October 2012 Archives

It's true, the Hollywood hunk has been on the job in a Viagra facility, but he hasn't changed his career to chemist. He's on set - the former Viagra factory in Kent, England, is being used as a set for Pitt's upcoming film World War Z.

Has the cast or crew been feeling any effects from spending time in a sildenafil saturated environs? Apparently the location has aroused the curiosity of some of the company. A source informed The Sun that "The cast have been opening cupboards looking for leftovers to take home with them.''

If that's what they're after it might be easier to just get a prescription rather than trying to find a souvenir.

Apparently this urban legend has been around for a long time, but it's a new one on me: supposedly, putting hot sauce on or in your butthole will give you an instant and long-lasting erection. Some people swear it's better than Viagra,  I think the folks who say that are just sadistic prankers.



Why would it even work? The anus and perineum are rich with nerves that also enervate the genitals, so it's not entirely far-fetched, and a dab of capcaisin would definitely increase blood flow to the region. It would also burn like hell, and probably for a long time.

As many internet commenters have pointed out, spicy food often leaves you with a "ring of fire" when it makes its exit, and that doesn't seem to make anybody hard, so why would applying hot sauce from the outside do anything for you?

Try it at your own risk. On second thought, don't. Just don't.

There's no "Viagra for women" - everybody knows that, right? So when we saw the headline "I Took Female Viagra for a Week", it piqued our curiosity. Was this a new Biosante drug trial? And taking it for a week - that must have been tiring.

While there's no pharmaceutical for women that's an analog of Viagra (and not for lack of trying on the drug makers' parts), there are a lot of products passing themselves off as female libido boosters. Most of them are along the same lines as herbal Viagra, supplements that generally enhance blood flow and maybe energy.

Anyway, a female tester over at Vice tried out a bunch of these lady supplements and ranked them, from the worst (a caffeine-laden, migraine inducing cherry flavored shot) to the best (an herbal supplement called Gold Max that apparently turned her into an aggressive sexual beast).

The female Viagra conundrum is that men's dysfunction is most often a mechanical failure, whereas women's sexual dysfunction more often has psychological factors. Perhaps hoping to induce physical arousal so intense that it overwhelms any emotional issues, pharmaceutical manufacturers nevertheless continue to pursue the elusive magic bullet. Wait - isn't that a vibrator? Now that might just work.

A world-wide survey of erect penis length doesn't reflect very well on the U.S.A's collective manhood. The United States ranked somewhere around 18th, in the 25th percentile. Number one: the Republic of the Congo, with a whopping 7.1 inch average. The U.S. average length of just 5.1 inches put it well behind most of Europe, and Australia, and Canada, and...you get the idea.

The surprise "show-ers" in this run-off are Iceland and Sweden. You don't normally associate Nordic countries with big dicks, but maybe it's deceptive because of shrinkage due to the frigid climate.

While the study is interesting, I don't think the data really means that much when applied to the U.S. Our country is such a melting pot, with a population drawn from all races and nationalities, so it's really no surprise that the U.S. penile index is only "average" - we're like the global average.

In other news, the truth has finally come out after years of denial: Size does matter. A report in the Journal of Sexual Medicine reveals that in a survey, a third of women who have primarily vaginal (as opposed to clitoral) orgasms prefer longer-than-average penises. If you're not well endowed, don't worry - two thirds of the women felt it didn't matter. At least, that's what they say...

Thinking of getting an early start with Viagra? You might want to think again, because more reports are surfacing that taking Viagra when you don't really need it can lead to...actually needing it. Like, every time you want to do it.

For a while now, doctors and therapists have been saying they're seeing more and more younger men who have become dependent on ED drugs to perform sexually. They may get their start taking the pills recreationally, or taking them to bolster their confidence if they feel under pressure to perform. Either way, after a while they find themselves unable to do the deed without chemical assistance.

A study of the phenomenon was published earlier this year in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, and now more anecdotal reports are backing it up. Some articles in the British press feature interviews with men who came to Viagra early in life and now find they can't get by without it.

Most of these young men would never have been diagnosed with ED in the first place, so how did they get their hands on the drugs? Some get them the same way you'd get any sort of recreational drug - illegally - and some, especially men in Europe and the UK, simply jaunt over to another country where doctors have more liberal prescribing policies. We hear Spain is the place to go if you're looking for this sort of thing.

What's causing more men to turn to Viagra and similar drugs, at younger ages? Physicians and pundits have singled out a few possible culprits for making men feel so sexually inadequate that they feel they need back up before facing the bedroom. Many point the finger at porn, for setting unrealistic expectations about what male sexual performance looks like and how women are supposed to look or behave as sexual partners; and for making it harder for guys to get off - or even get hard - in a real-life sexual situation.

Women's increasing sexual liberation is cited as well: men may feel threatened or intimidated by women's sexual assertiveness, feeling pressure to have sex sooner in a dating scenario, and feeling that women are - no pun intended - sizing them up based on their sexual performance.

Some health professionals are skeptical about all the fuss over "Viagra addiction", claiming there's really no such thing and the problem isn't as widespread as the press would have you believe. It's perhaps just a matter of semantics - if you want to define addiction in its narrowest sense, these guys are not addicted. However, they have physical and/or psychological dependency on the drugs to help them get it up. And of course the press sensationalizes things, but it does happen.

Point being, if you don't need Viagra to treat erectile dysfunction, you shouldn't  take it. Like any chemical crutch, it gets easier and easier to lean on over time, until you can manage without it. And it's a slippery slope from using a pill here and there to improve your performance, to needing the drug to perform at all.