Coupling Therapy, What daily lovemaking for a year did for one marriage?.

Coupling Therapy, What daily lovemaking for a year did for one marriage?.


Looking for a truly memorable gift for your spouse? Charla Muller has one: Offer your spouse sex every day for a year. That's what she gave her husband, Brad, for his 40th birthday.

The gem of 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy lies less in the gift itself and more in Muller's motivation for giving it. She and Brad had been married ten years, the last several of which were "off kilter." She struggled with depression and wasn't much interested in sex at all. Her offer of The Gift was a way of telling Brad she was committed to restoring their relationship. Through stories and dialogue, Muller makes the case that marriage is worth unusual sacrifice and work—and that spouses will be happier and healthier for the effort.

Muller makes the point well, but writes kinda like this: "Girls, do what it takes to give your man a slap-happy grinnin' face and you won't be sorry." Throughout the book she alternatively refers to her readers as "girls," "gals," and "sisters." I don't talk like this. In fact, Charla and I don't have much in common. But we both care about our marriages—which is, after all, something significant.

Muller scores well (pun intended) with reflections on marriage during the year of daily sex. She debunks the myth that only beautiful couples deserve or can have good, hot sex. She names the scrutiny wives feel from other women, the changing standards of beauty, and the struggle to cope as women who don't measure up to our own ideal, much less someone else's.

Most chapters have a nugget of marital wisdom: women can't do it all—be super moms, wives, and employees. Something will slide, and it will probably be the super wife role. She names the "aha" moments all married persons come to—a crossroad where we realize that life with our spouse is going to be different than we had thought. Muller talks about the good of standing by our commitments and seeing what surprises may come. I affirm that, though I don't like how she connects it to having sex. She so loathed the idea of having sex at the end that she became tense before even changing into her pajamas.

Reluctance for it aside, Muller found that overall, daily sex made her happier; it made her feel younger, and strengthened her relationship with Brad in ways she had hoped and in ways she hadn't imagined.

Muller hints at her faith throughout the book. She holds Christian values of marital fidelity and perseverance. And while having daily sex made her feel more connected and inclined to be nice to her husband, this book only goes so far. Those wanting something more thoughtful about why sex ought to be pursued with abandon in Christian marriages won't find it here. But the broad popularity of books like this is a good sign that we still desire satisfying marriages.

Finding ways to express commitment, to craft places where we can rest in the embrace of another, reflects God's gift of marriage. For a few, that might include having daily sex. But there are also other ways to keep one's sex life, and love story, alive and well.

Lisa Graham McMinn, professor of sociology at George Fox University and author of Sexuality and Holy Longing (Jossey-Bass, 2004)

Cancer link to hormone therapy

Cancer link to hormone therapy

A DROP in the number of breast cancer cases coinciding with a reduction in hormone therapy use is likely to reignite the debate over treatments for women experiencing menopause.

The numbers of Australian women aged over 50 diagnosed with breast cancer has dropped by 7 per cent - equivalent to 600 fewer cases - between 2001 and 2003, during which there was also a 40 per cent decrease in those taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a study published in the Medical Journal Of Australia yesterday shows. It was the first time in 20 years the breast cancer rate had declined.

The findings of the study, by the NSW Cancer Council and the Australian National University, back up research linking HRT use to increased breast cancer rates.

Dr Andrew Penman, CEO at the Cancer Council NSW, said the "findings are great news for women".

"The correlation between the drop in breast cancer cases and HRT use is clear and its importance can't be underestimated," Dr Penman said.

The director of the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre, Dr Helen Zorbas, said although the link was "likely" the study did not categorically show a drop in HRT caused the decrease in cancer rates and did not change the advice to women regarding the use of HRT for the short-term relief of menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes.

"There may be other factors which could be contributing to this decrease in breast cancer incidence," she said.

The study did not say how long the women had been taking the HRT.

Dr Zorbas said for every 1000 women in their 50s taking HRT over five years, there would be an additional four women diagnosed with breast cancer but the risk returned to normal within a few years of stopping treatment.

"All the data … shows that taking combined HRT does increase the risk for breast cancer with the longer duration of use increasing the risk," she said.

Millions of women around the world stopped using HRT after it was linked with increased breast cancer rates in the controversial Women's Health Initiative report in 2002, which last month was criticised as flawed at a World Congress in Madrid.

AlphaMed Inc. has been awarded a $750,000 peer review grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue development of its targeted melanoma thera

Funds from this grant will be used to develop an imaging capability required for treatment planning. For the clinic, treatment planning is required to demonstrate tumor uptake and is used to calculate the dose of
the therapeutic that would be administered to patients. Previously, in preclinical animal tests, AlphaMed demonstrated a cure with its targeted radiotherapy. Increasing doses of its therapy were injected into the blood stream of several groups of animals. Every animal receiving even the lowest dose showed life extension. In two separate tests, approximately half the animals receiving the highest dose were cured. Maximum tolerated dose has not been reached. More than 90% of the compound cleared the body within two hours of administering the dose. Biodistribution studies showed high tumor uptake when compared with other organs.

How it works - a molecule that binds to receptors overexpressed in approximately 75% of melanomas is labeled with lead-212, an isotope that AlphaMed produces. The decay of this isotope releases large amounts of energy that destroys targeted tumor cells. For treatment planning, the same molecule is labeled with Pb-203, an isotope that can be imaged and of the same element as the therapeutic. This work has been published in peer review journals: Clinical Cancer Research and the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

AlphaMed is seeking partners to assist in completing drug development for its therapeutic and treatment planning products.

Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 60,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with melanoma and 8,000 people will die from the disease this year. AlphaMed's targeted therapy offers hope of a cure for this disease.

AlphaMed Inc.
Mr. Richard Testa, 978-929-9190
President
richard.testa@alphamed.biz

Alternative therapy degree attack

UK universities are teaching "gobbledygook" following the explosion in science degrees in complementary medicine, a leading expert says.

There are now 61 complementary medicine courses of which 45 are science degrees, the Nature journal reported.

University College London Professor David Colquhoun urged watchdogs to act, as complementary medicine was not based on scientific evidence.

But supporters of the approach said the views were a "sweeping generalisation".


COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE
The term complementary - or alternative - medicine covers therapies such as homeopathy, acupuncture or reflexology
For a medicine to be used in conventional medicine, it must go through scientific trials where its effectiveness has to be proven
But these techniques often fail to show how complementary medicine works
Advocates say new research is beginning to prove the case, but many medics, including the British Medical Association, believe there should be tougher regulation of the practice

Professor Colquhoun, of the university's department of pharmacology, cited the example of homeopathy.

He said it had barely changed since the start of the 19th Century and was "more like religion than science".

He also pointed out that some supporters of nutritional therapy have been known to claim that changes in diet can cure Aids.

He said the teaching of complementary medicine under a science banner was worse than "Mickey Mouse" degrees in golf management and baking that have sprung up in recent years as "they do what it says on the label".

"That is quite different from awarding BSc degrees in subjects that are not science at all, but are positively anti-science.

"Yet this sort of gobbledygook is being taught in some UK universities as though it were science."

He suggested it would be better if courses in aromatherapy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, reflexology, naturopathy and traditional Chinese medicine were taught as part of a cultural history or sociological course.

Degrees

And Prof Colquhoun said the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) should be taking action to stop these courses being classed as science degrees.

The watchdog is in charge of ensuring the standards of degrees on offer; and, while it cannot demand universities change the courses they offer, its reviews can lead to funding being withdrawn.

A spokeswoman for the QAA said there were no serious concerns about degrees being offered.

The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health, a group set up by Prince Charles to promote complementary therapy, said there was increasing evidence alternative therapies worked and where there was no proof it did not necessarily mean that there would never be.

Foundation chief executive Kim Lavely added: "The enormous demand from the public for complementary treatments means that we need more research into why and how patients are benefiting.

"Scientists should want to explore this rather than make sweeping, absolutist generalisations arising from deeply held prejudice as David Colquhoun does in this article."