Although condoms are the safest method of protection against most STDs, men are not such big fans of them. They often blame them for being uncomfortable, difficult to fit, or for significantly decreasing the pleasure, so they often choose not to wear one. This is why ONE Condoms decided to design these indispensable tools into various shapes and sizes, so that they can fit on anyone without raising any difficulties.

Condoms can often be uncomfortable

Each man differs from each other from an anatomical point of view. Therefore, promoting condoms in a one-size-fits-all way is a bit difficult, since some men might feel uncomfortable. If they are better endowed than the average individual, they might find it difficult to wear a small condom. Even if it fits, it might be too tight, preventing the man from feeling any pleasure whatsoever.

However, the situation might work the other way around. The FDA regards condoms as medical devices, so it imposed some regulations on it. It required a length of at least 6.69, while the average dimension among Americans is 5.57. In case there remains some excessive material at the end of the condom, it can just be rolled. However, this is precisely why men find them uncomfortable, and often choose not to wear one.

Men can now choose from all shapes and sizes

Fortunately, ONE Condoms found a solution. The company designed a special line of products called myONE Perfect Fit, coming in a range of sizes varying from length and circumference. This line has 60 different sizes, which are not classified using inches. To avoid shaming, each type is described by means of letters and numbers.

Since the release of this condom line, the company has received an overwhelming amount of positive reviews. Over 90 percent of men who tried them were very happy with the results, and said they would definitely use them again.

All the typical discomfort associated with condom use was gone, and sex became a lot more enjoyable. Also, men were not the only ones excited about these condoms. Women were happy to see their partners willing to use protection, and to share the contraception responsibility.
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A recent study comes with bad news for women. It seems men find bromances a lot more emotionally rewarding than any kind of relationship they have with their girlfriends and wives. Most women sometimes feel they come second in the lives of their partners, so researchers have decided to delve into the problem and find an answer to this question.

Men feel less judged by their male friends

Bromances are relationships between two men, and are characterized by close friendship and a deep emotional connection. Since most men value these relationships more than the romantic connections they have with their partners, researchers developed a study on the matter.

It seems the secret lies in openness and less judgment. Men have reported feeling less judged by their male friends than by their female girlfriends and wives. Also, they feel better with expressing their feelings in front of other men than in front of their partners.

Over the past few years, bromances have been regarded as less fulfilling than friendships between two women. This happened because the general conception claimed men couldn’t reach the same level of intimacy between themselves.

People no longer see bromances as homosexual relationships

However, these relationships have changed a lot lately. The social constraints are now less rigid. Therefore, men feel now more comfortable with expressing their love and affection towards a male friend without fearing they might be seen as gay.

For the study, published in the journal Men & Masculinities, researchers interviewed 30 male undergraduates regarding their bromances. Twenty-eight of them declared they felt more comfortable talking about emotional problems with their male friends than with their female partners.

Mostly, this happens because of fear of judgment. Usually, women have high expectations of men, and most participants admitted being afraid of saying something wrong, which might damage their romantic relationship. In bromances, they feel more relaxed, and can be as honest as it gets in front of their friends.
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Apart from dozens of benefits of reading, researchers have discovered a new one which might help your children from a social point of view. They found out reading could transcend the cultural boundaries, leading to people feeling empathy towards one another regardless of the language they were reading, or the social differences between them.

Reading increases the sense of empathy

For the study, researchers from the University of Southern California had people read in three different languages, while performing brain scans on them. This is how they noticed certain patterns get activated in the brain when they find a meaningful story, and the patterns are the same regardless of the language.

The participants read stories in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Farsi. Then, researchers performed functional magnetic resonance imaging to analyze the patterns and responses of the brain forming while reading the narrative. This is how they found out stories developed a higher sense of empathy towards others, as well as more pronounced self-awareness.

The brain responses were the same in all languages

We cannot deny there are huge differences between languages, even when they are related. Therefore, certain sentences might be read in a different way, or similar words might offer completely new meanings. Even so, the brain processes stories in the same way, even when they got translated from one language to another.

Researchers collected over 20 million stories posted on blogs and, using a software, they managed to narrow all the ideas down to 40 individual stories on heartbreak and lies. Then, they translated them into Farsi and Mandarin Chinese, and gave then to 90 people from America, Iran, and China to read. At the same time, these people had fMRI scans performed on their brains.

By reversing the process based on thorough text analysis and the responses of the brain, they managed to tell which story the participants were reading while they were doing this. This worked for all languages, showing absolutely no difference when the initial words got translated. Therefore, reading might be the ultimate bonding tool the entire world needs.
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Electronic cigarette use might be an effective way to help people quit smoking. However, a recent report showed that not everybody might succeed in quitting by using this method. E-cigs might work perfectly for some people, while others might find themselves failing to quit.

Electronic cigarette use is related to smoking cessation

Researchers analyzed the results of a survey which analyzed the situation of over 24,500 former or current smokers, who either succeeded or failed to give up on this habit. This is the biggest sample ever used in a study of smokers, and offers the most relevant evidence in favor of electronic cigarette use as a method of quitting.

Researchers recommend smokers to switch to electronic cigarettes and find themselves no longer willing to smoke real cigarettes. However, this method has a catch, as it might not work for everybody. All successes are strongly related to the incidence of electronic cigarette use. For instance, each day of smoking an e-cig increases the chances of success by 10 percent.

Smokers have to be persistent with e-cigs to succeed in their quitting attempt

Also, the sooner one tries to quit smoking, the more chances one has to be successful. If a person smoked electronic cigarettes sometime in the past, he is less likely to actually succeed with quitting. However, if he used this method over the past month, his attempt could actually get successful.

Also, in the survey, researchers looked at which electronic cigarettes are more effective. They don’t necessarily have to contain more nicotine, but to be able to deliver the existent nicotine to the body so that the smoker doesn’t need a real cigarette.

Therefore, electronic cigarette use is really an effective method against smoking. If people fail to quit while using other methods, consistently using e-cigarettes significantly increases their chances to cease smoking for good. The analysis of the survey has been published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
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A recent study developed by a team of Australian researchers suggests gluten intolerance is often misdiagnosed. It seems that only one person in six is actually intolerant to the wheat protein, and changing their diet after this condition might have severe consequences for those people who don’t have to refrain from consuming this ingredient.

Gluten-free diets are promoted as a healthy alternative

Nowadays, many people have started adopting gluten-free diets, as it is promoted as healthier and full of benefits. However, kicking out the wheat protein from your food is not the best choice if you aren’t truly intolerant. Many people claim to experience bloating and other symptoms of celiac disease if they consume the ingredient.

Most of these symptoms are visible in people when they know something they have eaten contains gluten. If they are not aware of the ingredients of the food in question, only one percent of these people experience adverse effects. In fact, most of them don’t even receive an official diagnosis.

Kicking out gluten from your diet without being intolerant can have serious consequences

Despite not knowing for sure if they have celiac disease or not, these people start monitoring the quantity of gluten they ingest every day, and significantly reduce it. What they are not aware of is the fact that this behavior can seriously affect them if they aren’t actually intolerant.

This happens mostly because gluten-free products do not always contain the same nutrients as their counterparts which contain the wheat protein. The lack of these substances might lead to the increase of cholesterol, blood pressure, the decrease of the tolerance to glucose, and massive weight gain.

If the health risks were not enough, researchers also revealed the price also differs. A previous study showed gluten-free food costs about 17 percent more than regular food. This can also contribute to the belief that avoiding the protein is beneficial for one’s health. However, people are not advised to do it if they don’t really have symptoms of celiac disease.

All the results of the study have been published in The Medical Journal of Australia.
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Have you ever found yourself craving for a sweet treat immediately after having a cup of coffee? If the answer is yes, then you should blame the popular beverage for it. Researchers have discovered how coffee temporarily affects our taste buds and sense of taste, making sweet foods seem less sweet. This also makes us crave them more, making the caffeinated drink unsuitable to consume during diets.

Caffeine affects our perceiving of sweetness

What caffeine does is to suppress the adenosine receptors, which are associated with sleepiness. This leads to people becoming more alert, but at a cost. Researchers found out how caffeine also affects our taste receptors, changing the way in which we perceive sweet foods. Eating such foods immediately after coffee will make them seem less sweet, and will make us crave them more.

Researchers developed a study in which they analyzed the influence of coffee on how people perceived sweetness. The study, found in the Journal of Food Science, looked at two different groups of people who received drinks with different caffeine levels.

Coffee also works as a placebo

The first group had to drink a decaffeinated drink with 200 milligrams of additional caffeine, to make it consistent with the typical coffee standards. On the other hand, the other group received regular decaffeinated coffee. Both beverages contained the same amount of sugar, but those who drank the caffeinated sample found it less sweet.

Then, these people had to tell how alert they felt, and to approximate how much caffeine their drinks had. All of them showed the same level of activeness, even if they hadn’t had caffeinated coffee. Also, none of them could make any difference between the drinks.

Therefore, researchers came to the conclusion that the action of drinking coffee might work as a placebo. The levels of caffeine are not important, as long as the drink has a certain flavor and taste. If you think you are drinking coffee, you are already more alert and feel less sleepy.
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