Word: biked
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...call him Joe. Like a lot of kids, he learned to ride a bike when he was 5 or 6. By his 20s, Joe was cycling 10 or more hours a week. He noticed an uncomfortable numbness in his genital area from time to time, particularly after long rides. But Joe didn't think much of it until he started having trouble maintaining an erection. A trip to the urologist's office confirmed that Joe's impotence was primarily a physical problem--not enough blood was flowing into his penis. Could years of bike riding somehow be to blame...
Absolutely, says Joe's physician, Dr. Irwin Goldstein, a professor of urology and gynecology at the Boston University School of Medicine. Since 1997, Goldstein has been warning cyclists that hours of sitting on a bike saddle can create enough pressure on the perineum, the area between the anus and the pubic bone, to permanently damage the artery that supplies blood to the penis. On the basis of a study of several thousand men in a Boston riding club, Goldstein believes that as many as 4% of male cyclists have problems with impotence due to cycling...
Further evidence of a possible link is reported this week in the Journal of Andrology. The admittedly small study examined 17 police officers on bike patrol and compared the pressure on various parts of their saddles with the number and duration of their erections during sleep. Those who cycled the most and were subjected to the greatest perineal pressure had the fewest and shortest erections. "The bicycle seat nose appears to be the biggest problem," says the study's lead author, Steven Schrader, a reproductive physiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health...
Another baby-boomer biker is dentist Steven Bobbe, 55, of Melrose Park, Ill. "Driving my car, even for a couple of hours, puts me to sleep," says Bobbe. "But when I'm on my bike, I'm invigorated and can ride for days." Bobbe returned last month from a 2,300-mile round trip to Santa Fe, N.M., driving straight through on the way home...
...past five years alone, the number of people 50 or older taking motorcycle road trips has increased about 50%, notes Burt Richmond, tourmeister for Lotus Tours, a Chicago company that arranges motorcycling trips worldwide for groups of eight to 20. Lotus' service includes planning the routes, arranging for bike rentals, booking hotels, handling all luggage and even arranging seating during meals. The average domestic trip is 10 days and 1,800 miles and costs $3,500 to $4,200, not including airfare...