Valentinus who supposedly helped a young blind girl see. Just before being executed for some probably heinous crime or another (or not), he sent a note to her, signed “From your Valentine.”  This was February 14, 270 A.D. There was another theory relating to February 14, as the day of romance and love. It has been said that St. Valentine’s Day was the day on which the birds, returning in the very early spring, chose their mates. (Spring was often thought to begin in the middle of February in 14th-century Europe.) Where was Hallmark then?

Not Just an Organ, an Icon

While “heart” normally makes people think of the thump, thump, thump of their ticker and the job of keeping it thumping, the heart is a star, featured in songs, television and on the big screen. As an example, in the TV series, Once Upon a Time, (a modernized fairy-tale, complete with Snow White, Robin Hood, Aladdin, Captain Hook and even Rumpelstiltskin), the Evil Queen can reach into someone’s body, rip out their heart and crush it to death. Which, is on the kind of creepy side. On the other hand, the heart goes hand in hand with love. Getting struck by Cupid’s arrow may very well take your breath away and make your heart go pitter-patter. No wonder it’s become such a pop icon.

The Price We Pay for Love

The Beatles insisted finances and fondness were unrelated. “I don’t care too much for money,” they sang. “for money can’t buy me love.”

But money can buy a heapful of cards and candy, and even cushy little teddy bears with big red hearts emblazoned on their chests. The amount spent on this holiday is actually enough to make you grab your heart and say, “are you kidding?” In 2016, Valentine’s Day sales soared to an all-time record $18.9 billion, which represents an 8.5% increase from 2014, when Americans spent $17.3 billion. So, who’s shelling out most of these big bucks? When it comes to Millennials, they pull out all the financial stops, spending an average of $290 on their special Valentines. Talk about sealed with a kiss.

Gotta Love It

This zealousness for passion kind of goes on in other ways, too. Apparently, there is such a thing as the most romantic city in the US, and it is ranked by how much each city’s spending increases on Valentine’s Day gifts during the first half of February. Tucson took the huge chocolate heart with a 68% percent jump in spending, and Portland bottomed the list as the least romantic city with a mere 15% increase in spending. (Maybe the rain and crummy weather kept them from getting out to shop.) And as a one-up on plushy teddy bears, it’s no secret that we love our pets, and that we spend more than we’d ever like to admit on making their life as comfy as possible. This includes spending $700 million on Valentine’s Day gifts for them. What a woof!

A Labor of Love

For all the love in the air this month, you should be floating. So why do you feel like you’ve been hit by a train reeling off its track? We’ve got a simple answer to that one: unbalanced hormones. When they are in proper balance, hormones help the body thrive, which makes you feel great. But even small problems with hormones can cause serious and potentially life-altering symptoms. Oh, brother. But the answer to that is with Stephen A. Goldstein, M.D, F.A.C.S. at Denver Hormone Health. No one in the Denver area knows more about, or is more experienced in the field of Hormone Replacement. With simple tests, he can tell exactly what your problem is, then compounds a uniquely tailored treatment to make you feel your absolute best. Call for an appointment now. You’ll be glad you did.

Cross our hearts.