Every day, it seems we’re getting a new health product flung in our faces.  All these advertisers and “experts” are telling us we need to eat this, drink that, or add some new supplement to our diet in order to live a long, healthy life (and maybe even drop a few pounds while we’re at it!).

But which of these products are really worth the cash?  In this series, we’ll take a look at some common products that promise health or beauty or weight loss and use some solid research to let you know if you should buy them or not.  This week’s product:

Protein Drinks

Want defined abs?  Huge biceps?  Toned legs?

All this and more is yours if you drop by your local health food store and pick up a container of protein drink mix, according to protein drink companies.

But is it true?

New research from Colorado State University says yes, buy this product.

After following study participants for a period of six weeks, researchers found that drinking protein drinks after exercising – in comparison to carbohydrate drinks – led to the formation of more new muscle structures in the body.

Now, the key words here are “after exercise.”  Protein drinks alone aren’t going to give you muscles – in fact, the calorie-packed drinks may just lead to weight gain.

But if you are working out, and this includes aerobic activity and weight lifting, then look into buying this product, which can help maximize the postive effects of exercise and keep your muscles healthy as you age.

“If you want to age gracefully, this study shows that proteins taken after exercise keep your muscles strong and fit,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. “You’ve got to feed your body with the proper nutrients after a work-out. Fortunately, protein shakes are cheap, readily available and some say taste good.”

Recommended buys: Look for protein shake mixes with Whey or Casein.

An unhealthy lifestyle could put men at risk for sexual dysfunction, according to a new study.

Several factors associated with an unhealthy lifestyle, such as weight problems, physical inactivity, high alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking and hard drugs appear to be associated with sexual dysfunctions.

Additionally, unhealthy lifestyles are more common among persons who are sexually inactive.

Danish researchers analyzed survey data from over 5,500 men and women to study the association between lifestyle factors, sexual inactivity and sexual dysfunction.

They found that unhealthy lifesty factors are associated with an increased risk of sexual inactivity by up to 78 percent in men and 91 percent in women.

Meanwhile, the risk of experiencing sexual dysfunction was up to 71 percent greater in overweight men, and more than 800 percent greater in men who used hard drugs.

The researchers also found that women who used hashish had a risk nearly three times greater of anorgasmia – not being able to reach climax during sexual activity – than non-hashish users.

“Hopefully our findings can be used in future counseling of patients with unhealthy lifestyles,” said lead researcher Professor Morten Frisch, MD, PhD, DSc, of Statens Serum Institute. “Knowing about possible negative consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle to one’s sexual health may help people quit smoking, consume less alcohol, exercise more, and lose weight.”

The study was published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Patients who suffer from chronic chest pain may benefit from an injection of stem cells into the heart, according to a new study.

Currently 850,000 Americans have chest pains that do not subside even with medicine, angioplasty or surgery, researchers say.

However, results from an experimental treatment indicate that stem cell injections can reduce the number of chest pain episodes by half, as well as improve exercise capability in those patients.

The study was the first randomized, controlled trial of stem-cell therapy to show significant improvements in both chest pain and exercise tolerance – which are both affected negatively by refractory angina, or chronic chest pain.

“One exciting potential of this procedure is that it will offer these folks an opportunity to get part of their lives back,” said Douglas Losordo, M.D., lead researcher and professor of medicine and director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Researchers used patients’ CD34+ stem cells, which circulate through the blood and play a role in forming new blood vessels.

In the study, 167 patients at 26 U.S. medical centers were randomized to one of three injection groups: low dose (100,000 CD34+ cells/kg body weight); high dose (500,000 CD34+ cells/kg body weight); or a placebo.

Using a catheter threaded into the heart, the researchers then injected the cells into muscle identified as receiving insufficient blood.  The injection was meant to create new vessels in the diseased heart muscle to improve blood flow to the area and reduce pain.

They found that a year after treatment, the low-dose group had about half as many episodes of chest pain as the placebo group.  They were also able to tolerate double the amount of exercise.

“It translates as going from being able to watch television to being able to walk at a normal pace or going from being able to walk slowly to being able to ride a bike,” Losordo said.

The study was published in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that add up.

According to new research, simple, daily activities such as walking to the photocopier and fidgeting while sitting a desk can improve cardiorespiratory fitness.

Of course, as with all exercise, duration and intensity of the physical activities are related to their effectiveness, with intensity being particularly important.

Just a 30-minute increase in moderate physical activity can offer significant benefits for fitness and long term health, the researchers said.

“It’s encouraging to know that if we just increase our incidental activity slightly, we can really benefit our health in the long-term,” said Ashlee McGuire, lead researcher and a graduate student in the Canadian School of Kinesiology and Health Studies.

“Best of all,” she added, “these activities don’t take up a lot of time, they’re not difficult to do, and you don’t have to go to a gym.”

Other incidental activities, besides fidgeting, include doing housework, climbing stairs, or walking around the office.

However, the researchers said, it is still important to keep up healthy diet and exercise habits in order to combat obesity and improve general health.

The study was published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Male bodies are increasingly objectified by mass media, but a new study indicates that boys seem to be taking it in stride.

While television personalities like Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino are celebrated for their chiseled abs, the study found that most boys simply want an average physique – not too heavy nor too small, and not too muscular nor too weak.

“Not all boys aspire to have lean, muscular or idealized male bodies that are commonplace in popular culture,” said Moss Norman, who led the study.

Norman reported that most boys involved in the study were actually very critical of the idealized male physiques presented in the media.

“They found it problematic, feminine or vain to be overly concerned with appearances,” Norman said. “Sculpted bodies were seen as unnatural, the product of steroids or zealous weight-lifting.”

A total of 32 boys, aged 13 to 15, were recruited in the study, which lasted for nine months and included four in-depth interviews and 19 focus groups.

The discussions centered on male bodies, health, diet and physical activity. Participants were also asked to comment on pop culture images, such as Homer Simpson and shirtless models featured in Bowflex home gym commercials.

The researchers said one of the biggest surprises from the study was how comfortable the boys were in expressing, analyzing and comparing bodies — their own, their peers’ and those ideals depicted by media.

“Although they felt pressure to be fit, they displayed a distant, disinterested and cool relationship to their bodies,” Norman said. “Some participants also admitted to desiring particular masculine ideals and working on their bodies to achieve such idealized forms.”

The researchers added that despite the encouraging findings, the results did not mean that boys were free of body image issues. The boys in the study expressed concern over everything from height to obesity to skin complexion.

“Being overweight was seen as undesirable and associated with a sedentary, immoral lifestyle,” said Norman.

To deal with image concerns, the majority of study participants saw sports as a fun and masculine way to build muscle and manage calories.

“They felt sports could naturally produce a healthier, fitter and more attractive man,” said Norman. “Sports are used to deflect, obscure and erase their bodily anxieties and desires.”

The study was published in the journal Men and Masculinity.

Normally, when people discuss the benefits of exercise, they focus on how it affects the body physically – stronger muscles, trimmer stomach, and so forth.

However, a new study suggests a good aerobic workout may actually have mental benefits as well.

Researchers have demonstrated that regularly engaging in aerobic exercise can increase the size of the hippocampus, which is important for memory and spatial navigation, in adults ages 55 to 80, and perhaps even shave the risk of dementia.

The hippocampus tends to shrink in size as people age, which can negatively affect memory.

For the study, researchers recruited 120 older people who did not exercise on a regular basis and randomly assigned them to one of two programs: either an aerobic exercise program, in which participants walked around a track for 40 minutes three days a week, or a stretching-and-weights program.

The group assigned to the aerobic exercise program showed a volume increase of 2.12 percent in the left hippocampus and 1.97 percent in the right hippocampus.  Meanwhile, the group assigned to the stretching program decreased in hippocampus volume by 1.40 percent on the left and 1.43 percent on the right.

The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.