In Other Journals

Sex and the older man

In the not-so-distant past, sex was regarded as not only inappropriate but also immoral once we were aged beyond our reproductive years. Australian researchers have now reported that a substantial proportion of older men may have unmet sexual needs. Hyde and colleagues studied the prevalence of sexual activity and associated factors in more than 3274 community-dwelling men from Perth, Western Australia, who were aged 75 to 95 years old. One in two of these elderly men considered sex to be important but only one in three reported being sexually active. The researchers said that addressing risk factors, such as depression, diabetes and medication use may improve sexual activity but will not benefit partnerless men. Further multidisciplinary research was needed to explore how older men can achieve sexual fulfilment when they are widowed, or when their partners are incapable of or uninterested in sex.

Ann Intern Med 2010; 153: 693-702

Mythbusters

According to Danish urban folklore, it is possible to become drunk by submerging one’s feet in alcoholic beverages. However, according to three Danish doctors, who tested the validity of this myth, it doesn’t hold water. They submerged their clean, skin disease-free feet in a washing-up bowl containing the contents of three 700 mL bottles of vodka. Their plasma ethanol levels remained below the detection limit of 2.2 mmol/L (10 mg/100 mL) throughout the 3-hour experiment. With this myth busted, what’s next? Did you know that claims exist of urine becoming red when feet are submerged in beetroot juice ... ?

BMJ 2010; 341: c6812

Phantom vibrations

It is nearly 500 years since French surgeon Ambroise Paré described phantom limb syndrome in soldiers who felt pain in their amputated limbs. Now, US researchers have reported phantom vibration syndrome in doctors. They surveyed about 170 staff by questionnaire, finding that two-thirds had experienced “phantom vibrations” — the sensory hallucination sometimes experienced by people carrying pagers or cell phones when the device is not vibrating. Phantom vibrations were equally common with pagers and cell phones. Most experienced the phantom vibrations either weekly or monthly but some experienced them on a daily basis. Some even felt the device vibrating when they were not in contact with it.

BMJ 2010; 341: c6914

Only the lonely

“Doctor”, she asks, “can you give me a cure for loneliness?” The Lancet’s Wakley Prize for the best essay on a clinical topic of public health importance goes to ... Dr Ishani Kar-Purkayastha. In her final year of specialist training as an Academic Clinical Review Fellow in Public Health in the UK, Kar-Purkayastha wrote about an elderly widow who did not want to leave hospital in the days before Christmas, and of her own feelings about this patient. “... she’s not clinically depressed. It’s just that she has been left behind by a world that no longer revolves around her, not even the littlest bit of it.”

Lancet Online, 16 Dec 2010

About redheads

Traditionally, surgeons and anaesthetists have regarded red-haired patients with some trepidation as, apparently, redheads have a reputation for excessive bleeding, a reduced pain threshold and an anecdotal increased tendency to develop hernias. UK researchers reviewed the literature to seek out evidence about the clinical effects of having red hair, finding that people with red hair may have an increased requirement for anaesthesia but that they had no greater operative risk than the rest of the population. They said the genetic basis of red hair was identified in 1997 in association with the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) located on chromosome 16. Two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16 changes the MC1R protein leading to the red hair phenotype. Overall, 80% of redheads have the MC1R gene variant.

BMJ 2010; 341: c6931