Certain foods have been shown to decrease heart disease risk by lowering LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels and raising HDL ("good") cholesterol. And while you probably know about the cholesterol-busting powers of oatmeal, beans, and olive oil, you may be surprised to discover that some of your favorite foods can also make an improvement in your cholesterol profile.

Understanding Prostate Cancer

The prostate is a gland that men have inside their lower abdomen. It sits below the bladder and in front of the rectum. The prostate gland makes a fluid called seminal fluid. This fluid nourishes the sperm and helps to carry it out of the body in a men’s semen.

With prostate cancer, normal cells in a man’s prostate gland begin to change and grow uncontrollably. This forms a tumor that may invade nearby tissue or spread to other parts of the body.

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Your relationships are a direct reflection of you. Attracting healthy, loving relationships is an important part of experiencing a life of abundance and happiness that we all seek. Are your relationships nonexistent, problematic or fleeting? Do you constantly find yourself dating the wrong guys? Are you seeking a deeper connection in your relationships? Developing a healthy and loving relationship with yourself and changing your beliefs is the key to attracting healthier people into your life. Who do you have to “be” to attract your ideal partner?

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Dating Survival Tips for gay men

“I don’t think there’s enough passion between us”, “I don’t think we are a complete match”, “I’m not feeling a click”, “I don’t think there’s enough chemistry on my side”, “We’re not sexually compatible”, “I’m not ready for a relationship”, “It’s not you; it’s me”, “I’d like for us to remain friends”.
Oh…the perils of dating! We’ve all been on the giving or receiving end of these statements and it never feels good either way. Sometimes nothing is ever said, and the situation just fades away causing us even more confusion. Dating can be very difficult, especially in the online environments we often find ourselves.
So how do we take care of our personal well-being in dating situations?

Here are some dating survival tips to consider:

1). Date for dating’s sake – Get rid of the expectation of finding “the one” and just date. Meet people with the intention of getting to know them and learning about who they are. Avoid getting emotionally caught up too soon. Release the pressure and expectation that this might be “the one” for the long-term.
2). Actions don’t necessarily speak louder than words – We’ve all been told that “actions speak louder than words” but this isn’t always so. Be wary of interpreting someone’s actions as meaning that they are into you or that they actually want a relationship with you. Some guys may say sweet things, buy you flowers or gifts, treat you to dinner, introduce you to their friends and family or initiate sex as a part of their own dating rituals. These actions may hold no specific meaning to you whatsoever.
3). Have fun – Enjoy the process of dating. Put your best self forward and have fun. You cannot control another person’s thoughts, feelings or behaviors. You also can’t control the outcome of the experience. You can allow yourself to have fun! Be lighthearted about it all – stay in the moment, enjoy your dates and let go of your attachment to the outcome.
4). Stay focused on your life – Make time to plan activities apart from dating. Remember that dating is only one aspect of your life. Do other things that bring you pleasure and balance your dating life with other important life areas – having a rich full life makes you a very attractive person overall.
5). Learn how to handle rejection – It’s never easy to be let down but don’t personalize the rejection. Recognize that everyone has their own psychological issues and relationship histories that they bring into dating situations. If someone tells you they don’t want to go forward don’t make it about you. There can be any number of reasons that caused them to back out, and they probably have absolutely nothing to do with you. If you need to, you can talk about the experience with a friend, therapist or coach to help you to quickly move on.
6). Focus on your well-being – Take care of yourself every day by asking – What can I do to take care of myself today? Perhaps it’s exercising, meditating, or going out with friends or family. Do whatever is meaningful to
you. Make a commitment to yourself to do something each day that makes you feel good.
Finally, always remember what my grandmother used to say:
“Men are like buses, there is always another one coming”!

When planning a trip, some travelers enjoy the flexibility of having a travel guide on-hand to highlight important travel tips and must-see sights. Damron and Spartacus travel guides are our picks for top gay travel resources; both are chock-full of gay-owned or gay-friendly destinations, accommodations, restaurants, bars and more.

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Homophobia, stigma (negative and usually unfair beliefs), and discrimination (unfairly treating a person or group of people) against gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men still exist in the United States and can negatively affect the health and well-being of this community.

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

These negative beliefs and actions can affect the physical and mental health of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, whether they seek and are able to get health services, and the quality of the services they may receive. Such barriers to health must be addressed at different levels of society, such as health care settings, work places, and schools to improve the health of gay and bisexual men throughout their lives.

The Effects of Negative Attitudes on gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men

Some people may have negative attitudes toward gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. These attitudes can lead to rejection by friends and family, discriminatory acts and violence, and laws and policies with negative consequences. If you are gay, bisexual, or a man who has sex with other men, homophobia, stigma, and discrimination can:
- Affect your income, whether you can get or keep a job, and your ability to get and keep health insurance.
- Limit your access to high quality health care that is responsive to your health issues.
- Add to poor mental health and poor coping skills, such as substance abuse, risky sexual behaviors, and suicide attempts.
- Affect your ability to have and maintain long-term same-sex relationships that lower your chances of getting HIV & STDs.
- Make it harder for you to be open about your sexual orientation, which can increase stress, limit social support, and negatively affect your health.

Homophobia, stigma, and discrimination can be especially hard for young men who are gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. These negative attitudes increase their chance of experiencing violence, especially compared with other students in their schools. Violence can include behaviors such as bullying, teasing, harassment, physical assault, and suicide-related behaviors.

Gay and bisexual youth and other sexual minorities are more likely to be rejected by their families. This increases the possibility of them becoming homeless. Around 40% of homeless youth are LGBT. A study published in 2009 compared gay, lesbian, and bisexual young adults who experienced strong rejection from their families with their peers who had more supportive families. The researchers found that those who experienced stronger rejection were about:
- 8 times more likely to have tried to commit suicide
- 6 times more likely to report high levels of depression
- 3 times more likely to use illegal drugs
- 3 times more likely to have risky sex

Many people tend to be obese at the middle age. While it’s more important to be fit at middle age. Obesity in middle age can bring several types of disease and disabilities that can sometimes become life threatening.

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Fitness is important to retain proper mobility, strength and balance in middle age and onwards. Middle-aged people who do half an hour’s vigorous activity three times a week are half as likely as the sedentary to suffer physical decline and impaired mobility as they get older.

Forget what you thought you knew about being a gay parent.
 

1. We don’t really like those children’s books about gay dad.

Gay dads, like all dads, like to cuddle up at bed-time and read the kids a story. But almost every single example of a fairy tale or children’s book involves a traditional family with one mother and one father, or a princess and a prince. And the stories about gay dads? Well, the problem is, they’re about gay dads, and they always say something to the effect of, “Some people have two daddies, and some people have two mommies.” That’s about the extent of creativity in same-sex parent bedtime stories.

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Have you been having trouble getting a good night’s sleep? You may be unknowingly engaging in activities that are making restful sleep more difficult. Good sleep hygiene is important. It’s important to practice good habits so that you can get the quality sleep you need and wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day. When you don’t get at least seven to nine hours of sleep each night, you’re setting yourself up for mistakes on the job, foggy thinking, and potentially life-threatening accidents.

 (Image for illustrative purposes only)

Many men report that they had experiences with people of the same sex when they were young. This is often a normal part of exploring their sexuality. Men who go on to describe themselves as ‘same-sex attracted’ or ‘gay’ have a strong physical and emotional attraction to men that they don’t usually feel for women.
 

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Being a gay men is natural
 
There is a lot of pressure from society for young men to be heterosexual or ‘straight’. This can often cause feelings of isolation for young men who are gay and make them scared to show their sexuality.
It is important to remember:
- There are gay men in every culture and every country.
- Being gay is just a form of sexuality. Unfortunately, many people find this hard to understand. 

Knowing whether you’re gay
 
There is no test or questionnaire you can complete that will answer this question for you. If you think you might be gay, it is important that you:
- Don’t deny your feelings.
- Take your time to explore your sexuality and what being gay might mean to you.
- Remember you are not alone.
For some men, feelings that they are attracted to people of the same sex emerge when they are quite young and continue into adulthood. For others, these feelings don't actually start until later in life. Some men who are attracted to other men, are also attracted to women. This is called bisexuality. You may find you don’t identify with any labels, and that’s also okay.

It's no secret that obesity is widespread: Nearly three out of every four men are either overweight or obese, and 50 percent of men don't engage in vigorous leisure-time physical activity for more than 10 minutes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

I am gay men so I and some of my gay friends always ask: Are gay men have lower testosterone levels than straight men ? Or "I am a homosexual man who likes to work out. Is the fact that I am gay mean I have less testosterone then a straight men? I have heard that from guys in the gym, but I think they are just saying that because they are homophobic". 

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Here we see the same answer from doctors:
"There are many reasons why a person would turn out to become homosexual.
Anways you would be surpised to know that as a fact – men today have around 60% LESS testosterone level than 60 years ago. Guess what, they are still straight. That drop in testosterone levels in the populace is due to the poisonous foods and polution.

Let’s go back to the gay thing.

Your being homosexual might just be caused by environmental (or developed) causes and also biological but biological doesn’t always mean that it has something to do with testosterone levels. Like what I said most straightguys these days also suffer from low testosterone levels and for you you might as well have yours checked if you are experiencing low testosterone symptoms like low energy levels, or even if you are only curious you muight as well have you levels checked just like what any guy would do.
It is indeed your responsibility to keep an eye of your levels as a “Male” even if you’re gay, Eat your eggs, please!!!"

You see, this is a very interesting question. Each and every one of us lifters is basically concerned with our testosterone levels since we know that our testosterone levels have a direct big time effect on our progress inb the gym. But what interests me is the overwhelming concern of this gay fellow which lead me now to write a post dedicated to answering that question.

What intrigues me is why he is very concerned with his testosterone levels. If it is true that he indeed has lower testosterone, then so what? Being a gay person I assume that he doesn’t really want to achieve freakish muscle mass or full, manly muscular development. I would assume that like girls, he would just love to lift to “get fit” or trim down which would also be achievable even with lower than normal testosterone levels. But I am also aware that there are gay men who also wish to be brutus-big like “Bear” from American pie. So whatever the reason is I wish he good luck with their lifting goals.

You see, my position hasn’t changed. I say “gayness” does not mean automatically that one would have lower testosterone levels. To tell you the truth, testosterone levels world-wide has been dropping at the rate of 1 percent per year – ALL THESE YEARS!

If you don’t believe me, see for yourself:

A new study has found a “substantial” drop in U.S. men’s testosterone levels since the 1980s, but the reasons for the decline remain unclear. This trend also does not appear to be related to age.

The average levels of the male hormone dropped by 1 percent a year, Dr. Thomas Travison and colleagues from the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts, found. This means that, for example, a 65-year-old man in 2002 would have testosterone levels 15 percent lower than those of a 65-year-old in 1987. This also means that a greater proportion of men in 2002 would have had below-normaltestosterone levels than in 1987.

“The entire population is shifting somewhat downward we think,” Travison told Reuters Health. “We’re counting on other studies to confirm this.”

Travison and his team analyzed data from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, a long-term investigation of aging in about 1,700 Boston-area men. Data from the men were collected for three time intervals: 1987-1989, 1995-1997, and 2002-2004.

All these chemicals and all these “modern” corporate lifestyle that we have going are doing a number on outr health and is the main culprit for the crashing of our men’s testosterone levels over these past decades.

We live in a society develop more and more progress! It’s true, but we also live in a society that would need a hell of a lot of progression to come anywhere near to perfect. We impart painful stereotypes on one another passing them around frivolously without any thought to the negative repercussions that will surely follow.

Throughout history and today as well women have dealt with the painful reality that we are held to a higher physical standard than men this is a widespread and highly talked about issue. However, I think a very pressing issue that is not talked about or recognized quite so much but none the less is very real and deserves some attention, is the issues that gay men face with body image. 

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

There is a trend of positive reinforcement that says it’s okay to be gay. And, well that’s fantastic but the underlying implication in a society filled with skinny jeans and half naked party boys with perfectly smooth sculpted chests is that it’s not okay to be gay and fat or gay and hairy or even gay and average. You’d better be fabulous and look that way too if you want celebration in this society and that fact is a shame that shouldn’t be swept under a rug of denial.

Gay men come in all shapes and sizes just like any other type of person. There is no cutting room with a slim cookie cutter and a giant bottle of glitter producing the perfect gay image with a sprinkle of glitter to top things off but the way society acts you’d think there should be and it’s just as damaging as holding women up to a supermodel standard.

Body shaming is real. Gay men are held to a standard that says they must look and act a certain way to live up to societal expectations. Just do a simple google images search with the words ‘gay man’ what comes up? The first 20 images are of perfectly sculpted men in various states of undress. 

They all look like they rub themselves down with baby oil every morning, own nothing but sexy underwear, go to the gym religiously, and have no other goal in life than to look like fabulous eye candy that should be intertwined with a stripper pole in some sweaty glittery night club in West Hollywood. 

There is so much wrong with this. These kinds of perceptions lead to real problems in the gay community; eating disorders, depression, self-mutilation, even suicide. The national eating disorders webpage shows that one study conducted reveals that gay males were 7 times more likely to report binging and 12 times more likely to report purging than heterosexual males. And then with all the self-doubt the media forces on gay men there’s the shame that comes from the lack of acceptance from family members, coworkers, and the general public. Ever heard that insult tossed around, ‘that’s so gay’ those are painful words when in fact you are so gay.

Meeting gay guys is very hard. First you have to determine if the guy you're interested in is gay or straight. Then you have to approach him and strike up a conversation. And that's assuming you have the confidence to walk up to an attractive stranger. Take some time to build up your confidence, and before you know it walking up to that cute guy at the bar won't be a problem. You can follow these three steps:

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Step 1: Gaining Confidence

1. Strike a pose. 

Before you go out, stand in front of the mirror and take a wide stance with your hands on your hips. Think Superman or Wonder Woman. Studies show that assuming what's known as a "power stance" can improve your confidence. These changes in posture can give you a mental "boost."
- Try the "victory" pose. Put your arms in a "V" over your head.
- Stretch out in your seat or cross your legs and put your hands behind your head.
- Hold these poses for about 2 minutes before going out to the bars (or doing anything stressful).

2. Pay attention to how you look. 

This isn't to say that you can only attract a guy if you look good. Rather, this is about making yourself feel good. If you feel good, you'll have more confidence.
- Try dressing in clothes that you want to see yourself in. If you've always wanted to wear a suit, go out in a suit. The point is to wear something you associate with power and confidence.

3. Take the pressure off yourself. 

You're not trying to impress every guy at the bar, you're trying to find the guy that impresses you. Focus your attention on looking for the guys you want to approach.

4. Practice your confidence. 

Gaining confidence will take time; don't expect it to happen overnight. But, the more you stick with it, the more likely it is that you'll become a confident person.
- Feeling confident is only part of the battle. You have to act with confidence as well. It's a common opinion that people find confidence attractive.

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Fish is a food indispensable in everyday life! It is good for men is health! It's the omega-3 paradox: You know fish is healthy for you—except that many types have hazardous chemicals, and overfishing is threatening the environment.

If you've ever heard the words "I'm gay" from a son or daughter, the announcement probably came as the shock of a lifetime. You likely cycled through an entire catalog of extreme emotions: shock, disbelief, anger, guilt. Then came the questions for you and your spouse: Why did this happen? Where did we fail? And how do we as Christians and loving parents respond to our child's proclaimed homosexuality?

(Image for illustrative purposes only)

Whether you're trying to lower your blood pressure or fight prostate cancer, protecting your health begins with your diet. Here are the five best foods for men.

When it comes to dividing the labor at home fairly, straight couples may have a lot to learn from gay couples.
A new study finds that same-sex couples tend to communicate better, share chore duties more fairly and assign tasks based on personal preference - rather than gender, income, hours worked or power position in the relationship.

Straight couples, meanwhile, tend to talk less and fall into to traditional gender roles, what one family describes as “pink chores” and “blue chores.”

In dual-income straight couples, women and those who earn less money or work fewer hours tend to take primary responsibility for stereotypically female -- and more labor-intensive -- chores such as child care, grocery shopping, washing dishes, cooking and laundry, according to a survey of 225 gay and straight dual-income couples being released Thursday by PriceWaterHouseCoopers and the Families and Work Institute.

The survey, while a relatively small sample, has interesting findings.

Men, higher earners and those who work longer hours – which researchers say can signify a position of power -- in straight couples tend to do the yard work and outdoor, auto and more traditionally male chores that tend to be less time-consuming.

Yet in same-sex couples, income and work hours didn’t have the same affect. And, perhaps most important, same-sex couples were much more likely to share equally the time-consuming work of routine child care – 74 percent of gay couples versus 38 percent of straight couples. And gay couples were more likely to equally share the unpredictable work of caring for a sick child – 62 percent versus 32 percent for straight couples.

Why is that important? In straight couples, women are still often considered the primary, or default, parent, responsible not only for organizing, overseeing and caring for children but for also doing many of household chores. Time diary data shows that women, even when they work full-time, tend to spend about twice as much time doing housework and caring for children.

"There’s been a lot of calls for more sharing of child care responsibilities, so it isn’t only a woman’s problem and she isn’t the only one dealing with the fallout at work. But we see more sharing in same-sex couples,” said Ken Matos, FWI senior director of research and author of the study. “Taking on primary child care responsibility impacts one’s work time. It creates so many unscheduled interruptions, so that’s an important thing to be shared.”

The survey also found that men in same-sex relationships were more satisfied with the division of labor than were women in straight relationships. The reason? Same-sex couples talked about it more.

Men in gay partnerships were much more likely to say they had discussed how to divide the labor when they first moved in together. Women in straight partnerships were much more likely to say they wanted to, but didn’t.

“The people who said they bit their tongue had a lower satisfaction with division of household responsibilities,” Matos said. “So satisfaction may not be so much about what you do, but whether or not you felt you had a voice. Did you say what you wanted? Or did you let it evolve and feel like you couldn’t pull yourself out of the situation once it settled and got stuck?”