Eating Disorders

Women's Health Problems

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia, are about 10 times as common in women as in men. Anorexia, in which a person starves oneself to control their weight, leads to death in one in ten cases.

Alcohol

Aphrodisiac or inhibitor of sex?

Beer Alcohol has long been considered a sexual stimulant. As far back as 405 BC, Euripides headily wrote, "Without wine, life will not be worth living. Love and every pleasure known to man will soon cease." The famous bard Shakespeare was cynically known to say that although alcohol "provokes the desire... " "It takes away the performance."

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Eating Disorders

Many of us today believe in this 'power of alcohol' to induce or enhance sexual pleasure.

A ' Psychology Today' survey of 20,000 people, found that roughly 2 out of 3 women and nearly half of the men believed that alcohol enhanced sexual pleasure - but is it really so?

Research on Alcohol and Sex

Social drinking may affect fertility. One study found that three drinks per day for three weeks interfered with menstruation. Another study of nearly 2,000 women revealed that women who enjoyed one drink or less per day had a higher risk of endometriosis, a condition of the uterine lining, that can result in infertility.

When alcohol and sex mix, the sex arousing powers of alcohol makes you believe you are sexually more potent regardless of other inhibiting factors. In at least three studies, women reported an increase in sexual pleasure as their blood alcohol level increased, despite a decrease in the blood volume that should have lessened 'enhanced sexual feeling.'

Even as the sexual urge declined with drinking, 69 women who kept diaries of their sexual experiences reported that drinking 'enhanced their desires'. And, of course, men were more sexually aroused when they believed, that they had consumed alcohol, even though they had not.

If you believe alcohol makes you feel sexier, you probably will feel and act that way. Even though it may not be so. As Winston Churchill once said, "I have taken more out of alcohol than it has taken out of me".

A word of caution however! Alcohol is a very potent and habit-forming substance. Excessive use of alcohol can adversely affect your physical, social, spiritual, and mental health, as well as your sex life. Drink within limits if you must. Drink responsibly, know your limits, and never drink and drive.

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