be healthy

Answer these questions to see if your perspiration is pathological

Most people with primary hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating, which is a hassle, but not deadly) first report the problem as children or teens, says John Eisenach, M.D., an exercise-and- sweat expert at the Mayo Clinic college of medicine. But secondary hyperhidrosis, unusual bouts of perspiration caused by an underlying disease, often begins suddenly in adulthood. Time to get thee to an M.D.

A normal sweat pattern is symmetrical. If one hand is wet and the other is completely dry, you could have a neurological problem. Same goes for sweat that pops up in random patches. Find a neurologist who specializes in the neurophysiology of hyperhidrosis (aan.com/public/find.cfm).

Abnormal sweating (too much or too little) at the site of an old but still painful arm or leg injury is a sign of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). In this disorder, undiagnosed nerve damage not only causes chronic pain, but also affects sweat production in the surrounding area. As with asymmetrical sweating, contact a neurologist.


It's one thing if you wake up drenched because you decided to wear flannel pajamas in July (or dreamed about Molly Sims wearing nothing). Otherwise, "recurrent oversweating during sleep is never normal," says Dr. Eisenach. Possible causes include Hodgkin's disease, HIV, supplemental niacin, or an antidepressant side effect. See your primary physician.

How to beat the biggest killers of men

For us, the health of the American male is not just a weeklong pursuit. But in honor of Men's Health Week (June 11-17), we've compiled a list of our top tips for beating the biggest killers of men. Read them, follow our advice, and start living better -- year round.

Eat meat. In a recent Australian study, people with high blood pressure who replaced 8 percent of their daily calories from bread, cereal, potatoes, or pasta with lean red meat experienced a four-point drop in their systolic blood pressure in just 8 weeks.

Arginine, an amino acid in red meat, may help dilate blood vessels, lowering blood pressure. Plus, limiting starches lowers blood sugar and makes your body more efficient at burning fat.

Melanoma feeds on modesty -- if you don't strip for a yearly skin screening, the cancer can spread undetected.

Made an appointment? Now make one with your honey. A Northwestern University study shows that when people learn how to do skin self-exams with a partner, they're more likely to check themselves (and each other) in the future.

Eat more dairy. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, consuming three or more servings of dairy per day can slash your risk of heart disease by 31 percent.

"We don't know exactly how dairy lowers heart-disease risk, but other studies show that the calcium and magnesium in it can lower blood pressure," says study author Donna Spiegelman, Sc.D., a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard school of public health.

Want even more protection? Seek products fortified with vitamin D. British researchers found that daily D supplements lower blood levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of arterial inflammation, by 23 percent.

Pick up the phone and ask for help dropping the pounds.

Researchers at the University of Kansas recently had 96 overweight people follow weight-loss counseling programs and discovered that the programs conducted by telephone were just as effective as face-to-face clinical counseling. On average, members of both groups lost 28 pounds in 26 weeks.

"Telephone-based programs have the benefits of convenience, lower transportation costs, and accountability with anonymity," says study author Joseph E. Donnelly, Ph.D.

Our pick: the phone program offered by John Berardi, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., coauthor of Scrawny to Brawny. Go to johnberardi.com and receive a Men's Health reader discount.

Drink decaf coffee. A recent study at the Harvard medical school surveyed the tea and coffee consumption of men and women for 18 years -- and showed that drinking two or more cups of decaf coffee per day can slash colon-cancer risk by 52 percent.

Decaf coffee may have a positive effect on bowel motility -- meaning it keeps things moving -- an effect that the caffeine in regular coffee may cancel out.

Go to the next page and learn how to beat lung cancer, prostate cancer, depression, and more...

Go spit. A 2005 study in the British Medical Journal found that smokers who saw their results from a saliva-based nicotine test were 17 percent more likely to quit. The test, which involves spitting in a cup and measuring the amount of tobacco-derived toxins in the saliva, was used in conjunction with antismoking counseling.

Researchers believe that being able to see progress in the quest to quit -- in much the same way one can see the results of a cholesterol-lowering regimen -- helped motivate the participants.

Check a local drugstore for NicAlert, a saliva-based nicotine test ($15, also available at www.nymox.com.

Carve a pumpkin, cut your prostate-cancer risk. Eating a large slice of pumpkin pie (or 13 baby carrots) daily will give you about 8,000 micrograms of beta-carotene, an amount research from Roswell Park Cancer Institute shows may halve a man's risk of the disease. Top with whipped cream to boost your absorption of the nutrient.

Ask your therapist how many patients he treats. If it's more than 25, beware. Research has shown that a therapist's effectiveness decreases as his caseload surpasses this number.

A Finnish study found that men who exercise and are exposed to sunlight experience a greater reduction in depressive symptoms than those who work indoors. A CDC survey also found that people who exercise regularly feel less depressed.

Cellphones make distracted drivers out of all of us, quadrupling a man's accident risk -- even hands-free.

One answer: Take a page from airline pilots. In a new study in Risk Analysis, researchers found that when pilots talked on a cellphone in a driving simulator, they caused 46 percent fewer virtual accidents than nonpilots did.

"They knew to disengage from the cellphone conversation at precise moments," says Jake Rose, Ph.D., the coauthor.

Decrease your own distractibility by hitting "hold" at the must-focus moments identified in the study: when merging, during stop-and-go traffic, and at intersections involving multiple turn lanes.

Eat to beat high blood sugar. When you consider that "glucose-intolerant" is another term for "diabetic," it's easy to see what you shouldn't eat. Namely, glucose-rich foods, such as bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes.

But Mary Vernon, M.D., prefers a more positive approach: "I like to emphasize what people can enjoy." So, use these guidelines to build a prescription diet.

One caution: If you're currently taking medication for high blood pressure or high blood sugar, consult your physician first, as this diet will cause both to drop.

"Each daily serving of fruits and vegetables decreases stroke risk by 6 percent, so three servings decreases it by 18 percent," says James Bobenhouse, M.D., stroke-program director at BryanLGH Medical Center, in Lincoln.

No time to cook? Down a Tropicana Fruit Smoothie -- one 11-ounce bottle equals 2 1/2 servings of fruit.

Taste, touch, see, hear, and smell better than ever before

It used to be that rock stars were the only people who blew out their bodies, what with the amplifiers (ears), pyrotechnics (eyes), and drugs (everything else). Today, it's different: Even if you've never injected Jack Daniel's, you may be closer to Keith Richards than you realize.

Let's start at the top, with your hearing: A new study by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association found that daily use of blaring MP3 players and cellphones can lead to permanent hearing loss. Moving down a little, researchers in Mexico City report that people in urban areas can't smell strong odors like coffee as well as their brethren in the 'burbs. You read it correctly: life without the aroma of arabica beans.

The rest of your senses are also in danger of being dulled. Fortunately, you possess fully functioning common sense, which dictates that taking action will lower your risk -- and perhaps even put you ahead. "If you pay attention to and practice using your senses, you can hone them and may reduce or prevent future problems," says Beverly Cowart, Ph.D., director of the Monell-Jefferson Taste and Smell Clinic, in Philadelphia. Start with your sight and read this plan for becoming a more sensitive guy.

TESTING, TESTING

In addition to establishing a perceptual baseline, the following tests may also reveal any serious problems, such as, say, significant hearing loss that you've managed to deny up till now. So if you bomb one, see "The Sense Experts," below, for specialists you can turn to for help.

1. This is going to hurt: Hand over the remote control. Now sit down with your wife or girlfriend to watch a dialogue-critical TV show, like Law & Order or Lost. Start with the volume at your normal level, but ask her to progressively lower it a few clicks at random points during the program. If you can recount the story line, your ears are in the clear, says Gail Whitelaw, Ph.D., president of the American Academy of Audiology. Even more baffled than usual by Locke? Your hearing needs help.

2. Walk into your bedroom and position yourself 10 feet from the nightmare on the night table -- i.e., the alarm clock. Stare at the LED display for a few seconds with one eye closed: first your left, then your right. "Assuming you don't have a clock with a huge display, your vision is fine if you can see the numbers clearly," says Ernest Kornmehl, M.D., a professor of ophthalmology at Harvard medical school. But if the numbers are blurry -- and you aren't intoxicated -- there's a problem.

3. Close your eyes and open your mouth. The idea is to have your wife/girlfriend/buddy place a little sugar (sweet), salt (salty), lemon juice (sour), and coffee (bitter) on your tongue, while you try to correctly ID each one, says Alan Hirsch, M.D., neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, in Chicago. Can't detect a difference? Go to the next test and make sure your proboscis isn't the problem. "Ninety percent of taste is determined by smell," says Dr. Hirsch.

4. Is your sniffer up to snuff? Find out by shutting your eyes and having someone you trust waft three "mystery items" with distinct scents under your nose. For example: blue cheese, a fabric-softener sheet, and an orange slice (uh, but not those three). Your schnozz is in good shape if you can identify all of them, says Dr. Hirsch.

5. Okay, last test: Shut your eyes. Now have someone lightly brush three objects with different textures and/or temperatures across the back of your hand. It could be anything from a piece of sandpaper to an ice cube -- ask the person to get creative (but not creepy). If you successfully name each object, go ahead and see what it feels like to pat yourself on the back.

Go to the next page and get the tips on sharpening all five of your senses...

SHARPEN YOUR SENSE OF...

Smell

Like your tolerance for Johnny Knoxville films, "your sense of smell deteriorates with age," says Dr. Hirsch. "By the time you're 65, your ability will be reduced by half." You can dodge this decline by taking a deep whiff of a specific, pleasurable smell every day, whether it's your partner's perfume or a pepperoni pizza. "When you do this consistently over a few months, it will cause your body to create new scent receptors," says Dr. Hirsch.

Speak and smell. Putting words to a scent can supercharge your nose. "Identifying and describing an odor enhances your ability to smell it," says Cowart. When researchers at Wayne State University asked people to smell T-shirts worn by family members, they identified who had worn which shirt just by sniffing it and describing the scent. Practice this trick with the edible -- "Honey, your sauce has a sweet, garlicky aroma" -- and the offensive -- "Dude, your sweat has a rotting onion stench."

Sight

Long stretches of working at a computer, driving a car, or ogling the models on Deal or No Deal can exacerbate eye dryness, the number-one cause of blurry vision. Fortunately, your body comes with a high-tech rehydration system. "Take 'blinking breaks' throughout the day--blinks work like windshield wipers, clearing up the surface of the eye and encouraging tear production," says Dr. Kornmehl. Train yourself to blink every time you perform a frequent action, such as clicking your mouse or flicking your turn signal.

If your eyes could talk...you'd be a circus freak. And in between shows, they'd tell you to fortify them with B vitamins. New USDA research found that people with high intakes of the B vitamins riboflavin and thiamin had the least clouding of their eyes' lenses, the most direct measure of cataract risk. Increase your intake with a daily multivitamin containing your quota of B1 (thiamin) and B2 (riboflavin). And if you miss a day, grab some trail mix that contains nuts, seeds, and M&Ms to replenish both vitamins.

Hearing

Music can be a mallet banging on your eardrums, or it can be a tool to fine-tune them. The trick is maintaining a sane volume (you should be able to carry on a normal conversation) and regularly singling out and listening to one instrument. It will help you perceive more details in everyday sounds, says Whitelaw. Think of it as a form of resistance exercise, in which you're training a weak body part.

One glass of red wine may not get you drunk, but it does go to your head. Or, more specifically, to your ears. Researchers with the Henry Ford Health System found that when rats were given resveratrol, the wonder chemical in red wine, they had a 50 percent reduction in noise-induced hearing damage. "We're confident this is just as effective in humans," says Michael Seidman, M.D., the lead author.

Taste

Unless there's a hot-dog-shaped trophy at stake, stop scarfing down your food. "Thorough chewing unlocks more flavor mol-ecules," says Dr. Hirsch. "And holding the food in your mouth ensures that those molecules will make contact with both the tastebuds and nasal cavity." This doesn't mean stowing your food like chewing tobacco -- just wait a few seconds before letting it slide down your gullet.

Your tongue has been burnt, bitten, and tied, but the worst abuse may be the flavor flogging. Give all 10,000 of your tastebuds a break by abstaining from salty, sweet, sour, or bitter foods -- whichever taste you can't get enough of -- for 2 weeks. "When you don't eat a flavor for a while, your receptors for that flavor are rejuvenated," says Dr. Hirsch.

Touch

If you usually barehand it when batting, putting, or serving, go gloved for your practice swings. Placing material between your skin and what you're gripping will force the receptors to work harder as they try to feel through the barrier, says Field. Take the gloves off for the game and you'll get a boost in sensitivity that will give you greater control. For tennis, try the Advantage glove ($18); for golf, the FootJoy F3 ($16); and for baseball or softball, the Rawlings Workhorse ($40).

In the wrong hands, skin can be a blunt instrument. "Without regular stimulation, your skin receptors become less sensitive," says Tiffany Field, Ph.D., founder of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami school of medicine. Sex is one source of stimulation, especially if body oil enters the equation. (Check the selection at goodvibes. com.) But you can also get a hot-stone massage, go for a swim in bracingly cold water, or use a long-handled bristle brush instead of a wimpy washcloth. Then have more sex.

THE SENSE EXPERTS

Hearing
Start with an audiologist (audiology.org), who will refer you to an otolaryngologist (entnet.org) if the problem requires medical intervention.

Sight
Unless you're absolutely certain that all you need is new contacts, make an appointment with an ophthalmologist (aao.org), not an optometrist.

Touch
A loss of feeling in your hands could be serious, so see your primary-care physician. Depending on the culprit, you may need a neurologist (aan.com/public/find.cfm).

Smell
If you don't have an obvious cause of sinus congestion, see your primary-care doc. The next step: a referral to an otolaryngologist (entnet.org).

Taste
Assuming you aren't a smoker and don't have dry mouth or take a medicine that lists "ageusia" as a side effect, see the "Smell" entry. Taste and smell problems are often intertwined.