Finally a good reason to break up with drug companies; recent clinical trials have shown better sex can happen with a placebo. It’s not you curing our low libido, drug companies. It’s us.
The study was conducted at Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of Texas-Austin, where researchers analyzed data collected by Cialis manufacturer Lilly ICOS. They found that among 50 women taking the erectile dysfunction pill and placebos to heighten their sex drive, one-third of those on sugar pills experienced more satisfying sex in a 12-week period.
“Sexual dysfunction is, in a way, what a woman says it is,” researcher Andrea Bradford said. “If she perceives herself to have low desire or difficulty having an orgasm, that's what we take.” She added that measuring such mundane things as blood flow to the genitals does not give an accurate assessment of real sexual satisfaction.
“It's not going to change if you just wait for it to happen,” Bradford said. “Changing how you approach the problem might in itself make a big difference.”
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Those many chick-flicks that depict female friends snuggled up on the couch crying on each other’s shoulders may actually be harming our health. Recent studies have found that too much “co-ruminating” can increase stress instead of alleviating it.
Apparently, friends that dwell on each other’s problems too much show a spike in their levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which increases the body’s eagerness to go into stressful fight-or-flight—possibly leading to higher prospects for heart disease and stroke. But just talking over problems, resolving them and then moving on didn’t have the same effect.
“Too much of a good thing is a bad thing,” study researcher Jennifer Byrd-Craven said. “Really focusing on negative feelings is probably bad overall for your physical health as well as your psychological health.”
But, we’re here for you, increasing your positivity, so let’s not focus on the negative. How about some pictures of cute puppies chewing on sex toys to brighten your day? We can feel the stress melting away already.
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Scores of travelers are being drawn one little cemetery in Iran where the tombstones are shaped like penises, proving once again that, if statuary is even a little phallic, people everywhere will want to grope it.
The place is Khalid Nabi cemetery, and despite the fact that it’s deep within the heart of conservative Islamic territory, stone depictions of male and female genitals are displayed openly. Some penis tombstones are shorter than others, of course, which might indicate the age of the marker or, perhaps “shrinkage.” (The erosion kind of shrinkage, we’d imagine.)
But the remote and peaceful setting has people coming for the phalli and staying for the wonder. As Mehdi, an Iranian tourist said, “Here, it feels like standing on the top of the world.”
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In accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center, Tina Fey imparted some of her trademark smart-and-snarky humor … and PBS apparently cut it out.
The offending remarks that the Public Broadcasting System decided were too racy—or, at least, easy to do away with when time constraints became an issue—are as follows:
“The success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women,” Ms Fey said, “...except, of course those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape 'kit 'n' stuff. But for everybody else, it's a win-win. Unless you're a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years—whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know—actually, I take it back. The whole thing's a disaster.” Note to Tina: You do, indeed, rock.