Though weakfish can be hooked from a boat without much trouble, there’s nothing like standing on a mid-river sandbar and feeling that signature thunk as the fish grabs the lure. Unlike many other sport-fishing targets, weakfish are not great fighters. So it was that I was certain I’d hooked a tire or big hunk of weeds as I stood chest-deep in the river yanking gently to free my snagged hook.

The walk/slog/swim from the sandbar to the beach was a long one, particularly as I was dragging a weight that got heavier with every step. When I hit the sand and gave a final yank, I was rewarded with the satisfying sound of a four-pounder hitting the beach alongside me.

Weakfish and their close cousins have a lifespan of up to 17 years, which makes over-fishing a near impossibility. Their long reproductive life allows for quick recovery of the species in their habitat. The down side is that large fish are a rarity. It takes many years for a weakfish to reach its maximum of 32 inches and 11 pounds, so trophies are hard to come by. But for the sheer sport of it—and great eating, to boot—weakfishing is one of New Jersey’s little-known sporting treasures.

Embryonic cells result from the creation and destruction of embryos. This immediately makes many people uneasy. The hope is that by destroying embryos, these embryonic stem cells will be able save lives in the future in the form of treatments for diseases. But this is not a black and white issue.
Patient’s groups are eager to believe in an instant cure whenever a new stem cell development is announcement when, in truth, no one can say exactly when – or if – a viable treatment will ever happen.

If, like some religious organisations, you believe that life begins at the moment of conception then the collection of embryonic cells involves ending a potential life after specifically creating that life in the first place. Is this the way we want our society to view human life? The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority believe the ethical argument has already been decided because during IVF treatments excess fertilised embryos are stored and usually, after a period of time, destroyed. This is allowed by law. How is the collection of embryonic stem cells any different?

I believe there is a difference. Creating embryos for IVF treatments has one aim: to produce a healthy child for an infertile couple. The odds are low but millions of women have conceived this way. Therapeutically cloning embryos for embryonic stem cells has the laudable aim of curing diseases but there is a subtle change in emphasis. Scientists are exchanging a statistical outcome (IVF success rates vary from clinic to clinic) for the hope and promise of what might be possible. A high price to pay for hope, some might think, especially when there is an ethical alternative.

Embryonic stem cells are considered the most ‘plastic’ or flexible stem cell for scientists yet research is continually being published proving that adult stem cells are far more flexible than previously thought. Surely this is a more appropriate route for scientists to follow and governments to invest in? Medical research into new treatments for disease can continue without the need to create and destroy embryos.

Dr Steve Jones suggested this is a philosophical argument rather than a scientific one. I disagree. I am pro-science but believe that science should also work within an ethical framework and philosophical debate should definitely play a role in scientific progress. That, surely, is what it means to be human.
Sue Nelson spoke at the x-change in November 2004 at the Dana Centre.

The largest ever analysis of the use of chemotherapy for breast cancer has shown that these cancer-killing drugs can benefit a wider range of patients than previously thought.

The study, involving 18,000 patients, was published in The Lancet on 18 September. It showed that women with breast cancer may benefit from chemotherapy:

* even if the cancer has not spread to their lymph glands,
* even if they are over age 50, and
* whether or not the cancer is hormone-sensitive.

Among women under age 50 whose cancer had spread to the lymph glands at the time of surgery, chemotherapy typically prevented about 11 deaths during the next 10 years for every 100 women treated. Among younger women with no evidence of disease spread to the glands, there were about seven fewer deaths. And among women in their 50s and 60s about 2-3 lives were saved for every 100. Using more than 3-6 months of chemotherapy did not show any additional benefit.

These results are important although not surprising to specialists – many of whom already treat a number of these groups with chemotherapy. But combining 47 properly managed, randomised trials in this study has provided a huge database which means that there is no doubt these results are real. Chemotherapy has definitely enabled these patients to live longer.

‘I would recommend anyone diagnosed with cancer to ask their doctor, “Is there a role for chemotherapy in my treatment?”,’ says Dr Hilary Thomas, cancer specialist at Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford. Not that she would try to persuade a patient to take any particular form of treatment: ‘This isn’t a massive leap forward, a lot of these results show relatively small benefits, but they are significant. In any case it’s not up to us doctors to play God.

‘We explain the statistics to the patient and help them decide. The emphasis should always be on the doctor and patient agreeing on the most suitable treatment.’
Less toxicity

‘There’s something of an anti-chemotherapy culture in the USA, which is regrettable,’ she says. However, she feels the tide has been moving steadily in favour of chemotherapy in recent years. As The Lancet study has shown, the benefits are becoming more apparent for more groups of patients. In addition, ‘as our experience has built up, oncologists have found ways of avoiding the toxicity [side effects], which enables patients to get on with their lives. We have better anti-sickness drugs, we are getting much better at preventing hair loss with certain drugs, and we can often adopt drug schedules that mean four visits to hospital, say, instead of 12 as it was in the past.’

Propecia, a trade name for finasteride, was originally developed for prostate conditions. It reduces levels of testosterone. Aware of the AGA-testosterone connection, Merck & Co soon found that finasteride lowered DHT levels in the scalp, saw its potential in male hair loss and did a number of full-scale clinical trials to test its effects.

The biggest trial to date lasted five years and involved over 1500 balding men, half of whom were randomly given finasteride (1 mg), the other half placebo. After one year, the men taking finasteride had an average of 15-per-cent more hair than the placebo group; this roughly doubled after five years.

These results were trumpeted in major marketing campaigns around the world, but closer inspection, as reported at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in 2001, showed that, after five years of religiously taking finasteride, more than a third of the men failed to improve or stop their hair loss.

Also, Merck admits that finasteride may not work for a receding hairline at the temples, a major symptom of AGA. Furthermore, you have to keep on taking the tablets; if you stop, you will lose any hair you may have gained.

Adverse effects may include decreased semen production, low libido and impotence. These are commonly seen with the high dosages used for prostate conditions, and are also associated with the relatively low doses recommended for hair loss.

Finasteride is hazardous to unborn children. As it affects male sex hormones, it has the potential to cause serious sexual abnormalities in a male fetus. This danger clearly passes after the menopause, so is finasteride of value to women then? Based on available evidence, the answer is no.

Yet, even the low, recommended 1-mg dosage may not be necessary as studies suggest that a 0.2-mg dose may result in equally significant reductions in levels of scalp DHT – with presumably a lower risk of side-effects. Propecia costs about $47 for 30 1-mg tablets (a one-month supply).

Regaine/Rogaine, trade names for minoxidil, is probably the best-known conventional hair-loss remedy. This property of the compound was accidentally discovered about 20 years ago and, at the time, it was claimed to be 90-per-cent effective.

But clinical trials and expert opinion now suggest that only about 15 per cent of men achieve ‘moderate regrowth’ of hair, 50 per cent have hair-loss delayed and 35 per cent experience no benefit whatsoever. And as usual with these products, as soon as the treatment is stopped, any new-grown hair soon falls out. Similar results are also seen in women.

A 2-per-cent minoxidil solution is available over the counter here in the UK, but a prescription is required for the 5-per-cent version (and should only be used by men).

Bulk-buying Regaine/Rogaine from the Internet or mail-order is more economical, costing about ?100 for a six-month supply.

DrugScope Chief Executive, Roger Howard, said:

“The Misuse of Drugs Act has been in place for thirty years and David Blunkett is the first Home Secretary in all that time to seriously consider rolling back part of that legislation. It is very encouraging to have someone in office who is willing to engage in open debate on this issue and then to act.”

DrugScope has over 900 member bodies – people working with drug use on the ground including in drug treatment and education/prevention agencies, criminal justice services and Drug Action Teams. A recent survey of those members found 89% of those who responded believed cannabis should move from class B to class C. Less than half (45%) supported the full legalisation of the supply, cultivation and possession of the drug.

Roger Howard continued:

“We at DrugScope believe that cannabis should be a class C drug and that people should not face criminal procedures of any sort for possessing or cultivating small amounts. We look to the Home Secretary to end the wide variation in policing practices on cannabis which currently occur.”

DrugScope today also strongly supported plans to expand harm minimisation and public awareness initiatives around the most harmful drug use. The charity is calling for a thorough reassessment of the relative risks of all illegal drugs with a view to re-scheduling some in other classes. Young people in particular need to be able to assess potential harms as accurately as possible.

ENDS

Notes for editors

· DrugScope is the UK’s leading centre of expertise on drugs. Our aim is to inform policy and reduce drug-related risk. We provide quality information, promote effective responses to drug taking, undertake research at local, national and international level, advise on policy-making, encourage informed debate and speak for our member bodies working on the ground.

· A full copy of the DrugScope members survey on current UK drugs policy is available from DrugScope press office.

· As-yet unpublished DrugScope research explores the theory of cannabis as a Gateway drug. It finds that the vast majority of cannabis users never progress to more harmful drugs; those that do, do so partly because the present legal framework brings users into contact with people selling more harmful drugs. Full copies of “Cannabis and the Gateway Hypothesis” available from DrugScope press office.

STATISTICS

· Results from Drug Misuse Declared in 2000: results from the British Crime Survey showed: 27% of respondents have tried cannabis within their lifetime, 9% having used it over the last year and 6% in the last month. 44% of 16-29 year olds have ever used cannabis, 22% in the last year and 14% in the last month. 37% of 16-19 year olds have ever used cannabis, 25% in the last year and 15% in the last month.

· Latest Home office figures show that in 1999, out of 107,465 unlawful drug possession offences 81,381 were for cannabis – that’s roughly 75%. Approximately one third of all drug offenders were dealt with by cautioning.

PENALTIES UNDER Misuse of Drugs Act 1971

· Possession of Class B drug (amphetamines, barbiturates, cannabis(herbal), cannabis (resin), codeine, dihydrocodeine and methylamphetamine):

Summary – maximum three months imprisonment or a fine of ?2,500 or both. Indictment – maximum 5 years imprisonment or an unlimited fine or both.

Section 24 of PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act) lays down that any offence for which there is a max sentence of 5 years or more is arrestable as are certain listed offences under section 24 (2) that have a shorter max sentence. All these arrestable offences make it possible for police to search premises without a warrant.

· Possession of Class C drug (currently anabolic steroids, benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, diethylpropin, mazindol, pemoline and phentermine):

Summary – maximum three months imprisonment or a fine of $1,000 or both. Indictment – maximum 2 years or an unlimited fine or both. Is not arrestable as the max penalty is only two years in prison. Could arrest if: 1) it is impractical to serve a summons on them 2) their addresses are unknown or uncertain 3) their arrest is necessary to prevent them from injuring themselves or others, causing damage or obstructing the highway. Supply of a class C drug can lead to arrest and five year maximum prison sentence.

A simple painkiller, ibuprofen, is being tested to see if it can help to prevent the weight loss which can be so exhausting in lung cancer patients.

Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory drug, commonly used to reduce swelling, heat and pain caused by physical injury or conditions such as arthritis. It is already known that the drug, used in combination with megestrol acetate (which is used to treat breast cancer), appears to reduce weight loss and improve appetite and quality of life in patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancer.

The group which carried out this work, led by Dr Donal McMillan at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, is now organising a three-year study with ibuprofen plus megestrol in 260 patients from Scottish hospitals with non-small cell lung cancer. The group hopes that the drug combination will help lung cancer patients in a similar way to the GI group.

The trial, being sponsored by the Cancer Research Campaign, will examine weight gain over 12 weeks’ treatment with ibuprofen plus megestrol, ibuprofen alone and a dummy drug (placebo).

But how might ibuprofen help? Dr McMillan explained: ‘Usually, the inflammation caused by a tumour is not resolved. The tumour can be thought of as a wound which does not heal. Often it is not the tumour itself that kills the patient, but related health problems. No one knows why these other health problems kick in, but we do know that progressive weight loss is connected with poor prognosis in cancer patients.’

EXPLAINED: THE ATKINS DIET

Eat fat, get fit? It sounds impossible, but the theory behind the Atkins Diet is this: it’s carbohydrates, not fat, that make us put on weight. Without carbs, the body produces less insulin, which Dr Atkins, who died in April aged 72, called the ‘fattening hormone’. Too much insulin causes carbohydrate to be stored as fat, so less insulin adds up to less fat. Also, the kidneys need energy to break down protein. If the body can’t burn carbohydrate for energy, it goes into ‘ketosis’ and burns fat instead. If you follow the diet properly, your breath smells of pear drops.

You can never be too rich or too thin, said Jackie Collins. And for as long as people have been trying to get thin, we’ve have been to trying to find the one diet that would let us eat what we wanted and lose weight without months of deprivation. In short, we were after a miracle.

Then came Dr Atkins. His high-protein, low-carb diet seems to be just the miracle that slimmers have been looking for. There’s no calorie counting, no portion control, and, even better, all the food you thought was banned – like bacon, eggs and cheese – is back on the menu. It’s no wonder, then, that the Atkins Diet has become such a phenomenon – especially among the rich and famous.

When something catches on in the celeb world, it catches on fast. After Catherine Zeta Jones ballooned to nearly 13 stone after the birth of first son Dylan, she turned to the Atkins Diet. In the space of three months, she dropped an incredible three stone. Likewise Jennifer Aniston, who slimmed down dramatically before her wedding to Brad Pitt, and Renee Zellweger, who shed her Bridget Jones podge on the high-protein regime.

THE PRO-CARB VIEW

‘Bodies need fuel to survive, and carbohydrate is fuel. The majority of the world’s population get their energy from carbohydrate, so I can’t believe you should cut it out to lose weight. Doing anything in extremes must be bad for your health – and your kidneys.’ Joanna Morris, 36

And who could forget ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell’s transformation from busty good-time girl to svelte LA goddess? Another dieting miracle attributed to none other than Dr Atkins. And this so-called wonder diet is not just for women – Jennifer Aniston’s Friends co-star Matthew Perry was said to have shifted stones by sticking to the high protein regime.

Recently, there was even better news for devotees of the Atkins Diet. Two reports out in America suggested the regime, far from being bad for your health, might actually be good for it. The first report, from the University of Pennsylvania, compared the effects of the Atkins Diet against a traditional low-fat plan, using a sample of 63 obese men and women. Scientists from Philadelphia followed the same method, testing 132 clinically overweight people. Surprisingly, both studies reported that the low-carbohydrate diet was more successful in encouraging the participants to lose weight, and one even suggested that levels of a blood fat called triglyceride had fallen.

But these reports are in direct conflict with established medical opinion that has, ever since the first publication of Dr Atkins’ Diet Revolution in 1973, argued that this type of high-fat, high-protein diet may damage the kidneys and lead to other health complications, including heart disease. One of its most outspoken opponents is Dr Dean Ornish, clinical professor of medicine at the University of California and author of Eat More, Weigh Less. He says:‘Even a single meal high in fat and cholesterol makes your arteries constrict and your blood clot faster.’

THE DIETER’S VIEW

‘I decided to try the Atkins Diet because it’s the only diet where I don’t have to restrict my food intake. I can eat as much as I like and don’t have to worry about calorie counting or portion control. For a man, that’s ideal. I won’t do it long-term, so I don’t think it’ll have any adverse effects.’ Matt Smith, 25

Ornish is not alone in his views.The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in America are backing a recent report that appeared to confirm that the Atkins Diet could lead to kidney damage. Dr Amy Joy Lanou, their nutrition director, said:‘A Harvard study published earlier this year in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that high-protein diets may cause permanent loss of kidney function in anyone with reduced kidney function.’

Specifically, the Harvard researchers found that a high-protein diet – particularly one high in meat – contributed to kidney deterioration in those women who already had a mild kidney problem. When protein is broken down into amino acids, urea and nitrogen are produced, which have to be excreted by the kidneys. The more protein you eat, the more waste products are produced and the harder the kidney has to work. This can put an intolerable strain on an already weakened kidney.

THE VEGETARIAN’S VIEW

‘Vegetarians are supposed to be healthier than anyone else – and our diet is low in animal fat and high in fibre. I was brought up eating loads of vegetables, soya and brown rice, so I’d never consider trying the Atkins Diet – I’d rather give up booze first! All that fat must be bad for your internal organs.’ Sarah Owen, 29

Experts in Britain tend to agree. In a recent interview, Catherine Collins of the British Dietetic Association, said ‘A high-protein diet can create nutritional deficiencies and it’s not very good for bone health. High-protein loads and ketosis can increase the risk of kidney problems, especially in those people who have an underlying kidney problem. You may not know about a kidney disorder at the time.’

Other popular diets have also come in for criticism from the medical profession. Most fad diets encourage cutting out one specific food group and can put a strain on the body. The Zone Diet, for example, advocates eating fatty foods in place of complex carbohydrates. But nutritionists argue most of the weight loss from this type of diet is due to dehydration. Overworked kidneys lose water as they work hard to excrete waste products – water that is vital to good kidney function. What’s more, any diet that cuts out one particular food group tricks the body into thinking it’s in starvation mode. That makes it more likely you’ll pile even more weight back on once you start eating normally.

THE HEALTHY WAY TO WEIGHT LOSS

Being overweight can cause extra strain on your kidneys, lead to diabetes and heart disease. So if you are carrying a few extra pounds, it’s a good idea to try and lose weight, without damaging your kidneys. The key is to aim for slow, sustainable weight loss, take plenty of exercise and always consult your doctor before starting any diet. Follow these tips and you could soon be well on the way to a healthier lifestyle:

* Take regular exercise.Try getting out and about for at least three half-hour sessions a week. Anything that raises your heart rate, like walking the dog, gardening or swimming, is ideal.
* Eat five portions of fruit and veg a day. Fresh produce is high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and is a nutritious way to give your body an extra energy boost.
* Cut down on calories but eat a balanced diet.You can sensibly reduce your calorie intake by eating leaner meat and low fat products and grilling rather than frying.
* Don’t lose more than 2lbs a week. Any more dramatic weight loss than that is a sure sign that you’ve overdone the dieting – and the weight will be water or lean muscle tissue, rather than fat.

The Atkins Centre in New York states it does not encourage people with kidney disease to attempt the diet, but they do suggest it can help prevent the onset of Type II diabetes. Their core claim is that eating the wrong sort of carbs encourages the body to produce insulin, which can affect weight gain. Excess insulin also contributes to the development of Type II diabetes, in turn the leading cause of kidney failure. The Atkins Diet, with its low-carb intake, is an ideal nutritional treatment for this condition, they say.

There is a common sense solution to these medical conundrums, however. What the Harvard research made clear is that it’s not a good idea for kidney patients – or those who suspect they may have a kidney condition – to cut carbohydrates out of their diet. For years, nutritionists have been arguing that a balanced diet and lots of exercise are the best and healthiest ways to lose weight.

The Atkins Diet appears to work, they say, purely because you’re actually eating less calories.Which in the end takes us back to square one – you’ll only lose weight if you expend more calories than you take in. In other words, there are no wonder solutions to the weight loss problem, however fashionable they are.

Most of us think of fat as a sign of overindulgence and lethargy. Indeed, it can be, but long-time observers of trends in obesity (weight watchers of a different sort!) know that advice to ‘eat less’ is simplistic and completely ignores the evidence, such as the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) National Food Survey 2000, showing that overall calorie intakes have gone down substantially throughout the 20th century.

But if we’re eating less, why are we putting on so much weight? The answer appears to lie in what, rather than how much, we are consuming.

I’ve been particularly struck by recent reports showing that, far from being superfluous and totally unhealthy, body fat protects bones and organs, regulates hormones and the immune system, and ‘feeds’ vital organs, such as the heart and kidneys. It also produces an important hormone called ‘leptin’ that communicates information about the body’s energy levels to the brain.

British researcher Caroline Pond has made the study of fat her life’s work (see The Fats of Life, Cambridge University Press, 1998). She suggests that mammalian fat is meticulously organised around a dozen specific sites of the body. At each site, the fat’s function is linked to its location, be it on the heart or in muscle. So complex and diverse are the functions of fat that some suggest it should be considered an organ.

Against this backdrop comes the recent concern that chronic exposure to small amounts of environmental toxins, such as organochlorines, may be increasing our risk of excess body weight. Largely ignored by the press, who prefer quick-fix stories, the evidence is nevertheless so compelling that the US National Institutes of Health has recently called for more and better research into this area.

Research in the 1980s showed that the widely used organocholorine pesticide lindane causes a significant increase in food intake and weight gain in animals. In humans, blood levels of organochlorines are generally higher in people with higher body mass. Once in the body, they can interfere with weight controlling hormones such as catecholamines, thyroid hormones, oestrogen, testosterone, corticosteroids, insulin, growth hormone and leptin.

Our first line of defence against this toxic onslaught is body fat. As levels of organochlorines increase, numbers of fat cells also increase to dilute their concentration. This may help to explain some of the great and frustrating mysteries of the dieter’s life – the weight-loss plateau and the often swift rebound weight gain.

As we lose weight, more toxins are released back into the body. In its infinite wisdom, the body responds the same way it did the first time around – it produces more fat cells. The more rapid the weight loss, the more toxins are released and the more strongly the body responds.

Nutritionists have long advised that slow and steady wins the weight-loss race. For those carrying a load of organochlorines (from diets high in conventionally reared meats and dairy products), it may be only way to cross the finish line at all.

Paul Mauser first designed a rifle in 1871 for the German army, which was a simple single-shot bolt action rifle that featured an 11 mm black powder cartridge. This rifle was designed after numerous errors and malfunctions were discovered with previous rifles used during the Franco-Prussian war. In 1884 Mauser improved his initial 1871 rifle design considerably by fitting a spring loaded magazine tube under the barrel; adding a cartridge cut-off; adding an elevator mechanism; and an ejector; and also improving the trigger mechanism. All of these innovations altered the Model 71 single-shot into a 9 shot repeater dubbed ‘Model 71/84.’

In 1888 the Germany army replaced Mauser’s rifle with the Commission Model 88. This was a bolt action repeater that used smokeless powder cartridges. The Commission Model 88 was designed by the German Military Rifle Testing Commission and incorporated features designed by various gunmakers. The Model 88 used a clip magazine designed by Austrian Ritter von Mannlicher and it fired a 7.9 millimeter rimless cartridge designed by Paul Mauser.

The first smokeless powder rifle designed by Paul Mauser himself was the Belgian Model 89. Although the model was designed entirely by Paul Mauser, it was manufactured by Belgian government arsenals. The model 89 contained many modern innovations that continued to be used on future Mauser models up to the Model 98. Such features were a one-piece forged bolt and handle; twin opposing locking lugs; a wing type safety; a bolt positioned behind the receiver bridge that no longer served as a locking lug (and the bolt was bored only from the rear and threaded for the striker assembly).

The Mauser Model 89 also had a clip magazine far superior to Mannlicher’s magazine design. Mauser designed a stripper clip positioned in a slot that was milled into the top front edge of the receiver bridge. This stripper clip was then pushed down into the magazine and left there while the bolt was pushed forward to chamber the top cartridge and eject the clip.

In 1893 Mauser developed a rifle for Spain that incorporated further innovations. The Spanish model 93 had a ‘staggered’ rather than a single-column magazine and was still loaded with the same 5-round stripper clip. This staggered column magazine did not protrude from the rifle as the single-column magazine did.

The Model 93 was also the first rifle equipped with Mauser’s big ‘claw’ extractor, which innovated the concept of ‘controlled round feeding.’ Previous rifle designs used a method of pushing cartridges directly into the chamber by the bolt face before the extractor engaged the case rim. But haste could cause the rifle to be “short stroked” so the extractor would fail to engage the rim of the cartridge. And when the bolt was operated again, the unfired cartridge would be left in the chamber and another cartridge would be forced in against it, which was of course highly dangerous since the nose of the second cartridge might detonate the chambered cartridge while the bolt was not yet closed. Because Paul Mauser was a genius, he eliminated this danger by designing his new extractor mechanism. His claw extractor slipped over the rim of the cartridge as soon as it cleared the feed rails and continued to grip the cartridge throughout the entire firing process: firing, extraction, and ejection. If the action was short-stroked, the cartridge was safely extracted before another cartridge approached the chamber.

Many factors can interfere with a rifle’s action: Condensation and oil can quickly become solid in frigid weather; and rust, dirt, and debris can cause cartridges to stick in the chamber so they cannot be extracted by any hook type of extractors which may tear through a case rim. But the Mauser claw extractor pulls cartridges free every time without fail.

Before 1898 Paul Mauser had designed rifles for many countries other than Germany. These rifles were the Belgian Model 89, the Turkish Model 90, Argentine Model 91, Spanish Model 93 (which was also used by Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Uraguay, Persia, Transvaal, Turkey, and the Orange Free State), the Swedish Model 94, The Spanish Model 95, and The Swedish Model 96. But today the name Mauser is immediately associated with the German arms company that makes bolt-action rifles.

The German Military Rifle Testing Commission realized the rifles Mauser was designing for other countries were far superior to the Commission Model 88 still being used in Germany. So Germany replaced the Commission Model 88 with the Mauser Model 98. Innovations on the Model 98 were: a cock-on-opening feature that produced a faster lock time; an additional non-bearing safety lug ahead of the bolt handle; a flange at the front edge of the bolt shroud to seal the locking lug raceways and deflect gas and debris in the event of a ruptured cartridge; safety vents before and behind the extractor collar; and the original thumb slot in the receiver was enlarged to properly vent gas.

With the Mauser 98, Paul Mauser had reached perfection. This gun was incredibly successful and remains a favorite to this day. The Mauser 98 was used as the standard infantry rifle for the German army from the late 1890s all the way up to the mid 1930s, where it was known by its German service name of ‘Gewehr 98.’ The Mauser 98 action has been copied by manufacturers such as Ruger, Remington, Winchester, Interarms, Harrington and Richardson and today it is the first choice of many professional guides and hunters of dangerous game.

Mauser 98 surplus rifles are still available for sale at reasonable costs. Some gun lovers purchase these rifles and use them as a basis to construct their own customized guns. (If you decide to purchase your own Mauser 98, to make sure you get a good one, check that the bolt is well-fitted and there is little or no pitting or rust on the surface. Good luck.)

Now, today will be a happy day for the men, to get eager too quickly with the vaginal playground. Now you don’t have to stare at the bush, or to keep beating around it. Now, why not try going into your sexual desires and not have the fear that the ending is only a thrust or two away.

Bear in mind that it can take a little more than just a position to help you sustain you erection for longer. First, you will need to stay in a happy frame of mind. And do not change it into a self-fulfilling exercise by constantly telling yourself you can’t do it. You can, when you believe in yourself that you can.

These ideas can’t work for you if you have a medical drawback, such as erectile dysfunction. You will need to get yourself to a professional as soon as possible to make good use of the sex life that you have and be realistic.

By making foreplay into a game of sexual containment, could quite possible be more fun than actual sex itself. You will need to make your foreplay last though.

The time that you share together you need to enjoy and not to focus on the sex as it is possible that it can cause you to get more nervous, then end up leaving her in the bathroom with the shower nozzle that vibrates. Try making it an all over body experience from time to time, not only a penis one.

Now guy you don’t have to be shy, you did it the very first time you found out that something else comes out of your penis other than urine, you can even do it now. If you want to understand your waterworks, then you are going to have to play the “getting to know you” game yourself. It comes by the name of Masturbation.

When you are stroking yourself and working out as to what point you feel as thought you are going to ejaculate, you are able to teach yourself how to keep your erection and to evade premature incidents. And you can take yourself to the point that you feel yourself about to lose it then stop until the feeling goes away. Keep this up until ample time has gone by and then let the rivers flow without restraint.

I Learned To Last Longer In Sex

“I had a bad case of premature ejaculation and usually came in few seconds. But I learned to last longer in sex and so can you following my free guidance!”

Is your premature ejaculation killing your sex life, like it was doing with mine?

Here is my shameful confession)-:

When my first girlfriend, who was also a virgin when we met, asked me if this was all there was to it after we had sex, I knew there was something wrong with the situation.

Of course she was right. It only lasted about two seconds.

And it didn’t get much better the older I got!

Still at the age 25 year old, I was coming in only few seconds.

It was then that my current girlfriend pushed me to find seek a way to last longer in sex.

It wasn’t just that I couldn’t sexually satisfy her.

What she hated even more was that my shame and guilt about the problem was killing her off.

But seeking way to last longer in sex was not easy

There are so many products out there meant to last longer in sex but most of them will only make your problem worse.

I tried everything and spent thousands (literally) and countless time. With very little success.

It wasn’t till I really studied the problem that I started to see the light.

The Reason I: Cum To Fast Was
Totally Different From What I Thought

When I realized why I couldn’t last longer in sex, I started to see what I needed to do to gain more staying power.

And as I did the right thing, my life long problem changed.

And now I want to share with you everything I have learned. So you may have the same happy sexual experiencing I am having now.

If you want my help to last longer in bed, please click here now to learn what really

What Is The Cause
Of Premature Ejaculation?

“When you know what causes your Premature Ejaculation,
you will be more ready to deal with it”

To put things simpler, there are two main reasons that can cause premature ejaculation. However, if you go further into this subject it gets more complicated.

Inexperience is the first cause

Among the younger men, this is more of a common factor.

Roughly every man over fifty today can tell you that he can last longer now than when he was younger.

Here when we say inexperience, it does not mean that a person that has had sex twice as frequent as you have is anything less likely to be premature ejaculate.

Something that really does matter and to take notice of is that it is the quality not the quantity that counts and matter the most.

Inexperience can be a problem when you haven’t recognised the feeling that you are about to come inside a woman, as you haven’t learnt it yet.

In truth you will develop real experience. This is when you are able to tell exactly the point you are at in the intercourse.

A bigger reason, and possible the biggest cause of premature ejaculation is anxiety.

Anxiety is the second cause

This can be considered as the most common cause or premature ejaculation.

By what is meant by anxiety it is all the emotions that upset the cherished flow between you and your partner.

These emotions are either very overwhelming that you have to stay away from the vagina. Or that they are breaking up your awareness, making you find it hard to know how close you are to coming, this is a lot like that with inexperience.

There are lots of emotions that can make you come very fast. Some of the emotions are:

Anger

This can be down to the fact that at the time you were angry at your partner, which could be for no reason at all. This would then cause you not to last as long. Your thoughts at the time could be elsewhere, as you may have been angry at somebody else and still have the same effect.

A solution would be for you to talk and try and sort things out that night. If for any reason you can’t sort out any of the issues then you don’t have sex, this is because you would both know how it would finish.

Fear

Another reason for you to be worried would be, you being scared of something going wrong and you getting your partner pregnant. A way to get around this would be for you to sort out your feelings, and then talk about them. By doing this the problem would get a lot better.

Shame

You are not normally aware of your sexual shame until something like this happens. You are most likely to feel this way when you don’t expect it when you are in the middle of intercourse and when the shame gets overpowering and we leave alone.

If you leave the shame alone, it maybe possible for men, to avoid premature ejaculation altogether. For you to accomplish this you may find it easier to talk about your sexual reality, your sexual fantasies and most importantly finding out and getting to know you better as a sexual being.

Performance Anxiety

We all perform wonderfully when we are in the bedroom. We are said to score perfectly in that area.

So when our performance is not what it normally is, in particular when you can’t hold off, then this starts the emotions that can make you to premature ejaculate.

Something that you fear the most is not performing well enough. And the men fear the sexual shame and they come too fast. When this happens the men feel a deep shame that has be in place for many years. This makes men get angry, in particular angry at yourselves for not performing like you think you should.

A way to solve this would be not to put your expectation or hope too high. In truth many men are not very good lovers yet. And that is a fact. All of this is a learning process, like everything else in life and it takes time. Another thing is that your partner is most likely nervous about her own performance anxiety and that she is not going to expect that you are perfect.

So that we can understand how to control ejaculation, you are going to have to look closer at what is happening when you can’t hold off for any longer.

So, what happens is you will be going through a number of stages prior to you finally getting to orgasm. All men will go through this process, and it doesn’t matter for how long or short he can last.

So that we can understand it better the whole intercourse process can be split into three stages.

The Three Stages

Stage One. This is when your penis starts to go hard when you get aroused. This can happen when you kiss and start to make out prior to the touching of the penis. Then you will need to put it in and slowly you become more aroused, this is when you have to go on to stage two.

Stage Two. This is when you are moving inside the vagina are getting very much aroused. Gradually the tension increases until you are in the state of pure ecstasy. At this point you will be panting and this can be said to be the best feeling in the world, in some cases better than the orgasm. This explains why you need to sustain it for as long as you can. However, due to not enough time or premature ejaculation, you will reach a level where you have to move to stage three.

Stage Three. It is this stage that can be called “The Place of No Return” for this is the stage when no matter what you do, you will not be able to control your ejaculation. You could possible hold it for a couple of seconds but eventually you are going to ejaculate no matter what. This can be an excellent feeling, only if you had a good stage two. You cannot get to this level within a couple of seconds of being in the vagina.

When you can’t hold off for any longer, what happens?

When you come too fast, what you are doing is missing out stage two, which is considered to be the best part of sex and you never properly experience the intercourse completely. You are almost immediately going from stage one to stage three.

For the lucky people you could possible stay in stage two for a period of time, however the drawback of doing this is you can’t properly tell when you are very close to stage three and go over the confines to “the place of no return” and you don’t know that you have done this. This is most likely due to either inexperience or anxiety.

If you are one that can tell when you are coming close to stage three your subconscious would make you pull back down away from it. But if your subconscious will not do this then you could try some different techniques to do this.

The key reason of any fine premature ejaculation treatment is to hold back stage two

It’s only natural to want to get aroused and to have intercourse, stage one. You would also like to carry on to reach the level of pure sexual ecstasy, stage two, but you may not or don’t want to go over to stage three. Known as the point of no return.

To prolong stage two, there is an array of treatments that are designed to help.

There are some of these treatments that work really well. On the other hand there are some that can do more harm than actual help.

As we know that premature ejaculation is more often due to emotional worry and that it seems to be the best way to cure it is to do some physical premature ejaculation exercise.

Five Elements that a Great Premature Ejaculation Exercise Plans needs to have:

Before some men can cure their premature ejaculation they try many other different exercise programs and don’t have the results that they want. As it was these exercise programs that only took on part of the problem, and they didn’t go deep enough to cure all the other parts of premature ejaculation.

Below are the five elements the program needs to have.

Relaxation Exercises…

It is some form of anxiety that more often causes premature ejaculation. It is beneficial to you that you can teach yourself to relax your body and mind when you are at the high intense situation of intercourse. There are a few exercises that you can practise to learn to do this.

PC Muscles Exercises…

There are some men that allege that by exercising the PC muscles that it will make this problem worse. On the other hand there are some that don’t agree.

It is anxiety, like fear, anger, shame that is in your muscles. For example, when you get frightened your shoulder tenses up. Therefore when you are frequently frightened your shoulder will stay tense and you develop muscular rheumatism.

It is the same thing with the PC muscles. In particular when you store an amount of sexual shame, as what many of us do. This problem with the PC muscles is that they are found in a very delicate area. And close to the prostate that controls the ejaculation system.

At first while you start to exercise your PC muscles, before you get them into good shape, you might be short in-between time where the problem even gets a little worse. If you are experiencing this then you know that you are doing something right. You will need to keep on exercising as when you get over that hurdle the results will be better than ever.

Another point about exercising the PC muscles is that there are some men that are suffering from premature ejaculation will not get a full hard on. This is most often, a result of anxiety and can be part of what can lead to premature ejaculation. By doing PC muscle exercise it has always been a proven fact that it can increase the blood flow to the penis and which will make it harder and a stronger erection.

Alertness Premature Ejaculation Exercises

It is these exercises that are possibly the most important premature ejaculation exercises. When these exercises are done correctly they will defiantly do much to cure your premature ejaculation. If you do these in conjunction with other types of exercises you can be nearly 100% cure that you can get rid of the problem.

The awareness exercises are designed to make you aware of every phase that you go through from the time you first get aroused to when you reach the point of no return. Also it can help you get to know how you feel in each phase. The truth is that even though the premature ejaculation is caused by either inexperience, whereby you do not have any idea as to when you are about to come or anxiety, where that you have to be feel the tension in order to feel when you are close to the point of no return. In both of these points all that are missing is you being aware of what is happening.

However, if you knew exactly what you were going through, you subconscious would make certain that you don’t move too fast over to the point of no return, or that you could take conscious actions to make sure that you avoid that.

What you will also be able to do is to divide your overwhelming anxiety from your positive sexual intensity. This would mean that your anxiety would not take over and make your have a premature ejaculation.

Training to Avoid Premature Ejaculation

The final goal for ach premature ejaculation exercise program is that you will notice that you will automatically be able to last as long as you want; there is a good practice in few exercises that make you pull away from the point of no return if you are getting too close to it.

When you practice these exercise they will get natural to you and will not interfere with the flow of lovemaking.

You should be able to carry out the exercises alone then with a partner if you want to.

There are a few exercise programs that are designed that way that you need to practice with a partner. For some men this would be too scary for them to do.

Even if they had the most loving and understanding partner, most wanted to get some self confident before they involved your partner in the exercises.

The other point is that you may not have a steady partner. It would be a little strange being on a first date to then ask the woman to do some premature ejaculation exercises with you.

There are some premature ejaculation exercise programs that so not have all of this

It is said that out of all the programs that have been tried out and asked about, only one of them had all the factors needed to cure your premature ejaculation.

Most men try at least three before they try this one. With this program it wasn’t a quick fix. You have to commit yourself to exercising everyday. However, in the end the hard work will pay off and you will not regret spending time on the premature ejaculation exercises.