Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition

Dental Cafe DENTALTRIBUNE Middle East & Africa Edition10 Are you over 40 and feeling fat, tired, irritable, depressed and undervalued? Is it a midlife cri- sis or could you be suffering from the male menopause? Sometimes known as the male climacteric (Greek klimac- termeaningtherungofaladder), there is a lot of discussion as to whether or not the male menopause exists in any real medical sense. We know for sure that women go through very def- inite physical changes in their mid life. Ovulation stops, hor- mone levels drop quickly. Within a few short years they become unable to have children any more. Of course these features don’t apply to men. In contrast to women, male hormone levels remain pretty constant and most men can fa- therchildrenintotheirseventies. Thereisagradualdeclineinhor- mone levels and, by the age of 80 years, serum testosterone con- centrations fall to about 75% and free testosterone to about 50% of what they were at age 20. So where does the idea of men suf- fering a menopause come from? Disease, Hormone Levels and HRT Testosterone levels gradually reduce over time and that process may be naturally protec- tive to the male body. For some men more dramatic hormonal changes signal the presence of diseases such as hypogonadism. If testosterone is linked with to decrease in sexual activity, de- clining muscle bulk, and reduc- tion in minerals in bones, then in theory improvements should be made with hormone replace- ment therapy (HRT). Thisisnotoftenthecasehow- ever and there are significant risks in HRT such as non-cancer- ous growth of the prostate and excessive blood production. HRT in men has also been linked to prostate cancer and can exacer- bate sleep apnea. Medical opinion is divided. Treatment for men might be of- fered following investigation of symptoms and the doctor con- sulted. Male Menopause as a Psy- chological Event The term male menopause has come about because so many men experience mid-life dissat- isfaction and difficulties. For some men these issues become all consuming, hence the term midlife crisis. Menopause is a word some people are using to express, amongstotherthings,unfulfilled desires and expectations, work dissatisfaction, the loss of pas- sion in personal relationships and the loss of a positive body im- age as the ravages of time and abuse become glaringly obvious. The signs and symptoms signify menopause either as a disease or as a state of being. • Depression, nervousness, De- creased libido • Erectile dysfunction • Decreased bone and muscle mass • Flushes and sweats • Tiredness and fatigue • Poor concentration • Increased body mass, fat Men, like women, have to face change as they age and this is harder for some than others. Symptoms of possible disease do have to be investigated but be aware that the medicalization of life is leading to us becoming a society of ‘pill poppers’. Feel down, take a pill, unable to get a long and sustained erec- tion,takeapill,feelingtired,take a pill. But at the end of the day a pill is just a pill and it won’t solve anything. Mid life is certainly a time for reflection, but be careful nottothrowawaythegoodthings in your search for novelty, change, or the quest for youth. DT Male Menopause Fact or Fiction? Taking supplements could in- crease chance of partner preg- nancy Men who take antioxidants may improve their fertility, ac- cording to recent research. This could be an important development, as male subfertil- ity affects one in 20 men. Antioxidants include natural and synthetic chemicals which help to reduce the damage caused by chemicals called reac- tive oxygen species. The latter are said to cause damage to sperm cells, which may result in lowered sperm counts and inter- fere with their ability to fertilise eggs. The review looked at 34 trials involving 2,876 couples under- going in vitro fertilisation and sperm injections. Most men in the trials had low sperm counts or low sperm motility. The trials explored the use of many differ- ent types of oral antioxidants, in- cluding vitamin E, L-carnitine, zinc and magnesium. Compared to controls, a cou- ple was more likely to have a pregnancyorlivebirthiftheman took antioxidants. Lead researcher Marian Showell, from the University of Auckland, said: “When trying to conceiveaspartofanassistedre- productive program, it may be advisable to encourage men to take oral antioxidant supple- ments to improve their partners’ chances of becoming pregnant.” “However, these conclusions are currently based on limited evidence.” There were not enough data comparing different antioxi- dants to reach any conclusions about the relative effectiveness of supplements. “Weneedmorehead-to-com- parisons to understand whether any one antioxidant is perform- ing better than any other,” Ms Showell said. DT Antioxidants improve male fertility The best way to retain newly learned information is to take a nap, according to the latest re- search. Experiments showed that the brain is better at resist- ing attempts at removing a re- cent memory during sleep, as opposed to when a person is awake. Earlier research had shown that new memories stored in the hippocampus are fragile, and apt to be lost to new information when the person is awake. Researchers had assumed that this would also be the case when a person was asleep, but weresurprisedtodiscoverthatin fact the brain was better at re- taining newly learned informa- tion. Twenty-four volunteers were asked to memorise 15 pairs of cards while being exposed to an unpleasant smell. A short while later, half of the subjects who stayedawakewereaskedtolearn a slightly different card pattern while being exposed to the same smell. The other twelve subjects performed the second exercise afterabriefnap,butwerealsoex- posed to the same smell. Both groups were then tested on the original card pattern, with the second group performing significantlybetterthanthefirst- retaining 85 per cent of the pat- tern against 60 per cent of those who stayed awake. The researchers assume that the reason the brain is better at retaining new information dur- ing sleep is that in the first few minutesofsleep,theinformation is passed from the hippocampus, where it is initially stored, to the neocortex,thesiteoflongerterm memory. In fact, after a 40 minute nap, most of the new information was stored in the neocortex, where it could no longer be overwritten by new information stored in the hippocampus. The researchers, from the University of Lubeck in Ger- many, where the experiments were conducted, said the discov- ery could pave the way for new approaches to learning memory intensive information, such as languages. DT Take a nap to learn new information Sleep helps reinforce memory, research finds