Archive for February, 2008

Science of the orgasm

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

To unlock the secrets of the climax researchers are looking behind the scenes and into the nervous system, where the true magic happens.

By Regina Nuzzo

Special to The Times

Los Angeles Times — Health Section

February 11, 2008

by Eamon ODonoghue, LA Times

AS they seek to document and demystify one of life's great thrills, scientists have run across some real head-scratchers.

How, for example, can they explain the fact that some men and women who are paralyzed and numb below the waist are able to have orgasms?

How to explain the "orgasmic auras" that can descend at the onset of epileptic seizures — sensations so pleasurable they prompt some patients to refuse antiseizure medication?

And how on Earth to explain the case of the amputee who felt his orgasms centered in that missing foot?

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Call him doctor ‘Orgasmatron’

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

Dr. Stuart Meloy stumbled upon an alternative — and pleasurable — use for an electrode stimulation device that treats pain.

By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times

Los Angeles Times — Health Section

February 11, 2008

Dr. Stuart Meloy never set out to study orgasms. It was an accident.

Janniko R. Georgiadis / University Medical Center Groningen

He was in the operating room one day in 1998, implanting electrodes into a patient’s spine to treat her chronic leg pain. (The electrodes are connected to a device that fires impulses to the brain to block pain signals.) But when he turned on the power, “the patient suddenly let out something between a shriek and moan,” says Meloy, an anesthesiologist and pain specialist in North Carolina.

Asked what was wrong, she replied, “You’ll have to teach my husband how to do that.”

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Female orgasms and a ‘rule of thumb’

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

‘C-V distance’ may be a factor in how easily a woman has an orgasm.

By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times

Los Angeles Times — Health Section

February 11, 2008

Ruler

During intercourse, the female orgasm can be elusive. What frustrated woman hasn’t wondered: Am I simply, um, put together differently than other women?

Kim Wallen, professor of psychology and behavioral neuroendocrinology at Emory University, is busy doing the math to find out. And, yes, he says, simple physiology may have a lot to do with orgasm ease — specifically, how far a woman’s clitoris lies from her vagina.

That number might predict how easily a woman can experience orgasms from penile stimulation alone — without help from fingers, toys or tongue — during sexual intercourse.

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Benefits ‘O’-verall

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times

Los Angeles Times — Health Section

February 11, 2008

Fruit

Sure, orgasms can put a bounce in one’s step, but some studies hint they might also be good for one’s health.

* Heart: Lots of studies have looked at whether DHEA, a hormone released into the bloodstream during arousal and orgasm, helps keeps arteries clear and hearts strong. A 2001 study of 1,700 middle-age Massachusetts men found that those with the lowest levels of DHEA were about 60% more likely to develop heart disease than those with the highest. Orgasms aren’t the only way to get this hormone, though; your body produces some even without sexual stimulation.

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