NOTE: My statements are not necessarily my opinions. I often post point-counterpoint essays in which I strongly take one side of an issue and later counter that with antithetical views. This intellectual exercise helps me see the merit in opposing opinions and augments my creativity.

Sex is part of medicine, so better doctors know more about sex

People are paid to work, not be angels. Hormones and 1001 other factors make it virtually impossible for people to be angels. If Dave Ramsey is — and was, when his hormones peaked — it would be a first. Anything else is hypocrisy.

I saw plenty of hypocrisy in a town I once lived in. On the surface, it was a good town filled with good people. People hid behind false veneers that did a good job of concealing reality.

The truth was something different. They wouldn't talk about sex like healthy adults should be able to do. Instead, when the lights were off and presumably God and others couldn't see what they did in the dark, they did surprising things. Like sexually assault neighbors. Like sexually assault an ER doctor. Like have sex with a patient in the hospital chapel while videotaping it. Like pretending that rules don't apply when you're drunk or attend church, as if it were a Get Out of Jail Free card expunging every transgression. Like ignore people in obvious need while lavishing money on themselves. Like raising superficially good children who grow up to do bad things. Like rape comatose patients, one after another. Lather, rinse, repeat.

All that and much more was swept under the rug and forgotten as long as the actors played by the rules of that dysfunctional town, one of which was not talking about sex, just doing whatever they damned well pleased.

I prefer the straightforward approach: adults should be knowledgeable about adult topics. Sex is one of them. Greater knowledge equips adults to behave like responsible adults — instead of, say, my father who scratched his sexual itches by cheating on my Mom and abandoning us as he pursued pleasure in other dysfunctional ways with alcohol. He didn't want to shatter his life and ours; he wanted pleasure, but didn't know how to achieve it as an informed adult would do.

The Left's war on normality*

America is now rife with dysfunction. Muzzled by a culture that increasingly embraces aberrant sexuality*, normal adults cannot discuss sex and its optimization that is crucial not only for strong marriages but also strong minds: scientists are accumulating increasing evidence that hormones shaping sexuality also influence brainpower and specifically the manifestations of genius. As gender benders (endocrine disruptors) warp bodies and minds, bizarre dysfunction (example) replaces normal and adaptive.

* Norms are often defined not in terms of absolute right or wrong but rather whether behavior conforms to what most others do. Thus normality is a statistical construct, not a guarantee of goodness. For example, while we now abhor the abomination of slavery, we treat some animals kindly while inflicting atrocities on others, treating them as if they have no minds or feelings despite overwhelming evidence that some animals possess remarkable intelligence and emotions very similar to that of humans — in fact, surpassing that of some people, as I revealed in another posting corroborated by hundreds of scientific references.

Impressively bright politicians have been replaced by cognitively impaired ones who struggle to speak coherently and lack the ability to solve problems. Those who once built cities have counterparts who rejoice in destroying them as part of the anti-normal agenda.

To the uneducated, these and other tidbits appear as isolated dots without a cohesive nexus, but these manifestations of cultural rot stem in part from ubiquitous chemicals, many man-made, that disrupt normal hormonal signaling, creating a tsunami of problems showcased on virtually every news broadcast without journalists connecting the dots. Physicians have no magical pharmaceuticals or surgery to reverse the effects. There is no substitute for prevention, yet with even most primary care physicians woefully ignorant of the exposome and its diverse ramifications, people oblivious to countless potentially preventable hazards instead succumb to them.

The antidote to ignorance is information. If that means talking about sex, let's talk. Anything else is dysfunctional stupidity.

“If we cannot talk about sex, then we cannot talk about good sex.”
— Gynecologist Jennifer Gunter (source)
Related: One in four doctors attacked, harassed on social media

“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.”
Adlai Stevenson II, American politician and statesman

Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing, and you'll never be criticized.
Elbert Hubbard

“Absolutely; I completely agree with you. … People who maybe are a little too Puritanical in some things turn out to have the nastiest secrets behind their closet.”
Conservative Chadwick Moore responding to Tucker Carlson saying “People who have thoughts they're ashamed of tend to attack other people and accuse them of having those thoughts” — a phenomenon known as psychological projection.

And sex is part of life: October 13, 2022: Paul Newman says Joanne Woodward made him a 'sexual creature': 'We left a trail of lust all over the place'

April 4, 2023: Australian parents want schools to teach more sex education topics and teach them from an earlier age

This article is part of the
$100,000 Challenge Series

People often think they are enlightened even when they believe things that should have been left in the Dark Ages.

In this series, I will challenge conventional wisdom and explore some odd and unjustifiable beliefs that persist, offering $100,000 to the first person who can solve each challenge, proving me wrong. My opinions are bound to ruffle some feathers and make you think.

Introduction

From a History Channel H2 special, 10 Things You Don't Know About Ben Franklin: “Franklin pioneered tabloid journalism in America. [He] understood that when it comes to publishing, sex sells, and so he printed in his newspaper the first gossip column and the first sex advice column.”

I also realized that sex sells, so I packaged a health book as a sex book. Readers who came looking for sexual information got plenty of that, but they also learned about cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, hemochromatosis, wrinkles, depression, stress, mood, fatigue, aging, air pollution (one of my favorite topics), light pollution, sleep, noise, booze, drugs, smoking, nutrition, dementia, dehydration, hormones, pheromones, enzymes, some birth defects, plastics, proteinuria, pools, preservatives, toxic environmental chemicals, neurology, DNA, esophagitis, phrynoderma, paradoxical intention, hormesis, risk, swimming, soap, primary progressive aphasia, Newton's third law, Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids, Michaelis constants (Km), the major histocompatibility complex, my favorite topic: the exposome (consideration of which is vital to health but largely ignored by physicians), and much more. It all relates to sex, and it all relates to health, because the body is connected in surprising ways: nothing works in isolation, everything works together.

Article: Frequent sexual activity can boost brain power in older adults
Comment: This research is just one of many indicating that sex is good for the body and brain, improving brainpower and mood, enabling people to look better, feel better, and perform better. Patients go to doctors hoping to improve these things but almost invariably leave with over 99% of the best advice never given to them because their docs either don't know it or are in too much of a rush. The best doctors do things not done by docs who are merely good or worse, and one of them is recognizing that sex is key to all facets of health: physical, mental, and emotional.

Article: Both teens, teachers not getting sex-ed training: New standards needed?
Comment: Yes. Sex seems deceptively simple, but is surprisingly complex. What I presented above is just the tip of the iceberg. Most people obtain just a fraction of the potential pleasure (and satisfaction resulting from it) they could obtain and could give to others because they know less than 1% of what adults should know about sex.

Moreover, sex isn't just about sex (and love, of course); sex is the basic drive that incentivizes people to excel in their personal and professional lives. Many people, knowing little about sex and hence unwittingly undermining their libido and sexual pleasure in countless ways, suffer not just in the bedroom, but also at work, collectively sapping American achievement and hence our national success. My article Why geniuses are often so fond of sex helps connect the dots between hormones, sex, and the brilliance that enriches nations by advancing technology.

Americans struggling for higher wages and brighter futures should realize that the mind and body are inextricably linked. If politicians knew more and weren't afraid of alienating adults with persistently childish sexual attitudes, they could help propel our economy into overdrive instead of it languishing in neutral year after year.

Doctors giving OBVIOUSLY bad advice about estrogen have killed more women per year than terrorists have in the past few decades in the United States! Not only have those quacks robbed women of their lives, they've also contributed to the premature aging of many more women, negatively affecting their bodies and minds. I am one of the few doctors who never succumbed to the “estrogen is bad” hysteria. Every time I've gone against the grain of conventional medical “wisdom,” I've subsequently been proven correct.

People are dying for sexual pleasure figuratively and literally because countless people seeking it develop health problems from it, or even die.

Researchers found that sex can enhance brainpower by stimulating hippocampal neurogenesis (the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, “a brain area involved in learning, memory and emotional processing”) and “more sophisticated connections among existing neurons” (Scientific American Mind, September/October 2011, pages 36 - 43). With research suggesting “that sex builds more complex brains” (ibid.), it is reasonable to wonder if better sex might build even better brains, and if people who object to discussing sex have cognitive and emotional deficits.

An army of far-Left bloggers spearheaded by Media Matters sought to discredit my political opinions by mentioning my sex books. Those smears make them sound like immature children giggling about sex. Perhaps I should have prefaced my sexual discussions the same way they do on Dr. Phil and other programs when they cover adult topics: “I'm talking about sex, so ask your children to go play in the other room.”

Ironically, leftist activists who want to jam aberrant sexuality down our throats are doing their best to make it a crime with a life sentence to advocate for normal human sexuality, how it can be optimized, and why that is an imperative.

However, unlike Dave Ramsey and others who revel in judging others cast in a different mold, I as a physician understand why not everyone marches to the beat of the same drummer. One of the foremost goals of life is to maximize individual potential, not to punish others because they differ; we don't need more tragedies such as the witch-hunt inflicted on super genius Alan Turing.

My goal isn't to shame or otherwise add more misery to the lives of those affected by gender-bending chemicals but rather to educate folks on what they are doing to us and subsequent generations. The effects are diverse, including cognition, helping explain why a nation that once frequently spawned brilliant breakthroughs hasn't seen any in so long that many Americans, now imbued with pessimism, think our best days are behind us and that problems must be inevitable, not solved. I disagree.

My political opinions are an amalgamation of libertarian, conservative, and liberal principles. I don't side with the Left or the Right (I also criticize them and their Fox News cheerleaders—this nation has fallen too far too fast for all of the damage to result solely from the Left) because I thought of ways to give almost everyone almost everything they want. Inside-the-box thinkers would deem that impossible, but it isn't (here is an example of how I could make even staunch Republicans and Democrats very happy).

Our national economic problems can be overcome so we have brighter futures than we ever imagined, but we cannot triumph by doing what we've been doing. We need good outside-the-box ideas, and we need to spend more time thinking than tearing one another down, but the Left and Right are seemingly trapped in a cycle of fighting each other, with victories defined by causing the other side to lose. Those victories don't enhance our overall national prosperity but instead just temporarily give one side a bigger slice of the pie. Fighting about how to divide the pie is silly when a much better solution is to expand the pie so everyone has a bigger piece. To my knowledge, I am the only one who figured out how millionaires, the middle class, and folks on welfare or other assistance could get more of what they want—figuratively a bigger piece of pie—without taking it from others.

My opponents fear me because I write with intensity in ways that change hearts and minds. However, those opponents are often so stupid they can't figure out where I stand on an issue, or they don't care to find out (if it's not Twitter-length, they can't comprehend it or won't even try). Some are so desperate to discredit me they hacked into my websites and changed my words, making it appear I said outrageous things I never said. That is desperation which manifests how they haven't figured out what I did: solutions that could kickstart the economy and truly heal the nation, bringing the Left and Right together.

Why fight when you can get what you want? I fight against close-mindedness, ignorance, and stupidity to help everyone. Anyone who fights me is stupid.

As I mentioned in one of my other sites, sex is part of medicine and a good barometer of health, so it is taught in medical school. I graduated at the very top of my medical school class, so I learned more sex in addition to more of everything else: anatomy, physiology, endocrinology, pharmacology, biochemistry, embryology, pathology, genetics, nutrition, histology, microbiology, etc.

My professors stressed that what we learned in medical school was just a foundation we must continually build upon the rest of our lives. When I worked as an ER doctor, I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could improve the success rate of codes (cardiopulmonary resuscitations), which averaged less than 5% for patients taken to an ER for cardiac arrest—what we called outside-the-hospital arrests (OTHA). In other words, over 19 out of 20 OTHA patients ended up in the grave.

You could read every textbook and journal of emergency medicine and cardiology and still strike out 95% of the time. There was no inside-the-box magical answer for how to significantly boost that success rate, but I was so depressed after losing my first patient as an attending ER doctor that I knew I had to find a way to save more patients—and I did. While working in a busy ER that handled codes every day, I've gone over 18 months without losing one patient while other ER docs put patient after patient into the ground.

My premise is simple: better doctors know more and do more for more patients. Any arguments?

Only from the nitwits at Media Matters and their troll followers, who do their juvenile best to make the world think that a doctor who knows more about sex is worse than doctors who know less.

Fathom the odd hypocrisy of far-Left liberals who feign to be appalled by discussions of normal sexuality yet scream bloody murder over intolerance of homosexuality. My medical school professors convinced me it is wrong to demonize people on the basis of their sexual orientation; indeed, physicians have an ethical obligation not to do that. In another article, I explained why no one is justified in discriminating against gay or lesbian people.

Doctors are supposed to treat people, not judge them. Sounds easy, right? It isn't always. One of my friends, a nurse, is so horrified by homosexuality that her face cringes in disgust whenever that topic comes up. If she were a doctor instead of a nurse, would she be able to suppress that reaction? Strong emotions are difficult to fully camouflage. People readily detect physician uneasiness, which can deter patients from receiving the care they need.

Want an example? One of my medical school patients waited far too long to get help and presented with a fungating breast cancer: a cancer that caused the skin and underlying tissue to die, eroding through it, with a foul-smelling discharge emanating from the rotting, infected tissue. The term fungating stems from the fact that such cancers often look like a fungus or cauliflower (images).

I asked her why she waited so long to get help. She explained that her doctor seemed uptight about anything to do with sex. I never met that doctor, but I've seen another doc wince her face with repugnance and shudder while describing breast and pelvic exams she performed—even common ones! (I performed a pelvic exam that caused a female police officer to pass out while she acted as a chaperone for a prisoner. How would the intolerant doc respond to that?)

My medical school professors wanted us to be so comfortable with sex that we would treat it the same as any other part of medicine. One of the side effects of my education was that I am not uptight about sex or anything to do with the body, health, or the million-and-one concerns real patients have, which are not always conveniently demarcated from body parts that might bother doctors educated shortly after the Stone Age.

Sexual problems are very common, and modern doctors are trained to handle them, but the quality of their care is just as variable as the success rates of codes. What some doctors know about sex wouldn't fill a thimble, but my sex books total about 700 pages of densely-packed information that will grow to thousands of pages once I complete my mountain of pending additions.

The key to communicating with patients

Some physicians have a poor understanding of how doctors should interact with patients, mistakenly thinking that acting robotic or superficially friendly is the key to professionalism. Wrong. People aren't stupid; they see right through put-on, fake niceness, just as I can easily differentiate genuinely friendly waiters from ones just acting that way to get bigger tips. And who wants to open up to a robot?

True professionalism is doing whatever it takes to do the best possible job for patients. Communication is universally regarded as the primary tool that physicians use to establish rapport with patients, and to obtain information from them that may help with diagnosis or treatment. Anything that hinders fully open communication is therefore bad—even unprofessional.

Many patients said they felt as if they could tell me anything—even things they'd never told their spouse or the family doc they had for decades—five minutes after meeting me in a busy ER. Establishing instant candor helped me help them. Similarly, countless people have opened up to me via the Internet, disclosing things they'd never told others. From this, I know that many doctors are squandering opportunities to get patients to fully open up about everything from A to Z, including sex. So while many doctors are patting themselves on the back for acting coldly robotic, in the ER or on the Internet I'm using my down-to-earth methods to get patients to fully open up. This has given me the chance to help people with problems that other doctors never even see, so by mocking my openness, Media Matters demonstrates their immaturity and profound misunderstanding of how to facilitate communication.

The practice of medicine boils down to helping people with problems. Better practitioners can do more for more people. That's obvious to everyone with common sense, yet Media Matters was so desperate to discredit me—clearly a sign they feared the impact of my writings—that they spent days bashing me instead of their usual targets: Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, and Monica Crowley.

To illustrate the hypocrisy of Media Matters, the Oprah Winfrey Network aired a series entitled Strange Sex produced by TLC that presented a man with a 13½-inch penis (supposedly the world's largest) and even stranger sexual topics. Did Media Matters blast Oprah for that? Of course not; she supported Obama in 2008. It isn't sex that bothers Media Matters, obviously. What gets under their skin and makes their blood boil is that anyone would dare not agree with them. They evidently have no qualms about using underhanded methods to attack people who do not march in lockstep with all of their political ideology.

I've seen how sexual inhibitions can shatter lives, but I've never seen or heard of anyone who was hurt by a doctor openly discussing sex. Just as drugs have side effects, social inhibitions do, too. Some patients are so inhibited about sexual matters that they died or almost died from waiting too long to see a doctor.

In short, sex is just as much a part of the practice of medicine as is cardiology, neurology, and dermatology. Many people live their entire lives without needing a cardiologist, neurologist, or dermatologist, but virtually everyone will eventually develop one or more sexual problems. Importantly, many sexual difficulties result from diseases that require medical treatment, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, pernicious anemia, atherosclerosis, liver or kidney disease, hemochromatosis, and various genetic disorders. Consequently, the sexual problem is a manifestation (sometimes the only one) of the underlying disease. If people do not seek professional care, the disease might ruin their health or even result in death. Good doctors will thus do everything possible to make patients so comfortable with sex that they won't hesitate to seek treatment. When the difference might be between life and death, medical practitioners have a moral obligation to facilitate care in advance, since patients obviously do not have crystal balls that tell them how their physicians react to sexual matters.

Doctors are taught to lead by example. If we want our patients to overcome their sexual inhibitions, we can't behave as if sexual matters should be swept under the rug or something to be cautiously whispered. Instead, sexual subjects should be discussed just as openly as heart disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes.

No healthy society treats sex as pornography. If doctors shouldn't write about sex, who should? Porn stars? Guys who pass along tips they learned in the locker room? Beautiful young “sexperts” who think their affinity for sex and attractiveness qualify them to teach others? Or should no one write about sex so we usher in a sexual Dark Age?

“America has entered a new dark age where people are proud of their ignorance.”
Dr. Marty Klein

The high cost of sexual ignorance

The pleasure that you obtain from eating is obviously affected by what you consume and how your food is prepared. Chefs can earn more than doctors for knowing how to make food tastier. Indeed, various industries have been spawned and profited immensely from the quest to maximize oral gratification from ingested substances even though that pleasure is ephemeral and without many secondary benefits: food may give you delight for the few seconds it is in your mouth, but whatever enjoyment you reap does nothing for your spouse, children, or society.

Sexual pleasure is different. By mitigating stress, it can foster health. By helping cement the bond between men and women, it lowers the divorce rate and therefore reduces the myriad problems stemming from or associated with fragmented marriages. Marriage is a human construct that has proven to be of such enduring value to society that it assumes a central role as the backbone of civilization. Governments regulate marriage so much that saying “I do” does more than tie a knot between a man and a woman; it really creates a three-way bond between the husband, wife, and the government, giving it the power to involve itself in your personal and financial matters by scrutinizing things off-limits to the bureaucratic regulation of single people. In contrast, governments couldn't care less about your non-spousal best friend.

Marriage is obviously important to people and society, but its most important underpinning—sexual pleasure—is something that most people know very little about. I've had patients with one foot in the grave who were still avidly interested in sex. In fact, unless you're a child or have serious problems that may erode your health in other ways, just about everyone is intensely interested in sex. The desire for sex is one of our most basic instincts, along with eating, drinking, and survival, yet most people don't know how to increase their libido or sexual pleasure. In fact, judging by what I've learned from speaking with countless women, most men don't even know Rule #1 in how to please women in the bedroom. However, fearful of shattering the fragile male ego, most women keep mum about that dissatisfaction.

woman looking under car hood

If we exhibited the same backward approach to auto racing, drivers and mechanics with a profound desire for more speed would yearn for it without bothering to look under the hood and see what might be improved to obtain more speed. We would laugh at such an illogical approach, yet few of us question the wisdom of living a life filled with sexual ignorance. Everyone could benefit from knowing the thousands of tips in my sex books. Those tips can do more than augment sex; many can also directly improve health (not just indirectly via stress reduction) and even amplify certain facets of brainpower. For example, after discovering how an uncommonly used spice could spice up my sex life, I found that it also sent my creativity into overdrive. I have many more specific tips for improving health and brainpower in my books on those subjects, but the inextricable link between the body and mind necessitates that I discuss topics that outwardly may seem to have nothing to do with sex. Sex seems so simple that most folks delude themselves into thinking they are masters of it even when they are just blissfully ignorant. This ignorance comes with a catastrophic cost, yet few remedy it by reading my books (not the ones filled with insultingly obvious info).

In contrast to the short shrift typically given to sex, we're fascinated with and often obsess over food. Some people buy several dozen cookbooks, hoping to find even better recipes. We watch chefs making food on TV, buy magazines that feature yummy food on their covers, read about food in newspapers, consult dining guides, scan grocery store aisles like a hawk looking for ever-tastier choices, and spend an increasing amount of time in restaurants.

Chef tasting food

What, really, can restaurants do for you? Help you pack on the pounds? Yes. Load your body with chemicals that titillate your palate but degrade your health, mood, and sleep? Absolutely. Clog your arteries with fat? You bet! Fill your lungs with smoke when the smoking section is just feet away? Uh-huh. Endanger you by being more cavalier about food safety than an informed individual preparing his own food at home? Definitely. Drain your bank account by charging much more than what comparable food would cost if prepared at home? Yup. Expose you to germs from people coughing and sneezing? I see it all the time in our increasingly sickly population. Make you wonder if the chef tasted your food? Yes, but some chefs do things to food far worse than tasting it. One of my brother's friends, now a cardiologist, used to laugh about what he did while working as a chef years ago in an upscale restaurant when a customer dared ask, for example, to cook her steak more. He'd cook it, alright, but spit on it afterward, then smile with delight as he watched her eat the steak—and his saliva. Various restaurant employees have been caught and prosecuted for similar offenses, such as the fast food cook in Pennsylvania who spit on the burger he made for a state police officer. A television program with hidden camera footage showed what even more sociopathic minds conceived as tools of revenge against customers they didn't like (learn how to spot a sociopath). The pinnacle of depravity was a waitress who removed a hot dog from its bun, inserted it into her vagina, and replaced it on the bun before serving it to the unsuspecting customer.

(text continues below these references):

  1. McDonald's Worker Spits in Tea: How Gross is Fast Food?
  2. Fast-food Employees Dish About the Menu Items You Should Never Order
  3. KFC was ordered to pay $8.3 million to a girl who suffered severe brain damage and was paralyzed after eating chicken contaminated with Salmonella “because of the failure of one or more employees of KFC” to follow proper preparation rules, which Justice Stephen Rothman described as “negligent.”
  4. The owner of a different KFC restaurant allegedly fired employees who refused to serve spoiled chicken.
  5. An Arby's restaurant served a roast beef sandwich containing a human finger recently amputated from an employee.
  6. A customer in another Arby's restaurant found a slice of human skin on his chicken sandwich.
  7. A friend of mine eating in an Applebee's restaurant discovered a used Band-Aid® in her salad.
  8. A man found a bloody bandage “baked into the bottom crust” of his Pizza Hut pie.
  9. A woman eating in a Cracker Barrel restaurant found human blood “covering some of her fries and the plate.
  10. Chef Anthony Bourdain's bestseller, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, exposed “restaurants' dirty little tricks such as filtering cigarette ash out of used butter to make a sauce and serving old beef to the customers who ordered it well done.

People are not shy about—or do much to rein in—their pursuit of pleasure from eating even though it is fleeting and helps no one but themselves. If you are smart and ponder this matter, you may be struck by how illogical it is to put so much emphasis on the pleasure of eating but not the pleasure of sex, which can improve health and strengthen marriages that are the cornerstone of civilization. Thanks to government involvement and various factors, the health of an individual affects others directly and indirectly. Marriages affect spouses and their children, who in turn affect others. Good to great marriages are more likely to produce people who create fewer burdens on others, so marriages clearly affect society. Hence, when governments stick their noses into the lives of people in troubled marriages, it is given that power because most of us believe that the repercussions from those unions warrants societal involvement.

A guest on The Big Idea Show said there are three factors that make for a lasting relationship: respect, sense of humor, and sex.

Without sex, there would be no need for marriage. We’d all be just buddies. A television newsmagazine show (I think it was ABC’s 20/20) acknowledged the paramount importance of sex when it said that marriage is about sex, not about sharing a bank account, a mortgage, and laundry. This may seem oversimplified, but great sex is a good foundation for a great marriage. And disappointing sex is the first step toward divorce court.

Sex isn't a huge part of life until there's a problem; then it can be a big problem. Doctors should know how to solve those problems. I've helped many people that other doctors could not. By strengthening marriages, some children are now alive because of me. Whether you are religious or not, the value of stronger marriages is obvious, but most people who seek to do that lack the knowledge to achieve the best results.

“Men, like women, once they are sexually involved—especially if they are having the best sex they've ever had in their life—they get attached.”
Psychotherapist Dr. Robi Ludwig

Given its importance, smart people would do everything possible to strengthen marriages, but too many folks are like racers who want more speed but are too lazy to peer under the hood of their vehicles.

It is easy to look back at history and mock others for their backwardness and ignorance. Tangible evidence of that ignorance can persist indefinitely. For example, the following picture shows the graveyard for the witches of Salem, Massachusetts. They were not witches, of course, just innocent people sentenced to death by county courts filled with people who brains were filled with strange ideas.

The graveyard for the supposed witches of Salem Massachusetts

For proof that people haven't progressed as much as they think they have in the past three centuries, consider what happened to Linda Blair after she starred in The Exorcist:

Bio.com announcer: Linda began experiencing the dark side of fame as constant accusations from the press began to hit home.

Linda Blair: People would see me and they would be frightened. They were frightened that maybe they were about to be possessed. They would run; people were afraid; people would do a lot of strange things.

Why? Because they couldn't differentiate an obviously fictional movie from reality. Run from a cute little 14-year-old actress? What would she do? Spray them with pea-soup vomit?

People of the future will surely mock those of us who turn their backs on something that could help us—sexual pleasure—while obsessing over food that sends most people to an early grave after a life filled with less joy and success than is possible. When our eyes focus like laser beams on food but we too often live in sexual ignorance, are we really as sophisticated and cerebral as we presume? As I discussed elsewhere, our society is suffering from a prevalent sexual neurosis. In an attempt to mitigate the anxiety from that neurosis, it created ridiculously artificial and indefensible boundaries that make sense only to neurotic people who are not bright enough to figure out that our society is as misguided about sex as the people in 1692 and 1693 who believed in witches. If you want people of the future to laugh at you, just keep clinging to those bizarre taboos.

Why is the United States “such a nutty country when it comes to sex”?
— Dr. Marty Klein, in Imagine Sex Is Just Sex

Educated people know that the repressed sexual mores now prevalent in the U.S. are not found in all other cultures, past and present. For a glimpse into this difference, Google Lewis and Clark sex. Some of the sexual customs of the Native Americans encountered by Lewis and Clark during their expedition would raise the eyebrows of “free love,” drug-crazed hippies in the 1960s. Here's a sample, given credence by its NPR source:

National Geographic presented another tidbit: Lewis and Clark encountered native tribes whose men frequently offered their wives and daughters to the explorers.

The National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers presented an article, Sex and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of illuminating one aspect of how much sexual customs have changed. Of course, people are still very fond of sex. In a Playboy interview, Meghan McCain said:

“I'm not a lesbian, if that's what you're asking. I'd be the first person to tell the world I was gay. I'm not private about anything. I think you should live how you should live. But I'm strictly dickly. I can't help it. I love sex and I love men.”

Who doesn't love sex? Children, and adults with significant medical problems. The loss of libido that occurs with aging is not an inevitable result of it, but a manifestation of various diseases and conditions, most of which can be corrected. Years after I first said that, cutting-edge researchers are finding proof that I was correct.

“What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.”
Voltaire

Just as doctors must know very well what symptoms such as coughing and chest pain might signal, doctors should also know that various sexual problems can (and often are) just the tip of the iceberg of medical problems that might otherwise never be solved, or might not be addressed until it is too late. However, whether the problem is a loss of libido, a loss of sensation, sensation that starts OK and quickly fizzles out, abbreviated (too short) orgasms, or orgasms that don't knock your socks off, too many docs don't know what to do other than prescribing Viagra® or some drug like it, even though they rarely are appropriate therapy. Many cases of erectile dysfunction can be treated naturally, without expensive prescription drugs with potentially serious side effects. So if Media Matters and the fools who fall for their foolishness think they can shame me for knowing more about sex and writing about it to help people whose doctors need more education, they can think again.

Bill O'Reilly launched a “campaign to hold the smear merchants accountable [because they] have been using personal attacks and smears to try to marginalize people with whom they disagree.”

Media Matters did their best to make sex seem like a radioactive topic, thinking that conservatives are so allergic to that subject they would tune me out. Their tactic is backfiring: my messages are resonating with more people than ever—people tired of reading the same old pundits rehashing the same old ideas. I offer fresh perspectives on everything I write about: from sex to enhancing brainpower to economics and much more.

Far-Left liberals do not understand conservatives. They view them as simple creatures with brains the size of a pea. Smart people know that greater knowledge and openness to sex can strengthen marriages and reduce the divorce rate, so they don't break out in hives when doctors discuss sex. When I asked a patient the secret to her youthfulness (she was 98 but looked 60), she smiled and said, “Great sex!” While treating an elderly celebrity patient, out of the blue he revealed to me the secret to a long and happy marriage: never be a prude.

“Wasting time on prudish ridiculousness takes away from solving real problems.”
Dannielle Kyrillos on The Big Idea Show

Of course, the prudish ridiculousness stemming from Media Matters isn't motivated by umbrage over a doctor discussing sex. Instead, it is yet another attempt to divert attention away from politicians who are destroying our country.

Cognizant of the importance of sex in marriage, some churches sponsor weekend retreats in which couples learn to spice up their sex lives.

I turned my radio on last summer and found that a friend had tuned it to a Christian radio station. The host and guests were frankly and unabashedly talking about the importance of sex in a marriage. Their discussion was refreshingly open and mature; they and the callers were clearly smart people who embraced the natural role of sex as a way to bond men and women together for a lifetime of commitment.

These folks were too intelligent and mature to fall for the smear tactics used by Media Matters. Despite what they say, they aren't interested in the truth—only in what works to help them achieve their objectives of helping politicians erode our freedom and paychecks.

We live in an era of Pulitzer Prizes for fake news, and even after the lies are revealed, the liars double down on their lies (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

“Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
H. L. Mencken, In Defense of Women (1918)

Media Matters did their best to make it seem that talking about sex was as shocking as talking about roasting small children over a fire. Their fake shock over a doctor writing about sex—one of the med school topics—is so transparently phony they must think their readers are gullible or stupid. Or both.

No one with at least a room-temperature IQ would be surprised to learn that Media Matters didn't go ape when Bill Clinton posed with porn stars, or got a blowjob in the Oval Office from a young intern, Monica Lewinsky, which generated notoriety that arguably ruined her life—something the older and presumably wiser President Clinton could have foreseen and prevented had he kept his marital vows. What bothers them isn't sex, or using young people as sexual objects to be discarded, or breaking marital vows; what bothers them is anyone who dares to disagree with them politically.

Walter Cronkite, once often considered the most trusted man in America, reportedly “committed unethical, biased no-nos that would get him fired these days” and got “into a bit of, er, manly mischief,” including a visit to an “infamous topless bar.” He was “much more liberal than TV viewers would have thought,” so double-standard-loving liberals give him a pass even though his alleged personal and professional indiscretions made Nixon seem ethical.

If Media Matters were truly as aghast as they purport to be about sex books, they might focus on a book used by many school districts, What's the Big Secret?: Talking about Sex with Girls and Boys. That book was put into schools by liberal educators, not parents clamoring for overly explicit and age-inappropriate discussions of sex.

Parental objections to that book and ones like it over the years reveal a recurring theme: liberal educators pushing their sexual agenda by prematurely introducing children to sexual information that I and most parents think is not essential for kids in elementary school, such as telling them that when a man puts his penis into a vagina, “it feels wonderful”—which might make kids eager to experience that wonderful feeling. In my opinion, kids know too much about sex and adults know too little. I do my part to remedy that by not selling my books to children and by giving adults information that can magnify their sexual pleasure and health—what's good for sex is often also good for health, mood, intelligence, and creativity.

When liberals push sex books for kids yet go bonkers with manufactured outrage when a doctor writes about sex for a mature and intelligent adult audience, it is yet another sign of liberal hypocrisy. Media Matters is thus helping to tarnish the reputation of liberals, making them easy targets for conservatives who mock their judgment.

As I mentioned in another article, an affinity for sex didn't stop Albert Einstein and other brilliant thinkers from making this world a better place, but one needn't be a Nobel Prize winner to realize that sex is an integral part of life that can and should be intelligently discussed to make one of life's greatest pleasures even better.

Here is a challenge to the smug smear merchants*: Read what I wrote about how sex is part of medicine, and then:

  1. Refute my claim that better doctors know more about every branch of medicine, including sex and
  2. Persuade me that intelligent and sophisticated people should adhere to the ridiculously artificial and indefensible boundaries I discussed and
  3. Explain why it makes sense for our culture to be so tolerant of sex when it is exploited by corporations hoping to profit from us, but why it makes sense for our culture to be so uneasy with the kind of sex that strengthens marriages and makes babies.

Too much work for $100,000? OK, I'll give $300,000 to the first person who can satisfactorily respond to the above challenges.

* Or anyone else who disagrees with me.

In my life, I've seen how hate, intolerance, and bias often stem from a lack of education and a reluctance to see things from another's point of view. Arthur H. R. Fairchild said:

“The most distinctive mark of a cultured mind is the ability to take another's point of view; to put one's self in another's place, and see life and its problems from a point of view different from one's own. To be willing to test a new idea; to be able to live on the edge of difference in all matters intellectually; to examine without heat the burning question of the day; to have imaginative sympathy, openness and flexibility of mind, steadiness and poise of feeling, cool calmness of judgment, is to have culture.”

Why is the supposedly tolerant Left so shockingly intolerant? Could it be they are not as cultured as they purport to be?

“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.”
Voltaire

I agree with liberals on several issues, but I am aghast at their frequent intolerance and bigotry.

bigot (noun): (1) a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing opinion, belief, or creed; (2) a person who is obstinately intolerant of any ideas other than his or her own, especially on politics or religion, and has animosity toward those of differing beliefs.

The far Left is so bigoted that they often manifest effusive incandescent animosity toward those with different beliefs, such as myself, and they are so desperate to score cheap political points that they are willing to lie through their teeth. For example, Media Matters grossly distorted my opinion on Native Americans by writing that I claimed they “should have been grateful for their subjugation by whites.” That's absurd and a good example of their carelessness. I am part Native American, so to suggest that I or my ancestors should be grateful for their subjugation is pure lunacy. (Read more)

Media Matters was strangely silent after Jeffrey Toobin, chief legal analyst at leftist CNN, ‘exposed himself and masturbated during an election scenario exercise conducted via Zoom video call between New Yorker and WNYC radio staffers.’ Media Matters attempts to score political points by denouncing normal sexuality amongst conservatives yet ignores bizarre behavior from their political allies.

Bottom line: No normal adult has a problem with doctors discussing sex. My medical school professors knew that, and you do, too.

Related articles:

When will adults grow up, or wise up, regarding sex?

Liberals claim to be more tolerant and civil—but are they?


This is one part of a series of articles exploring how far-Left smear merchants use ad hominem attacks and character assassination when they can't substantively counter their opponents, which range from ordinary liberals to independents, libertarians, and conservatives. The far-Left is at war with the world, facts, and reality.

Notes:

  1. May 30, 2023: Low sexual satisfaction linked to memory decline later in life
    Based on: Erectile Function, Sexual Satisfaction, and Cognitive Decline in Men From Midlife to Older Adulthood
  2. Most young women unhappy, stressed about their sex lives: Study
  3. Scientific American: Ghostpartum: Why Many Women Don't Get Sexual Health Care They Need: The many factors that impact a woman’s ability and desire to have intercourse after giving birth are rarely addressed during a standard postpartum visit
  4. Erectile dysfunction associated with lower work productivity in men
  5. Men with erectile dysfunction may face higher risk of death
  6. Sex problems among middle-aged Canadians common, University of Guelph study reveals: University of Guelph researchers found nearly 40 per cent of women and almost 30 per cent of men between the ages of 40 and 59 face challenges in their sex lives.
  7. Parents, sex education begins at home
  8. Why sex becomes less satisfying with age: Study examines how intimate relationships, health, and psychological factors affect sexual intimacy and satisfaction in postmenopausal women
    Excerpt: “Only 3% of participants described positive sexual experiences …”
  9. Marcia Frellick writing for Medscape Medical News: Sex May Be Less Satisfying With Age, Too Few Women Seek Help
  10. Sexual satisfaction among older people about more than just health: Health care workers need to take holistic approach that considers lifestyles and needs when discussing sexual problems with older people
  11. Asking about your sex life isn't vulgar, it’s vital
  12. March 10, 2021: Young people need good sex education: This program in Mexico gets it right
  13. Active sexual life may benefit men with early Parkinson's disease
  14. Erectile dysfunction is red flag for silent early cardiovascular disease
  15. Erectile dysfunction means increased risk for heart disease, regardless of other risk factors
  16. The global prevalence of erectile dysfunction
    Excerpt: “… the global prevalence of erectile dysfunction vary widely, ranging from 3% to 76.5%. … Erectile dysfunction was linked with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and early death. The authors noted that early detection of erectile dysfunction may help improve quality of life in affected men, and also indicate when interventions may be warranted to prevent cardiovascular disease and early death.”
  17. Type 2 Diabetes Could Be a Cause of Erectile Dysfunction
  18. We need to talk about sexuality after stroke
  19. Doctors urged to recognize post-antidepressant sexual dysfunction
  20. A call for greater attention to older women's sexual health
    Excerpt: “A new Journal of the American Geriatrics Society article reviews common issues in caring for the sexual health of older women, noting that physicians often lack sufficient training.”
  21. Patients with immediate medical needs tend to perceive doctors as emotionless, study finds: The greater the need for care, the more likely patients view doctors as 'empty vessels'
  22. Sex hormone levels in blood linked to risk of sudden cardiac arrest
    Comment: Nothing is more serious than a heart attack. With blood sex hormone levels affecting whether you live or die, wouldn't you LOVE to know how to modify those levels? Most people don't know how to do that, and many doctors can't do anything except prescribe hormones.

    In contrast, my book is chock-full of information on how to modify the levels and effects of sex hormones, which (as I figured out long ago) affect not just your libido and risk of death but also your brainpower, mood, sleep, and personality both personally and professionally. If you want to get the most out of life, you must know this stuff. Adults learn about adult topics, and critical health information is certainly an adult topic all wise and responsible adults pursue.
  23. After the diagnosis: How cancer affects sexual functioning: UH study tracks prevalence of sexual dysfunction in young adult cancer patients
  24. At least 1 in 10 young people in Britain report a recent distressing sexual problem: Climaxing, erectile dysfunction and lack of interest in sex are main issues, with young people rarely seeking professional help
    Comment: The prevalence is significantly greater in older folks.
  25. Pamela Wible, MD: Be emotionally intimate with your patients
  26. Christine Stevens: Why Doctors Make the Best Lovers: They understand anatomy better than your average Joe or Joanne
  27. Fruit Flies With Better Sex Lives Live Longer
    Excerpt: “Sex may in fact be one of the secrets to good health, youth and a longer life … In this case, sexual rewards specifically promoted healthy aging.”
  28. Conversations On Sex Lacking Between Doctors, Teens
  29. Dr. Oz Gives Governors Sex Advice
  30. All Healthcare Professionals Need Training to Deal With the Sexual Needs of Patients, Study Finds
  31. July 20, 2021: Health care providers missing opportunities to talk about sexual health with young people: Less than one-third of adolescents report conversations about sexual health during annual visits
  32. An example of how sexual inhibitions harm patients: Many people (including at least one Member of Congress) have written about the link between Accutane and depression that may end in suicide. If you take it, Accutane may also devastate your sex life by decimating libido, sexual pleasure, and performance, in addition to causing pain with intercourse. I personally discovered the negative sexual effects of Accutane in the 1980s and wrote about it, as many people now do in various Internet forums. Countless men and women wrote to me, describing how Accutane ruined their sex lives. Not all cases of Accutane-induced depression stem from sexual problems triggered by it, but many do. Isn't it odd (and sad) that we're free in this culture to discuss depression but not something (sexual problems) that causes it?

    The number of people writing about what Accutane did to their sex lives is just the tip of the iceberg. It isn't easy to discuss sexual problems, even with doctors. It took me years to summon the courage to see doctors, hoping they'd have a solution for what Accutane did to me. They didn't, so I spent many years researching this topic, acquiring information that grew into a book, The Science of Sex, that can help everyone, even people suffering from Accutane, have better sex lives. I posted a related article, Why I wrote The Science of Sex.
  33. Bloomberg Businessweek: The Truth About Sex at Work
  34. Majority of women report sexual dysfunction after childbirth
  35. From the best of craigslist in Seattle: A woman who describes herself as a “raging feminist” candidly discusses what she and other women want in the bedroom. Imagine the reaction from Media Matters if she were a conservative who said something they didn't like.
  36. Media Matters Sucks
  37. Another example of how desperate Media Matters is to discredit people who disagree with them.
  38. Sex leads entrepreneurs who think and grow rich: “the energy of the libido is often channeled by successful people to focus on achieving specific goals, creative, political, entrepreneurial or otherwise.”
  39. Entrepreneurs Are Difficult At Best And Abrasive at Worst — Get Over It
  40. Albert Einstein had something in common with other super geniuses: a strong libido. See above.
  41. Research article: Associations of Unhealthy Lifestyle Factors with Sexual Inactivity and Sexual Dysfunctions in Denmark and a discussion of it.
  42. America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty by Marty Klein, Ph.D.; here's an interesting commentary/review of it by David R. Farthing
  43. People make better food choices at home than when eating out.
  44. Declining Testosterone Levels in Men Not Part of Normal Aging
  45. Older Age Does Not Cause Testosterone Levels to Decline in Healthy Men
  46. Erectile Dysfunction: A Possible Warning Sign of Serious Disease
  47. Erectile Dysfunction Gives Early Warning Of A Heart Attack, Warns Expert
  48. Men With Erectile Dysfunction At More Risk Of Heart Attack
  49. Younger Men With Erectile Dysfunction At Double Risk Of Heart Disease
  50. One in Four Patients With Newly-Diagnosed Erectile Dysfunction Is a Young Man based on One Patient Out of Four with Newly Diagnosed Erectile Dysfunction Is a Young Man—Worrisome Picture from the Everyday Clinical Practice
  51. Erectile Dysfunction and Increased Dangers of Cardiovascular Disease
  52. Erectile dysfunction can be reversed without medication
  53. When Erectile Dysfunction Isn't Whole Story
  54. Increasing Severity of Erectile Dysfunction Is a Marker for Increasing Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Death based on Erectile Dysfunction Severity as a Risk Marker for Cardiovascular Disease Hospitalization and All-Cause Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study
  55. Frequent Sex Protects Marital Happiness for Neurotic Newlyweds based on Frequent Sex Protects Intimates From the Negative Implications of Their Neuroticism
  56. Shyness Negatively Affects Marital Quality based on Shyness and Marriage: Does Shyness Shape Even Established Relationships?
  57. In Sex, Happiness Hinges On Keeping Up With the Joneses based on Sex and the Pursuit of Happiness: How Other People’s Sex Lives are Related to our Sense of Well-Being
  58. Heart Health Matters to Your Brain based on The influence of subclinical cardiovascular disease and related risk factors on cognition in type 2 diabetes mellitus: The DHS-Mind study
  59. Study Finds 63% of Women Report Sexual Problems, With Orgasm Proving Biggest Issue in Teens and 20s based on Female sexual dysfunction in urological patients: findings from a major metropolitan area in the USA
    Comment: Female sexual dysfunction is highly prevalent but most doctors—including urologists and gynecologists—don't know even half of what they should know to optimally help patients.
  60. 70 Percent of Women Likely to Experience Sexual Problems After Breast Cancer, Study Finds
  61. Many women diagnosed with cancer have sexual health concerns based on A comprehensive review of sexual health concerns after cancer treatment and the biopsychosocial treatment options available to female patients
  62. Sexually Satisfied Women Have Better General Well-Being, Study Finds
  63. Study Ties Bone Marrow Transplant to Negative Sexual Side Effects based on Longitudinal trajectory of sexual functioning after hematopoietic cell transplantation: impact of chronic graft vs. host disease and total body irradiation.
  64. Sexual Function Dramatically Improves in Women Following Bariatric Surgery based on Changes in Sexual Functioning and Sex Hormone Levels in Women Following Bariatric Surgery
  65. Sexual Function Improves Significantly After Hip or Knee Replacement Surgery, Research Finds
  66. Medscape Medical News article: Dramatic Change in Sexual Behaviors
  67. 13 Stars Who Started As Strippers (list includes Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Carmen Electra)
  68. Infertility is a warning: Poor semen quality linked to hypertension, other health problems
  69. Acute Effects of Nicotine on Physiological and Subjective Sexual Arousal in Nonsmoking Men: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial
  70. Stop complaining about the moral decline of western society, expert says
    Summary: “Morality is not declining in the modern world. Instead, a new morality is replacing the previous one. Centered on individual self-fulfillment, and linked to administrative government, it permits things the old morality forbid, like sex for pleasure, but forbids things the old morality allowed, like intolerance and equality of opportunity.”
    Comment: I think they mean INequality of opportunity.
  71. Almost 1/3 of infertile men at increased risk of metabolic diseases as they age
  72. Scientists discover microbiome that may be responsible for male reproductive disorders: Bacteria harbored in the male reproductive system may be responsible for prostatitis, a precursor for prostate cancer, and later health disorders in offspring
  73. Underestimated burden: Epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s impair sexuality
The views expressed on this page may or may not reflect my current opinions, nor do they necessarily represent my past ones. After reading a slice of what I wrote in my various websites and books, you may conclude that I am a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican. Wrong; there is a better alternative. Just as the primary benefit from debate classes results when students present and defend opinions contrary to their own, I use a similar strategy as a creative writing tool to expand my brainpower—and yours. Mystified? Stay tuned for an explanation. PS: The wheels in your head are already turning a bit faster, aren't they?

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Reference: Imagining dialogue can boost critical thinking: Excerpt: “Examining an issue as a debate or dialogue between two sides helps people apply deeper, more sophisticated reasoning …”

Comments (3)

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Comment #145 by Laura • Website: www.twitter.com/LauraStraightUp
March 1 2011 03:40:44 AM

If you have a brain, that media doesn't matter

Sorry I couldn't refute any of your three propositions. I was actually a journalism major, eons ago, when integrity, truth, and a lack of bias were credos for journalists.

I guess if I worked for Media that doesn't Matter, (which only makes me regret not pursuing my major as a career less) I could come up with some twisted double speak biased and disseminating misinformation with a blatant lack of common sense. The audience they reach with any impact aren't people you want to treat anyhow. Robots should be treated by a mechanic, someone who can bend, twist, and melt down metal just fine.

Comment #144 by Laura • Website: www.twitter.com/LauraStraightUp
March 1 2011 03:21:24 AM

Three Questions

I think the second question regarding "bedside manner" should be addressed first. You are so right—patients, no matter how naive they may appear will no doubt pick up on disingenuous vibes or inauthenticity by their doctor. It doesn't matter if that doctor knows every aspect of psychiatric or physiological pathology possible to occur in any human, if the doctor seems to be more of a robot than a human being, the patient will not be receptive to whatever treatment, no matter the degree of consequence, a level of trust needs to be established, devoid of any creepiness whatsoever. In fact a robotic, phony doctor can create more dissonance and actually hinder a patient's healing due to emotional conditioning. Healing is mind, body, and soul, and like a placebo effect, working on the patient's subconscious, the same would apply with a patient who would feel the doctor's inauthenticity at a subconscious level. So yes, you're absolutely on the money about even the smartest most adept and capable doctors are best not shutting themselves off emotionally opting for the fake robot they might think they're better off putting up front. No degree can make an emotionally dead doctor come alive. Those types are better off in research, development, and/or teaching. The ones who shut themselves down wittingly need to snap out of it. Although some of them may be afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which would make them virtually incapable of feeling empathy and couldn't if they wanted to. I'm sure you've run across those a dime a dozen.

Your widespread, vast knowledge is pretty rare, yet priceless for a patient to find. If you have a grasp of personality disorders, which you obviously do, but don't use it to judge, knowing those disorders come from pain in early developmental years, they also affect physical health because of the tendency for the emotionally unstable to use and/or abuse substances or engage in dangerous behaviors, which comes to the sex thing.

YES! In our society, where sex is all over the place, used to sell everything, and promiscuity is rampant, you'd think there'd be an open-mindedness about sex, and it's importance to our overall health. Women are supposed to be demure, wait to have sex, most likely with their husband, or someone they're considering marriage with. At the same time we all know that's a bunch of bunk. Women are called sluts and whores if they enjoy sex. From society's point of view, this is the attitude, what happens behind closed and some not so closed doors is a different story. People don't like to talk about it clinically, or about the health issues, yet a lot of times those are the ones who are out trolling for trannys and hookers to satisfy their strange fetishes. I'm just saying, those lefty losers are the ones we see on the news busted for taking part in some freak sex show that brings scandal and shame upon them.

Then there are the balanced people, comfortable in their skin, their sexuality, and have the ability to talk about sex because it's as natural a need as it is to sustain life with food, which is why we have that hunger thing to remind us to eat. The libido, sex drive, whatever we call it, is nature's call to keep the species going, time to reproduce, and the drive is there as is the pleasure for a reason, to maintain our species.

Sex is an integral part of health, and those freakos who get squeamish over it and use it as a tool to slam a doctor is pathetic and poses a very weak position (no pun) on their end. Knowing my doctor had a well-rounded knowledge for all aspects of health, including sex would only help in fostering a comfortable rapport that wouldn't call for a need to be fake or robotic, from the doctor or patient.

It's a shame a patient would wait so long to get treated for something obviously very serious because of a sexually repressed doctor. I understand about that because my mother had serious issues with sexuality and completely ignored me when I told her I got my period, made me feel dirty, and treated me different. Her issues were so bad that she refused to take me to the appropriate doctor when I was going through puberty. I was mortified to have to keep seeing my pediatrician, who seemed only to enable her issues by not forcing her to take me to the age-appropriate doctor in my town. She was fanatical, strangely enough about my dentistry. My teeth were perfect, but her daughter becoming a woman wasn't happening on her watch. I have to admit it's kept me from getting checkups like I should, and I've already had to have surgery on my ovaries, luckily because my doctor, a man, who had a well-rounded knowledge about the human body and sexuality referred me to his wife's Ob-Gyn office. His knowledge, as an internist, (G.P.) was enhanced, and because of that fact, I had a potentially harmful growth removed from my ovaries. So screw the shady squeamish slammers, you've got it down, Doctor Pezzi.

Comment #139 by Jessica Schmidt
Contact the commenter via MySpamSponge: schmidty Contact this person via MySpamSponge
February 20 2011 10:38:49 PM

Hey Dr. Pezzi,

I saw the article where Media Matters totally smeared you. I have to tell you when I did see it, it made me pretty angry! I agree fully with you that they do sound like immature children. I was half tempted to leave a comment telling them to GROW UP!

I haven't read your book "The Science of Sex" yet. But I do know it will be awesome because I know and all your other friends know, how intelligent and open you are!

It just shocks me how they can mock you like that. I guess that just goes to show you how feeble-minded Media Matters is!

We all know how smart our Dr.Pezzi is! :)

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