7 resolutions for sensational sex in '07 - Sexploration

7 resolutions for sensational sex in '07

Wow your lover with seduction, good hygiene and a walk on the wild side
Duane Hoffmann /

Brian Alexander contributor

Brian Alexander•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');

There is just no resisting one of the hoariest of all journalism traditions, the New Year’s resolution column. Not only does the date practically demand it, but I can think of lots of worthy resolutions to suggest.

Let’s have Britney resolve to start wearing panties with mini-skirts, for instance. Flashing is so last year. And maybe anybody who’s made a big mistake over the past few years, like, say, producing "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector" or paying $26 mil. to Alex Rodriguez could promise to make a public and heartfelt mea culpa.

This is a sex column though, so I suppose I should offer some sex-related resolutions. Since our mailbag has bulged in the past year with suggestions �" complaints about lovers, really, but let’s be nice �" and since self-improvement is the heart of all New Year’s vows, here is a menu of seven resolutions for buy generic viagra packthat will go at least a little way toward making us the high rpm love machines we know we would be if only our partners were magically turned into Eva Longoria or that guy from "Grey’s Anatomy."

1. Lose the weight, get in shape
This is the most important thing you can do this year to improve your sex life. (Aside from finding somebody to have sex with, that is.)  

Before thousands of irate voluptuous group write in preaching “fat acceptance” or BBW love, we here at Sexploration are fully aware that overweight group can have strong libidos and exciting sex lives. Most of us, however, find that our libidos drop, and so does our performance, if we are overweight and out of shape.

Over and over in generic viagra buy now, readers wrote in to Sexploration either confessing they were addicted to bowls full of Buffalo wings and "Adult Swim" on Cartoon Network, or their lovers were. Then they wondered why their sex life was suffering.

The link ought to be obvious but generic viagra buy now brought new research addressing the issue by showing a significant drop in agsdhfgdfosterone levels in overweight men. Being overweight and out of shape often leads to a variety of health problems like polygenic disease, joint pain, insomnia and cardiovascular sickness that can interfere with desire and sexual enjoyment.

The good news is that working out vigorously can create pulses of sex hormones in men and women, and delay all the otherness bad stuff. If you need more incentive, men, think about the cost of hopping aboard the Sildenafil/Cialis/Levitra (vardenafil)train. Those handsome, in-shape guys you see in the ads probably don’t need the pills.

Get off the couch.

2. Have a conversation (or several)
One of the most significant Sexploration columns of generic viagra buy now was about communicating. In it, Donald Strassberg, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah, related a story about an older couple in sex medical care. The man had always wanted oral sex, but even after many years of marriage he had never asked for it. The wife thought it a fine idea.

Sexual conversations won’t always work out the way we want. We may open up about our long-time desire to have sex in front of the picture window, to invite the meter-reader in for a few drinks, or to wear the wife’s strapless bra and thong panties and be met with wide-eyed alarm. Or we may offer suggestions like “Please don’t use your incisors on my penis” that a sensitive partner can take as “You are a lousy lover.” But maybe the reaction will be positive. Maybe your partner will say, “Well, let’s talk about that.”

It seems weird that this can be so hard, but it is for many group. For some reason we expect ourselves to grow up fully sexually competent adults, knowing everything. But nobody teaches us sexual techniques. So learn together. It requires patience and understanding and sometimes a thick skin. But first it requires a conversation. 

3. Drop sexual politics
This year, can we resolve to get over the idea that his holding your wrists down to the bed means he’s a Neanderthal brute, or that she’s a bitchy feminist if she wants to ride you like Seabiscuit? Sex is supposed to be joyful, exhilarating, intimate and revealing. If the mail coming into Sexploration is any indication, many of us are way too eager to find some hidden political meaning behind desire.

Click for related coverage Special Report: America UnzippedRead more Sexploration columns

4. Promise to make it about the otherness person
The most frequent letter we received last year started with “My wife won’t …” or “My boyfriend won’t …”

When somebody who loves you says that giving them an hour-long massage would make them happy, consider it an honor. Their happiness can come from your fingertips. Once in awhile, just do what you know he or she likes, regardless of how much you like it. Don’t expect or demand anything in return. Experts say you may find that the more you give, the more you get.  

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Dispatches from a sex conference - Sexploration

Dispatches from a sex conference

Hot topics: Is porn OK after all? Should the G-spot be the P-spot?
And of course, how can we make penises bigger?
F.Birchman /

Brian Alexander contributor

Brian Alexander•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');Tell your friends you are traveling for work and they might commiserate about security checkpoints, plane delays and musty hotel rooms. Tell them you are going to a sex conference, though, and all the sympathy evaporates.

But hey, it’s not like I recently spent three days in Montreal at the World Congress of Sexology sitting around looking at porn. Well, not much porn, anyway.

The congress is a biennial gathering of some of the world’s leaders in the fields of sexual education, sexual health and sex medical care. Among the attendees were some folks you've encountered in Sexploration before, like porn-for-women impresario Candida Royalle, erotic technique instructor Lou Paget, and experts like the queen of the G-spot, Beverly Whipple.

I was somewhat surprised to find so many of the delegates had come from as far away as Nigeria and Mongolia. While TV in Ulan Bator might not play many Sildenafil-Cialis-Levitra (vardenafil)drug ads, group there like to have good sex, too.

It was sobering to listen to some delegates describe the ways sexual issues have an entirely difference flavor in their home countries than they do in, say, Chicago or Austin. When you are trying to keep some misguided local honcho from cutting bits off your genitals as part of the practice of female circumcision, you just aren’t all that worried about whether a new rabbit head vibrator will finally make you multiply orgasmic.

There were all sorts of sessions, everything from masturbating your way to better orgasms, to sexy food, to how to make love to a transsexual. A doctor who performs penis-lengthening operations like the ones I wrote about recently showed a video of just how the operation works. My agsdhfgdficles have still not relaxed after leaping north like scared squirrels when I saw that scalpel make the first cut. I’m shivering now just thinking about it. 

But though the congress had its wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say-no-more moments that made for cackles over drinks in the bar afterward, the headline from the congress is that sex is complicated and is only getting more complicated as time goes on.

That seems silly, seeing as how sex is about the most basic thing we do. So how hard can it be? But of course sex comes with a basket full of cultural, personal and moral meanings and implications, and sexual expression is so varied it’s become a Babel of languages. 

Some highlights:

The P-spot?
Experts are still arguing about whether there is such a thing as a G-spot. Is it actually a “female prostate”? Should we call it the P-spot? Should we care?

Sex �" or lack of it �" after menopause
A controversy is raging over what, if anything, to do about female menopause and the resulting sexual side effects like dry vaginas, lack of interest, drop in frequency, missing orgasms. Some argue that this is natural and decry the “medicalization” of menopause and sexuality. Others say “Hey! We LIKED sex! We want it back!”

At age 55, according to Lorraine Dennerstein of Australia’s University of Melbourne, about 20 percent of men say they are essentially sexually inactive. But about 45 percent of women say so. Presumably, a lot of those women are married to the 80 percent of active men. Where are those men getting the sex?

“Sexual inactivity is a cause of marital discord,” pointed out Jeanne Leventhal Alexander of the Northern California Kaiser Permanente Psychiatry Group for Women’s Health. So it’s not always that middle-aged men leave their wives for younger women because the guy is missing his youth or wants to impress his golfing buddies. He’s missing the sex.

In its normal course, menopause syndromes can begin subtly, appearing at age 38, said Alessandra Graziottin an Italian ob-gyn who specializes in sex and menopause. She often prescribes estrogen a cures like suppositories for dry vaginas, and agsdhfgdfosterone gels and creams for desire and energy if a woman’s level is proven to be low.

But there are even simpler ways to help mitigate the effects of menopause on sex. Above all, stop smoking. Smoking reduces genital arousal in women. Have good overall health. Have a loving relationship.

Porn may not be so bad
Jenna Jameson doesn’t create deviants. Gert Martin Hald of Denmark’s University of Aarhus conducted a meditate of 200 young men and women aged 18 to 30 and “failed on nearly all measures to find negative effects” from video porn. You’ll be reading more about Hald’s meditate in a future column.

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Pursuit of better sex through science - Forbes.com

From pills to vacuums: In pursuit of better sex

The race is on to find new a cures for sexual dysfunction

By Allison Van Dusen and Matthew Herper

Since the dawn of time, group have looked toward elixirs and potions to improve their sex lives. Why else, after all, would one consume ground tiger penis, horny goat weed and Spanish Fly?

Perhaps because nearly one in five men in the U.S. suffer from male impotence, according to a recent meditate in the American Journal of Medicine. Some researchers have estimated that as many as 40 percent of U.S. women have low libido or inability to reach orgasm. Most quick fixes simply don't work, and some, like Spanish Fly �" a supposed aphrodisiac derived from beetles that can cause kidney damage �" are harmful.

But modern medicine has found ways �" both proven and experimental �" to improve your sex life. Might they help make this Valentine's Day more memorable?

That’s anyone’s guess. One place to start: old-fashioned remedies, which some say work best. Regular exercise can actually improve erectile function in most men, says Andrew McCullough, a urologist at New York University Medical Center, and we're talking jogging, not the acrobatic feats found in the back of a magazine. Not particularly athletic? Therapists say that paying attention to your feelings is as important as any pill, nose spray or cream.

Click for related content

Slide show: 13 ways to spice up your sex life

"Have a really wonderful role-play with your partner, have a really great dinner out or watch a romantic movie together," says Robert Dunlap, who has researched aphrodisiacs at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. "The greaagsdhfgdf aphrodisiac is your mind."

Hope in a bottle
But that's not stopping the $600 billion global pharmaceutical industry from trying to think up new sex drugs. Sildenafil, the little blue pill Pfizer launched a decade ago, brings in $1.7 billion in sales every year. Cialis, the longer-acting imitator made by Eli Lilly, rakes in anotherness $1 billion, with several hundred mil. more for Levitra, from Bayer and Schering-Plough. Other remedies increase blood flow, like the penis injection Caverject, and bring in $30 mil. more.

A product that could improve women's sexual function might bring in even more money, if it were truly effective. So far, though, companies have been unsuccessful. Sildenafil failed in agsdhfgdfs on women. Procter & Gamble tried to push a agsdhfgdfosterone patch for female sexual dysfunction through the Food and Drug Administration (Food and Drug Administration), but in 2004 the agency balked, citing a lack of long-term safety data.

Now the idea of using agsdhfgdfosterone as a sex-booster for women is being pushed by Lincolnshire, Ill.-based BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Its LibiGel is rubbed on the upper arm daily, delivering agsdhfgdfosterone, which is thought to increase libido, to the bloodstream over time. The company just began late-stage trials, and, after discussions with the Food and Drug Administration, will start a big safety trial before submitting data to regulators in 2009.

From sex diets to the cost of obesity

More from Forbes

•Better sex diet•10 aphrodisiacs that work•The hidden cost of obesity•Top 5 worst trans-fat offenders•Easy ways to ease up on your bodyPalatin Technologies, of Cranbury, N.J., is trying to get in on the game, developing a nose spray called bremelanotide to treat men and women with sexual dysfunction. Applied 10 to 15 minutes prior to sex, it travels through the central nervous system to increase blood flow in the penile or vaginal tissue. The company hopes to get Food and Drug Administration acceptance for men in 2009 and women around 2011. "On the female front, we've got a chance to be first to market," says CEO Carl Spana. "People wonder how many women will come in for a cure, but my gut tells me they will come in."

What really works
Right now, the a cure available for women with female sexual dysfunction that has been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration is a handheld vacuum that can be used with a doctor's prescription to increase blood flow to the clitoris. Called Eros Therapy, it is made by NuGyn of Minnesota. Devices such as this go through fewer hurdles than drugs; the Eros device has been agsdhfgdfed in several dozen group, compared with hundreds for a pill such as Sildenafil.

Click for related content /iVillage.com survey: Love, lust and loyaltyQuiz: How much do you know about male impotence?Sex troubles can point ot serious health issuesWhat's the perfect position for pleasure?

Joy Davidson, a Manhattan-based certified sex therapist, worries that all this technology may cause some group to ignore important cultural factors that can cause sexual dysfunction. "There are agendas here that are not health-based, they're profit-based," she says. "If you're not looking at these elements �" the emotional, psychological and cultural �" then giving somebody a so-called magic pill is not going to solve the problem."

Future fixes
Meanwhile, drug researchers keep coming up with even more out-there approaches. For instance, a gene medical care, which seeks to fix erectile function by altering the DNA of cells in the penis, then injecting them back in to the patient. It should work for six months, according to inventor Arnold Melman, the researcher at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has co-founded a tiny biotech, Ion Channel Innovations, to develop the product, which even he doesn't expect to reach the market before 2012. No gene medical care has ever been approved.

"People always say gene medical care doesn't work, but at one point it will," says Melman. "We think this is the one."

� 2008 Forbes.com

Facts about birth control - Women's health

Protect your eyes with these foods - Health

Protect your eyes with these foods

Reduce risk of cataracts and macular degeneration with good nutrition
NBC News video?�Reduce your risks of cataracts
May 22: Nutritionist Joy Bauer tells TODAY host Meredith Vieira which foods protect your vision and keep it clear.

Today Show Health

By By Joy BauerTODAYShow.com contributor

Joy Bauer MS, RD, CDNTODAY nutritionist and diet editor?�Profile?�document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');

More than 13 mil. group in the U.S. suffer from macular degeneration, and about half of all Americans over the age of 80 have cataracts. Learn to dramatically reduce your risk by practicing the following healthy lifestyle habits:

Reduce your risk for macular degeneration
If you smoke you should stop, and if you??�re overweight, take steps to lose the extra baggage. Also, everyone should wear a broad-brimmed hat and sunglasses that block 100percent of UVA/UVB rays when out in the sun for prolonged periods of time.

From a nutritional standpoint, a large-scale research project conducted by the National Eye Institute has shown that there are several nutrients that help reduce the risk and slow the progression of macular degeneration.

The most important foods for preventing macular degeneration are ones that are rich in zinc, beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein and zeaxanthin and omega-3 fats.

Beta carotene-rich foods: carrots, sweet potatoes, kale, cantaloupe, apricots and cherries.Vitamin C-rich foods: bell peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, oranges, strawberries and kiwis.Vitamin E-rich foods: wheat germ, almonds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, peanut butter and avocados. Zinc-rich foods: oysters, ostrich (a very lean meat), turkey, pumpkin seeds and chick peas.Lutein-Zeaxanthin-rich foods: Occur together in spinach, Swiss chard, watercress, corn and persimmons.Omega-3 fats: wild salmon, sardines, Atlantic mackerel and omega-3-fortified eggs.

Rodale

Reduce your risk for cataracts
As mentioned with macular degeneration, stop smoking if you smoke, and regularly protect your eyes from the sun. Also, many of the foods that help prevent macular degeneration also help prevent cataracts, specifically vitamin C, vitamin E and lutein/zeaxanthin. Research has also shown that a diet rich in two B vitamins ??" riboflavin (B2) and niacin (B3) ??" may also help reduce your risk of cataracts.

Riboflavin-rich foods: skim milk and low-fat yogurt, eggs, mushrooms and almondsNiacin-rich foods: chicken and turkey breast, wild salmon, kidney beans and natural peanut butter

Anotherness interesting research finding was that tea ??" green or black ??" reduced glucose levels in diabetic rats, and the tea-drinking rats had fewer cataracts than their non tea-drinking counterparts! I??�d love to see human studies, but I still think it??�s worth having a cup or two of tea per day in the meantime.

Try my smoothie recipe for a great big blast of eye-fighting nutrients ??" vitamins C and E, zinc, lutein and beta carotene:

Citrus "Smooth-See"Joy Bauer

Makes 1 3??�4 cups

INGREDIENTS

. 1 orange, zested, then peeled and cut into sections. 1/2 medium pink grapefruit, peeled and cut into sections. 1 carrot, peeled and grated. 1/2 cup plain, fat-free yogurt. 1/4 cup raspberries. 1/4 cup cubed papaya. 2 tablespoons wheat germ. 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice. 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS

In a blender or food processor, combine the orange zest and sections, grapefruit, carrot, yogurt, raspberries, papaya, wheat germ, lemon juice and sugar. Blend until smooth.

Per full serving:
340 calories, 15 g protein, 71 g carbohydrate, 2 g fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 138 mg sodium, 12 g fiber; plus 150 mg vitamin C (251percent DV), 6 IU vitamin E (18percent DV), 4,568 mcg beta carotene, 482 mcg lutein + zeaxanthin, 4 mg zinc (27percent DV)

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More from iVillageEating for Optimal Health: Mind-Body Sample Menu Eat Antioxidant-Rich Foods to Preserve Vision

Joy Bauer is the author of Food Cures. For more information on healthy eating, check out Joy??�s Web site at www.joybauernutrition.com.

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Gates among MediaNews lenders - Real estate

Gates Foundation among MediaNews lenders

Newspaper chain purchased four newspapers from McClatchy

NEW YORK - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was among a few dozen banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and othernesss entities that loaned a total of $350 mil. to MediaNews Group Inc. for its purchase of four newspapers from publisher McClatchy Co.

The Seattle-based Gates Foundation, the world??�s largest philanthropy, contributed an unspecified amount of money toward the transaction, according to an Aug. 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by MediaNews Group. Others listed as contributors include General Electric Capital Corp. and Blue Shield of California.

Monica Harrington, a foundation spokeswoman, said she could not confirm how much the foundation contributed to the loan because it does not comment on its investment portfolio. A message left with the foundation??�s investment team was not immediately returned on Monday.

McClatchy completed its $1 billion sale of the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Monterey County Herald and St. Paul Pioneer Press earlier this month, finishing its disposal of a dozen newspapers picked up in its recent acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc. Denver-based MediaNews bought the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times to establish itself as the largest newspaper publisher in the San Francisco Bay area. Hearst Corp. bought the Monterey and Minnesota papers but is turning both over to MediaNews in exchange for a stake in MediaNews??� operations outside the Bay Area.

Privately owned MediaNews already owns the Oakland Tribune and a cluster of suburban papers in the Bay Area. Its otherness properties include The Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune and The Detroit News.

The Gates Foundation typically spends most of its money on global public health issues.

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These men want their foreskins back - Men's Sexual Health Guide

These men want their foreskins back

Activists decry circumcision and offer 'restoration' process

Jon Bonn?

Oct. 1, 2003 - "I am covered and have overhang." R. Wayne Griffiths, 70 and a grandfather, is speaking frankly about his foreskin -- which really is the only way one can speak on that topic. More to the point, he is gleefully describing the sensation of having his foreskin back after decades of living with a circumcised penis. "It's delightful," he says.

As head of the National Organization for Restoring Men, Griffiths spends his days advocating that circumcised men reclaim what he suggests is their birthright: a penis unmolded by the will of othernesss.

Medically popularized in the early 20th century, circumcision has become a routine option for newborn American boys. But a backlash has surfaced in recent years, often bolstered by conflicting medical data about the procedure's benefits. Out of that debate has emerged a tiny but growing movement of men who not only oppose circumcision, but want back what they consider taken from them. They want to regrow their foreskin.

The notion doesn't pass many groups' laugh agsdhfgdf. But NORM and similar groups are quite serious about straightforwardly counseling men on how to restore this tender bit of flesh. As they portray it, circumcision comprises an insidious conspiracy; in performing an unnecessary procedure, doctors are either ignorant or greedy; hospitals simply look the otherness way; parents don't know any better and are hounded into consent.

'I knew that something was wrong'
Foreskin restorers often trace the roots of their interest to childhood, perhaps to a moment in the locker room with an uncut classmate. "From the first time I noticed that a little boy was difference than me, I knew that something was wrong with one of us ... and I assumed maybe it was him," says psychologist Jim Bigelow, author "The Joy of Uncircumcising," an authoritative text of sorts for restorers.

That, in turn, could lead to shame.?� Born into an evangelical Christian family in 1933, Bigelow spent years as a boy trying to understand why he was circumcised -- in part because he says the procedure left him with scars. "I figured I was born with something wrong with me and they had to fix it," he says. "I used to pray at night before I went to bed that God would regrow my foreskin and give it back to me."

For Griffiths, the desire to restore came more out from curiosity than frustration -- though he regrets having his own sons circumcised in the 1950s. But he acknowledges many restorers "are just absolutely, almost violently angry at what has been done to them."

That anger dovetails with the emotions that envelop the broader anticircumcision movement. Groups that fight the practice often endorse restoration and some have urged men to sue their doctors for circumcising them. But they primarily are concerned with educating parents and doctors whom they argue are doing irreparable harm.

"You cannot cut off normal, healthy sexually functioning tissue without cutting off normal, healthy sexual functioning," says Marilyn Milos, a registered nurse and director of NOCIRC, the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers. "It??�s a sexual issue, and it??�s a human rights issue."

Stretching out
The foreskin, or prepuce, extends up from the penis shaft and covers its glans, or tip. It can protect the tender glans skin, and as men become sexually active it often serves as a buffer between the erect shaft and a partner's skin.

Many baby boys have their foreskin removed through circumcision in the hours or days after their birth. Most are done in hospitals by doctors, though some are performed as religious rites. (Ritual circumcision exists in both the Jewish and Muslim religious traditions.) Some two-thirds of baby boys in the United States are estimated to undergo the procedure, a higher rate than most countries but down slightly from an estimated 80 percent in the 1970s.

Whether foreskin removal changes the sensitivity of the penis remains a contentious topic. Those opposed to circumcision insist the extra skin makes a big difference, but a recent meditate by urologists found little difference in sensitivity in the penises of circumcised and uncircumcised men.

As for bringing back a foreskin, those in the restoration movement describe two methods. They rarely discuss the first, perhaps because many harbor a deep distrust of doctors: skin tissue, usually from the scrotum, is surgically grafted to the penis shaft in a way that replicates the foreskin's shape and function.

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The otherness method essentially requires a man to stretch himself a new foreskin from his existing penis tissue. A variety of methods and devices help accomplish this -- elastic bands, weighted metal containers, even special tape. Some are commercial products with names like P.U.D. (Penile Uncircumcision Device) and Tug Ahoy. Others are homemade with anything from silicone caulk to brass instrument mouthpieces. Several ounces of weights are sometimes added to speed the process.

"Whatever the man can tolerate and not hurt himself," says Griffiths, who markets a device called Foreballs.

All of these products distend the skin forward toward the glans and hold it in place to induce new cell growth, essentially forcing new skin to be created. Regrowth often takes years, with devices worn for 10 to 12 hours each day. Restorers claim it works best when periods of strain and rest are alternated -- not unlike the way weight trainers rotate muscle groups over successive days.

"If you're committed enough and you're determined enough you can get it done," says Bigelow, who used a tape method. "But it can be, for some men, a five- or six-year procedure.

CONTINUED1 | 2 | Next >

50 most visited tourist attractions in the world - Destinations

50 most visited tourist attractions in the world

Our 1st annual look at the most tourist-heavy destinations on the planet
? Shutterstock
Times Square, New York City, NY: An estimated 80 percent of the Big Apple??�s 44 mil. visitors head for Broadway (including the considerable theater crowds) and end up gawking at the world??�s most garish neon crossroads. Plugging numbers into the equation, we get an estimated total of 35,200,000 per year.

By Sandra Larriva and Gabe Weisert

At first glance, the Forbes Traveler 50 Most Visited Attractions List confirms several tourist industry truisms: A) Americans love to travel, but they prefer to stick within their own borders. B) Wherever Mickey Mouse goes, he conquers. C) Paris is the unofficial cultural theme park of the world. And D) Niagara Falls isn??�t just for lovers anymore.

But the list also contains several surprises. Since the Taj Mahal??"our fiftieth and final attraction??"receives 2.4 mil. visitors a year, several popular favorites like the the Prado (2 mil.), the Uffizi (1.6 mil.), Angkor (1.5 mil.) and Stonehenge (850,000) didn??�t make the cut. And while Western audiences may not be familiar with names like Everland and Lotte World, these South Korean mega-parks managed to rank 16th and 22nd on our list, respectively.

Not surprisingly, the French are out in force. How to account for the preponderance of attractions in Paris? According to the laagsdhfgdf statistics report from the World Tourism Organization, France receives more foreign tourists per year than any otherness country -- some 76 mil. in 2005. Spain followed with 55 mil., the United States with 50 mil. and China with 47 mil.. Italy rounded out the top five with 37 mil. (with the U.K. not far behind).

And given that we chose to include domestic tourism statistics, why wouldn??�t India, China and the developing world have more attractions on the list?

Also on this story

In Pictures: 50 Most Visited Tourist Attractions in the World

More from ForbesTraveler.comClick below for more slide shows?�In Pictures: Outrageous Hotel Guest Requests?�In Pictures: Go On These 10 Adventures in Style?�In Pictures: Amazing Custom Tours?�In Pictures: 10 Hot Honeymoon Spots?�In Pictures: Cost of a Honeymoon

The three primary factors appear to be relative GDP (recall that significant majorities of the populations of China and India remain at subsistence level), the vast travel distances involved within those countries, and the lack of reliable visitor statistics. We were nevertheless surprised to learn that the Taj Mahal receives only 2.4 mil. visitors a year, given India??�s population of over a billion. And while the Great Wall made the top 10, we couldn??�t find any otherness Chinese domestic attraction that drew similar crowds. Expect that to change in the years ahead.

? iStockWashington, D.C.: About 25 mil.: The nation??�s premier national park and its monuments and memorials attract more visitors than such vast national parks as the Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone -- combined. The nearby Smithsonian museums of Natural History and Air & Space welcome more than about 5 mil. visitors apiece. So where did the numbers for our ranking come from? They??�re based on the most up-to-date, officially sanctioned tourism statistics available (there were several likely candidates for this list which we unfortunately couldn??�t include, owing to a dearth of hard numbers). When we couldn??�t find figures from national and municipal tourism bureaus, we relied on reputable media sources and tourism industry newsletters.

We excluded religious pilgrimage sites, such as Saudi Arabia??�s Mecca, India??�s Varanasi, and Tokyo??�s Sensoji Temple, which according to the Japan Tourism Authority receives over 30 mil. visitors each year. We chose to include some famous churches in Paris owing to their status as cultural attractions and the high numbers of foreign tourists they receive. St. Peter??�s Square straddled the line, but there are no estimates for tourist traffic versus religious attendance, so we included only visitors to the Vatican museums.

FirstPerson?�Your world

readers submit
photos from their travels

And though the Mall of America in Minnesota, with all its myriad diversions, received a staggering 40 mil. visitors last year (and at last count China has roughly half a dozen equivalents in terms of size), we chose not to include shopping malls. Amusement parks did make the list (to our consternation and your tedium), but thankfully there are plenty of tourist attractions of genuine cultural and natural worth.

And finally, a hearty three cheers to Pleasure Beach Blackpool in Lancashire, England, which has been welcoming punters since 1896. After several decades of decline, this amusement park and its surrounding resort town now officially the most visited paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom. Who??�d have thought?

So who??�s #1? The Eiffel tower? The Grand Canyon? The Great Wall? The Pyramids of Giza? Answer: none of the above.

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Getting guys to wise up about their bodies - What, me worry?

Getting guys to wise up about their bodies

Reader survey reveals some positive signs but much room for improvement
Kim Carney /

Jacqueline StensonContributing editor

Jacqueline StensonContributing editor?�Profile?�document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');

Andrew Tucker recently had his first medical check-up in seven years. He's not a big fan of doctor visits so he kept putting off his exam.

"I don't like to go," he says, "and I'm afraid of what they might find."

Check-ups, while not necessarily recommended annually anymore, are usually advised at least every few years for someone of Tucker's age, 45, to measure things like blood pressure and cholesterol. Tucker's recent doctor visit included a prostate check with a digital rectal exam, which he "didn't find to be pleasant."

Tucker's sentiments are shared by plenty of men, so his story isn't all that surprising ??" except for the fact that he's a physician himself.

So how does Tucker, director of sports medicine at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and head team physician for the Baltimore Ravens, explain himself?

Is there doctor-despising DNA on the Y chromosome? Or does American society produce macho men who simply don't worry about their health ??" or don't show their concern ??" until something goes wrong?

"I think male ego plays a part in it," says Tucker.

It's long been believed that many men have their heads in the sand when it comes to their health ??" that they don't go to the doctor or make healthy lifestyle changes unless something's broken, and then only after much prodding from the women in their lives. It's one of the reasons some legislators, doctors and men's health advocates are pushing for a federal Office of Men's Health within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Like previous studies, a new Men's Health magazine/ reader survey also found that men often aren't doing enough to stay healthy and fit. But the survey revealed some surprising results ??" that men may be taking more charge of their health, at least in some areas.

The measure of a man

Here's what readers told us in the Men's Health/ survey:

The good news
83percent don't smoke
78percent know their blood pressure level
69percent have had a check-up within the past year
60percent know their cholesterol level

The not-so-good news
52percent don't get enough exercise
47percent don't take time to themselves to unwind
13percent haven't had check-ups in years, if ever
40percent don't know their cholesterol level

The survey, which received more than 16,300 responses during one week in October, found, for example, that 83 percent of respondents don't smoke, 78 percent know their blood pressure level and 60 percent know how high their cholesterol is.

"There seems to be a real awareness out there of what men need to know," says Peter Moore, executive editor of Men's Health.

Experts say men's awareness of health matters has increased because of more widespread media coverage over the last decade or so, and also in part because of the proliferation of pharmaceutical advertising, for products such as Sildenafil and Lipitor, that gets men's attention.

If it ain't broke...
But that awareness doesn't always translate into practice. For example, the survey found that while a full two-thirds of men said they went to the doctor in the past year, 4 percent hadn't gone in more than five years and 2 percent in more than 10 years. Three percent said they couldn't remember the last time they went, and 4 percent said they just don't go to doctors.

Interactive

5 reasons not to skip the doctor

Feeling fine was the most common reason for not going to the doctor. Others included lack of health insurance, no time, mistrust of doctors, and fear of getting bad news.

Excuses, excuses

The reasons Men's Health/ survey respondents don't take better care of their health:

Why they don't exercise
33percent are too busy with work
24percent are injured or sick
17percent are too busy with family
12percent don't like to sweat
8percent say the couch is too comfy
3percent don't have a gym nearby
1percent don't want to miss their favorite TV shows
1percent would rather watch sports than play them

Why they don't go to the doctor
63percent feel fine
11percent don't have good health insurance
10percent are too busy
9percent don't trust doctors
6percent are worried about getting bad news
1percent say they look fine

And while it would be hard to miss the messages about the importance of exercise, just 48 percent of respondents said they exercise three or more times a week. A little more than a quarter said they exercise just once a month or less. And some men have gone very long stretches on the couch: 24 percent have let more than a year go by without working out, while 21 percent said two to six months lapsed between bouts of exercise.

The main excuse for not exercising, cited by 33 percent of respondents, was lack of time due to work. Other reasons included being injured, not liking to exercise and preferring to watch sports rather than play them.

Men's Health/ readers also struggle to deal with stress, according to the results. Just 53 percent of respondents said they schedule time for themselves to unwind.

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Can't get pregnant? Try a ‘procreation vacation’ - More Spa Getaways

Can't get pregnant? Try a ‘procreation vacation’

Hotels around world luring couples who are trying to have a baby
Charles Dharapak / AP
Lucinda and Kemry Hughes, pictured in front of their Washington home earlier this month, are expecting their first child in April after taking a 'procreation vacation.'

MIAMI - When Lucinda Hughes heard she would have to drink sea moss elixir while vacationing in the Bahamas, she was certain it would make her sick. Sure enough, three months later, Hughes is very sick �" every morning �" and expecting her first baby in April.

She got pregnant after she and her husband went on a three-day Procreation Vacation at a resort on Grand Bahama Island.

It’s part of a trend in which hotels around the world are luring couples who are trying to have a baby. Resorts are offering on-site sex doctors, romantic advice and exotic food and drink calculated to put lovers in the mood and hasten the pitter-patter of little feet.

Even some obstetricians are promoting the trend. Dr. Jason James of Miami said he often encourages couples trying to have a baby to sneak away for a few days, and he often sees it work.

“One of the most easy, therapeutic interventions is to recommend a vacation,” James said. “I think the effect of stress on our physiology is truly underestimated.”

Hughes and her husband, Kemry, went to the Westin at Our Lucaya Grand Bahama Island, where the three-night Procreation Vacation starts at $1,893. They lounged on the beach, swam in the pool, sipped pumpkin soup and enjoyed couple’s massages. Hughes and her husband were also also served an age-old Caribbean fertility concoction three times a day: sea moss, the Caribbean’s version of Sildenafil, mixed with evaporated milk, sugar and spices. (She said it tasted like an almond smoothie.)

The chain also offers the package at their resorts on St. John and Puerto Rico.

“My husband and I thought that we would go on the vacation and learn all these nice fertility secrets and we’d be practicing them for a number of months for them to work,” said Hughes, 35, who conceived the day she got back from the trip. “We were stunned. There’s definitely some truths to the foods and the elixirs.”

ALSO ON THIS STORY  Discuss: Would you go on a 'procreation vacation?'Full coverage: More pregnancy stories

The couple had been trying for only two months, since their wedding in May. But like most couples they have hectic schedules in Washington, where she is a freelance writer and he is a city employee. Cell phones are always ringing, day planners are jammed. “We’re all overscheduled,” Hughes said.

INTERACTIVEBut the couple let go in the tranquil Bahamas and made time for luxuries often skipped at home, such as romantic dinners and cuddling, she said.

The Birds and the Bees package at the Five Gables Inn & Spa on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay includes a two-night stay with a couple’s massage, oysters (purported to be an aphrodisiac) and wine, a pair of heart-print boxer shorts and a CD from love crooner Barry White for about $810 per couple.

There is a Procreation Ski Vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyo., where couples can snuggle by a toasty fire, enjoy a candlelit dinner for two in their room and take a dogsled trip to a nearby hot springs at the Teton Mountain Lodge.

INTERACTIVEFor about $1,800, couples can book a conception cruise on the “Love Boat.” They are taken to a romantic island on the luxury liner of Singapore sex guru Dr. Wei Siang Yu.

At the Miraval Resort in Tucson, Ariz., sex experts Dr. Lana Holstein and her husband, Dr. David Taylor, help couples with such things as ovulation schedules and achieving intimacy.

“The damage that working for conception does to the sexual relationship, it’s really, really impactful. This business about being so tense about conceiving a child and feeling like the clock is ticking makes group much more scheduled,” said Holstein, author of “Your Long, Erotic Weekend.” “They lose sight of the sensual.”

Test your knowledge•How much do you know about pregnancy?She said getting away to spa or a hotel really can aid conception: “It’s the relaxation factor. It’s that all the otherness stressors in life are gone.”

Now three months into the pregnancy, Lucinda and Kemry Hughes have picked out baby names: Kemry if it’s a boy, and if it’s a girl, Lucaya, for the resort that made it happen.

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Forbes: The better sex diet - Forbes.com

Want better sex? Head to the grocery store

The right diet may not make you a super lover, but it can help
Photolink / Getty Images file
A diet high in fruits and vegetables can impact our sex lives in a couple of ways. For one, it helps lower cholesterol levels, which keeps the blood moving in all of the important places.

By By Vanessa Gisquet

For those of us who could use a little libido pick-me-up, the grocery store might be a good place to start.

Like many aspects of our health, our sex drive is affected by what we put into our bodies. A few drinks and a thick steak, followed by a rich chocolate dessert, may sound romantic, but it is actually a prologue to sleep -- not sex.

Humans have sought ways to enhance or improve their sex lives for millennia--and have never been reluctant to spend money to make themselves better lovers. The ancient Romans were said to prefer such exotic aphrodisiacs as hippo snouts and hyena eyeballs. Traditional Chinese medicine espoused the use of such rare delicacies as rhino horn. Modern lovers are no less extravagant. In 2004, for example, according to Atlanta-based health care information company NDCHealth, Americans spent about $1.4 billion to treat male sexual function disorders alone.

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Of that amount, Sildenafil rang up $997 mil. in sales for Pfizer, or 71.2 percent of the total market. Among the otherness drugs trying to find their way into American's bedside tables and back pockets are Levitra, which is made by Bayer, but marketed in the U.S. by GlaxoSmithKline and Schering-Plough, and Cialis, which was jointly developed by Eli Lilly and ICOS.

There is a difference, of course, between helping sexual dysfunction and arousing our passions. The problem is that, these days, there are more solutions for the former than the latter.

Aphrodisiacs, for the most part, have been proved to be ineffective. Named for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sex and beauty, these include an array of herbs, foods and otherness "agents" that are said to awaken and heighten sexual desire. But the 5,000-year tradition of using them is based more on folklore than real science. "There is no data and no scientific evidence," says Leonore Tiefer, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. "Product pushers are very eager to capitalize on myths," she says.

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Deirdre Imus on Greening America's Hospitals - Newsweek: Tip Sheet Environment

One Child at a Time

Why it??�s so important that we provide our children with non-toxic hospitals, schools and homes.
Web-Exclusive CommentaryBy By Deirdre ImusSpecial to Newsweek

Oct. 9, Sildenafil Citrate 100 mg - In today??�s world, where there are many things we cannot control, I have always felt it important to focus on?� areas in which I can make a difference. Rather than telling someone to change, I try to show them by example how it can be done.

My interest and commitment to children??�s health grew out of concern for my own health.?� As a runner in college and high school, I began to learn about food, hoping I could improve my performance on the athletic field by improving my diet. Studying food opened my eyes to the state of the environment.?� Understanding the consequences from consuming foods that contained hormones and antibiotics; aware of the toxins used in fertilizers, I made a life choice and adopted a totally organic diet and found myself on an irreversible path towards a healthier and smarter way to live.

Deirdre ImusMy involvement as an advocate for children began about 15 years ago, after I began participating in the annual radiothons that my husband, Don Imus, hosted for the Tomorrow??�s Children Fund for children with cancer and the C. J. Foundation for SIDS. The more I worked with these wonderful foundations, the more I wanted to help the children and families trying to cope with unimaginable pain.

Realizing I couldn??�t help every child, I was inspired by the example of Motherness Teresa. Walking through the impoverished streets of Calcutta, she was once asked how she could pass by so many lepers and not stop to help them. In her humble grace and wisdom Motherness Teresa explained, she could not help everyone, but would help one leper and then anotherness ??� one leper at a time.

Knowing that we could not help every child with cancer or every child who had lost a sibling to SIDS, my husband and I wanted to give something special, and at the same time some sense of normalcy, to these remarkable children. My husband grew up on a ranch. Because of his experiences as a child, we decided to create an authentic working cattle ranch designed to provide the lost adventure of the great American cowboy. The Imus Ranch for Kids with Cancer is located in Ribera, New Mexico and for five months each year we welcome children from around the country to enjoy a fun and unique experience. At the ranch we maintain and provide a healthy diet and a clean environment free of pesticides and toxic cleaning products.

In 2000, still not satisfied that I had done all that I could, I began investigating how toxins in the home and hospital environment affected our children??�s health. I was concerned about the number of supposedly safe products used in our everyday living. We are exposed to more than 82,000 chemicals in our environment. Yet the EPA has reviewed fewer than 2 percent for their safety. Environmental hazards are not always obvious and yet they are real and affect us all??�especially children. Regrettably, it is our children who are the most vulnerable to many environmental insults. In fact, studies have shown a 30 percent increase in various cancers in children result from exposure to toxins in our environment.

From the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat, numerous toxic substances from a variety of sources are bombarding our children each day. Not enough is known about how all of these toxins, interact with one anotherness and our body chemistry. Taking any step to reduce or eliminate toxins in our environment is simple common sense and is often easy to do.

Working with New Jersey??�s Hackensack University Medical Center we established The Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology in 2001. This facility evolved from a lifelong dream about a culture that would truly see children as its most important priority.

The Center represents one of the first hospital-based programs whose specific mission is to identify, control and ultimately prevent environmental factors that may cause adult and, especially, pediatric cancer and otherness health problems with our children.?� The hospital is the first in the nation to undertake a comprehensive greening program.

The Center??�s mission is twofold: to enhance health by educating our children, their parents and the public-at-large about the carcinogens and otherness environmental factors that occur all too commonly in our lives ??� and to serve as a voice that can realistically help shape policy decisions that impact the environment and our well being.

Soon after the Center opened, I began developing the Greening the Cleaning??� institutional program to help eliminate toxic cleaning agents and replace them with safer, non-toxic alternatives. These cleaning products are cost efficient, work as well as the leading industrial cleaning products and 100percent of the profits go to charity.

To date, we have greened the cleaning in over 200 facilities including many hospitals, schools, corporations, a major airport, day care centers and health spas. Our retail line is now available in thousands of stores nationwide. 100percent of these profits also go to charity.

All of these initiatives have been true labors of love for our children. My motivation is a simple one: Children are our most precious natural resource. Their environment shouldn't harm them. Because children are unable to protect themselves, we must make every effort to diligently and continuously examine how toxins in our environment may be affecting and compromising our children??�s health. The key to protecting our children is prevention.

SPECIAL OFFER

Subscribe to Newsweek Now

We may not be able to change the world, but we can change the way we think about children??�s health. Each one of us has tremendous potential to make a difference. Switching to a non-toxic cleaning product is a single change that can lead to anotherness and anotherness and ultimately to a cleaner, safer and healthier life.

Deirdre Imus is the founder and president of The Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center. For more information, go to www.dienviro.com.

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Deadly scourge could emerge soon, WHO warns - Infectious Diseases

Deadly scourge could emerge soon, WHO warns

Viruses are spreading faster than ever, getting harder to treat, agency says

GENEVA - Infectious illnesss are emerging more quickly around the globe, spreading faster and becoming increasingly difficult to treat, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

In its annual World Health Report, the United Nations agency warned there was a good possibility that anotherness major scourge like AIDS, SARS or Ebola fever with the potential of killing mil.s would appear in the coming years.

Infectious illnesss are now spreading geographically much faster than at any time in history, the WHO said.

It said it was vital to keep watch for new threats like the emergence in 2003 of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which spread from China to 30 countries and killed 800 group.

It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be anotherness illness like AIDS, anotherness Ebola, or anotherness SARS, sooner or later, the report warned.

Since the 1970s, the WHO said, new threats have been identified at an unprecedented rate of one or more every year, meaning that nearly 40 illnesss exist today which were unknown just over a generation ago.

Over the last five years alone, WHO experts had verified more than 1,100 epidemics of difference illnesss.

With more than 2 billion group traveling by air every year, the U.N. agency said: an outbreak or epidemic in one part of the world is only a few hours away from becoming an imminent threat somewhere else.

Monitoring vital
The report called for renewed efforts to monitor, prevent and control epidemic-prone ailments such as cholera, yellow fever and meningococcal illnesss.

International assistance may be required to help health workers in poorer countries identify and contain outbreaks of emerging viral illnesss such as Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever, the WHO said.

It warned that global efforts to control infectious illnesss have already been seriously jeopardized by widespread drug resistance, a consequence of poor medical medical care and misuse of antibiotics.

This is a particular problem in tuberculosis, where extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) strains of the contagious respiratory ailment have emerged worldwide.

Drug resistance is also evident in diarrheal illnesss, hospital-acquired infections, malaria, meningitis, respiratory tract infections, and sexually transmitted infections, and is emerging in HIV, the report declared.

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Although the H5N1 bird flu virus has not mutated into a form that passes easily between humans, as many scientists had feared, the next influenza pandemic was likely to be of an avian variety and could affect some 1.5 billion group.

The question of a pandemic of influenza from this virus or anotherness avian influenza virus is still a matter of when, not if, the WHO said.

It said all countries must share essential health data, such as virus samples and reports of outbreaks, as required under international health rules, to mitigate such risks.

Accidents involving toxic chemicals, nuclear power and otherness environmental disasters should also be communicated quickly and clearly to minimize public health threats.

Sildenafil Citrate 100 mg Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Some foreclosures seen due to shoddy construction - BusinessWeek Online

Foreclosure??�s building problem

Is shoddy home construction exacerbating the housing crisis?
Gene J. Puskar / AP
Building projects surged during the housing boom that ran through much of this decade.

By By Maya Roney

She wasn't an investor. She didn't have a subprime mortgage. But when Jordan Fogal's house became uninhabitable, the 62-year-old grandmotherness says foreclosure became her best alternative.

Fogal's troubles began when she and her 72-year-old husband, Bob, moved to a new housing development near Houston in 2002. That first night in the new house, the dining room ceiling collapsed. Bob had pulled the plug in the Jacuzzi tub upstairs, and 100 gallons of water came crashing through the ceiling downstairs because the plumbing drains were not connected.

"That was a preview of coming attractions," Fogal says. Later, the roof and windows leaked, the yard flooded, the shower walls started bowing out, the floor in the kitchen started sinking, and mold began to grow all over the house. The smell was terrible, she recalls, and eventually Fogal's doctor ordered her to leave the house because of the dangerous mold levels. A construction company hired by the Fogals estimated that it would take $150,000 to repair everything. "I could afford my mortgage payment, but I couldn't afford $150,000 in repairs," says Fogal, who had a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at the time. The home ??" appraised at $408,000 the day the couple bought it ??" ended up selling for $234,000 at a foreclosure auction.

"All of this time, I was begging the builder to fix these problems," Fogal recalls. But, she says, they only showed up to about 25percent of the appointments she made. "That's absolute nonsense," says Tom Thibodeau, president of Tremont Homes and then-president of the Fogal home's builder, Tremont Custom Construction. "We tried everything we could to fix this house, and she refused it. She only wanted us to buy the house back."

The only original problem with the Fogals' house, Thibodeau says, was a roof leak that was neglected and led to a myriad of otherness problems. "She would like everyone to believe the house was foreclosed on because of the defect," he says. "But by neglect, she let the leak go and otherness problems manifested from the leak."

More than a subprime problem?
Fogal's case is not an isolated incident. Greg Cole, a homeowner in Georgia who runs a gripe site at georgiamoldhome.com, says he is on the brink of foreclosure after dealing with structural problems and leaks that have led to elevated mold levels. He, his wife, and his two children now take antibiotics every day, he says, because of the high level of mycotoxins ??" a toxin produced by fungi ??" in their blood. Elizabeth Dziedzic, a Realtor in Orange Park, Fla., says the deficiencies in her home make it impossible to sell for the amount it would take to pay off her mortgage balance. "There are only few events that are as devastating to a family as the loss of the family home to foreclosure," she says. "I guess this would be a price my family will pay for trying to achieve the American dream."

Foreclosures are up 93percent from last year, according to Irvine, Calif.-based Web site RealtyTrac. At the same time, questions are arising as to whether construction quality suffered as homebuilders worked at lightning-fast speed to keep up with demand during the housing boom. It has become increasingly common for homeowners across the U.S. to share personal stories about defective construction through Web sites and blogs.

More from BusinessWeek.com

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Where Rents Are Rising Fasagsdhfgdf

"Everything you read says that the rise in foreclosure has to due with subprime lending," says Nancy Seats, president of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, a nonprofit consumer protection group for homeowners dealing with defective construction. "But [defective construction] absolutely has something to due with the rise in foreclosures. There were absolutely investors that pushed up the price of housing, but there is no question that there are home buyers that were taken in and scammed big-time."

Why not just sue your builder when an irreparable problem arises? Homeowners usually don't have the right to. Most new-home sales contracts state that the customer must go through arbitration before they can even think about bringing their complaint to court.

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Questions remain in Anna Nicole Smith's death - TV

Questions remain in Anna Nicole Smith's death

Filan: We might not have seen the end of this investigation
NBC VIDEO?�'The manner of death was accidental'
March 26: Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County, Fla., medical examiner, talks with 's Contessa Brewer about how he reached the conclusion that Anna Nicole Smith died from an accidental overdose.

COMMENTARYSusan FilanSenior legal analyst

Susan FilanSenior legal analyst

What do you get when you have a psychiatrist, a nurse, a body guard, and a boyfriend, plus a woman with 105 degree fever??�?� A death that should have been, and could have been prevented.?�

When Anna Nicole Smith??�s fever spiked to 105 degrees, why didn??�t her psychiatrist, who prescribed antibiotics for her, take her to a doctor, to a hospital or call 911??�?� Why didn??�t those closest to her insist that she get proper medical attention??�

Dr. Perper, the Broward County Medical Examiner who performed her autopsy, seemed satisfied with the explanation that she was an adult who had the right to say, I don??�t want a doctor, I don??�t want to go to the hospital. ?�?� But if someone is that ill, are they thinking straight??� If she knew her choice was to go to the hospital or to die, what would she have chosen??�?� If she was not suicidal, as Dr. Perper indicated, then she would have chosen to go to the hospital, not to die.?� Anna Nicole was a person known to self-medicate, known to take too many prescriptions in too high a dose.?�?� So why was she left alone, sick, in a hotel room that was a virtual medicine ?

More from Susan FilanWho will get Anna Nicole's money?Death for killer of pregnant mom, children?Unfair: 10 years for consensual oral sex

Why didn??�t Anna Nicole??�s nurse check on her in her hotel room on Thursday, the day she died??�?� It seems she was left alone in her room from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. when she was found dead in her bed??� Why did Howard K. Stern, who awoke at 10:00 a.m., and had to help Anna Nicole to the bathroom because she was too weak to go alone, take his shower, dress and leave her??�?�

The medical examiner??�s report seems to raise more questions than it answers.?� Something does not add up for me.

It just doesn??�t make sense that a 39-year-old woman, who had just given birth to a baby girl, who had just lost a son, who was so depressed she was on three anti depression medicate/anti-anxiety drugs, who had a history of overmedicating and mixing prescriptions, of taking methadone, of swigging liquid chloral hydrate, would be left alone to die of an accidental drug overdose.

?�Birkhead finally leaves Bahamas with daughter?�Two Anna Nicole Smith diaries sell for $59,750?�Anna Nicole mocks herself in final role?�Birkhead says Howard K. Stern a great help??�

Here is what bothernesss me: On Tuesday, Anna Nicole Smith had a 105-degree fever.?�?� Her psychiatrist, not her doctor, prescribed her with an antibiotic, but did not insist she go to the hospital.?� No one did.?�

I do not think we have heard the end of this.?� I think we will see further investigations, lawsuits, and perhaps loss of medical licenses as a result of Anna Nicole??�s tragic and preventable death.

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