Health Risks of Noncoital Sexual Activity

Washington, DC — When counseling patients about preventing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), it’s important for physicians to ask direct questions about both intercourse and noncoital sexual activity, according to a new Committee Opinion issued today by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

Noncoital sexual behavior includes mutual masturbation, and oral and anal sex and is common among adults and adolescents. Despite concerns expressed in the popular media about an increase in oral sex among adolescents and young adults, there is no evidence that this is the case. However, research does show that oral sex is much more common among adolescents who have already had vaginal intercourse, suggesting that these sexual activities occur at about the same time and with the same partner.

“Most people, including adolescents, are unlikely to use condoms during oral sex, which places them at risk for acquiring an STD,” said Richard Guido, MD, chair of ACOG’s Committee on Adolescent Health Care, which issued the opinion along with ACOG’s Committee on Gynecologic Practice. “This unlikelihood is partly because of a greater perceived safety compared with intercourse. Although sexual behavior is a sensitive issue to address for both patients and physicians, it’s important to discuss sexuality frankly and without judgment so that we can help our patients fully protect themselves against STDs.”

Risk of getting certain STDs varies depending on the specific disease and the sexual behavior:

• the risk of acquiring HIV through oral sex is less than through vaginal sex
• with receptive anal sex having the highest risk
• Herpes is commonly transmitted through kissing and through oral, vaginal, and anal sex.
• Herpes simplex virus Type 1 (HSV-1), typically associated with oral herpes (ie, “cold sores”), can be transmitted to the genitals through oral sex.
• Herpes simplex virus Type 2 (HSV-2), typically associated with genital herpes, can be transmitted to the mouth through oral sex.
• Nonviral STDs, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis, also can be transmitted through noncoital sexual activity.

“Our lesbian and bisexual patients also need be screened for STDs based on the same risk factors as other women,” Dr. Guido noted. “Most lesbians have been sexually active with men at some point. Even without this sexual history, there are some STDs that can be transmitted between two women during sexual activity.”

According to ACOG, physicians should ask more direct questions about a patient’s sexual behavior so that they can provide counseling on ways to lower the risk for STDs. Since most women who engage in noncoital sexual activity are also having intercourse, clinicians need to consider whether these noncoital behaviors add any additional risks to those already posed by intercourse.

Risk-reduction strategies:

• limiting the number of sexual partners,
• STD testing before engaging in sexual activity with a new partner
• correct and consistent use of condoms
• abstinence
• and/or mutual monogamy.

Committee Opinion #417, “Addressing Health Risks of Noncoital Sexual Activity,” is published in the September 2008 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

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This abstract suggests that pregnant women need to receive vaccinations during pregnancy. This is advice, really is reckless. Why not talk about reducing environmental hazards, and how to boost one’s natural immunity. We are really meant to interface with our environment without the need of vaccines. Illness and sickness do serve a purpose and as the body heals it becomes stronger and also the immune system is strengthened.

Vaccines for Pertussis and Influenza: Recommendations for Use in Pregnancy.

New Antibiotics and Vaccines in Obstetric Practice

Abstract:
The active immunization of pregnant women during pregnancy to protect them from disease and protect their neonate with passive antibodies is a biologic fact. Fortunately, many infectious diseases occur infrequently due to excellent pediatric vaccine programs. However, most adults and many physicians are unaware of the risks of not administering vaccines especially to pregnant women. Influenza vaccine (trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine) is recommended by (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for pregnant women in any trimester of pregnancy and Tetanus, reduced diphtheria, and pertussis (TdaP) vaccine is recommended by the ACIP to be given before pregnancy, during pregnancy, or in the immediate postpartum period. Only 2% of the adult US population is protected against pertussis and it is estimated that only 25% of pregnant women receive influenza vaccine during the influenza season. This chapter discusses trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine and TdaP use during pregnancy, the diseases they prevent, and the benefit to the neonate.

Prostate irradiation raises risk of colon cancer

Data from the Geneva Cancer Registry show an increased long-term risk of colon cancer in men who have undergone external radiation therapy for prostate cancer.

“The risk of second cancer after irradiation, although probably small, needs nevertheless to be carefully monitored,” the study team advises.

Dr. Christine Bouchardy from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and colleagues analyzed data on 1,134 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1980 and 1998 who survived for at least 5 years after diagnosis. Of these, 264 were treated with external radiation.

During follow-up through the end of 2003, 19 men out of the total group developed colorectal cancer.

The risk of colorectal cancer among the men who did not have radiation therapy was not increased compared to the general population, but it was 3.4-times higher than normal among the men who did have radiation, the team reports in the International Journal of Cancer.

On further analysis, the risk was significantly increased for colon cancer specifically but not for rectal cancer.

The risk of colon cancer was mainly elevated in the 5- to 9-year period after diagnosis, according to Bouchardy and colleagues.

They say “this serious long-term side effect should be discussed” with patients in weighing the pros and cons of radiation therapy for treating prostate cancer.

SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, September 1, 2008.

Reuters Health

“. . . If the State can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biologicals of unknown toxicity today, there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.”

The above is a quote from a vaccine blog I just discovered. It is well written and informative. Visit it here.

GARDASIL Vaccine: The Damage Continues
by Barbara Loe Fisher
http://vaccineawakening.blogspot.com/2008/08/gardasil-vaccine-damage-continues.html
www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com
www.NVIC.org
www.StandUpBeCounted.org

The vaccine reaction reports keep coming into the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) from mothers describing how they took their healthy teenage girls into a pediatrician or gynecologist’s office where they were given a GARDASIL shot and, then, nothing was ever the same again. The reports of HPV vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths continue to roll in, not only to NVIC but also to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (Search HPV4 at http://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/index.html) newspapers, and television stations. And the only response that comes from officials at the CDC, FDA and drug companies when perfectly healthy teenage girls collapse into unconsciousness, suffer a massive seizure, get paralyzed or die suddenly after being injected with GARDASIL is the zombie mantra: “It is a coincidence.”

Last week a nurse who is an administrator in the outpatient department for a group of hospitals in California called and asked if NVIC had been getting reports of unusual collapse after GARDASIL vaccination. I said, yes, we are getting those reports and she said “A lot of our patients are collapsing after the shot is given. It happens with GARDASIL more frequently than with any other vaccine we give.” That same week, NVIC received a report from the mother of a 15 year old daughter who got her first GARDASIIL shot last month. Within 10 minutes of being injected, she collapsed and had her first grand mal seizure, became incontinent, temporarily lost vision in her right eye, suffered uncontrolled vomiting and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. Another report to NVIC that week also involved first-time seizures in a 15 year old girl after she got a GARDASIL shot.

Through June 30, 2008, there have been reports that at least 17 to 20 deaths have occurred following GARDASIL and were filed with the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), although the FDA has yet to admit even one death is causally related to the vaccine, suggesting that the girls would have died that day even if no vaccine had been given. Many of the teenage girls ,who die suddenly after vaccination without explanation, were among the brightest and the best and in top physician condition. This was true for 17 year old Jessica Ericzon, a New York softball player, snowboarder and honor roll student who dropped dead within 48 hours of getting a GARDASIL shot. A coroner could find no cause for her death after an autopsy.

There have been so many reports of reactions, injuries and deaths following GARDASIL vaccination (20-25 percent of all vaccine adverse event reports being filed with VAERS are for GARDASIL vaccine reactions) that the FDA and CDC issued a statement defending the vaccine’s safety on July 22.

But one of the vaccine’s developers has urged caution and offers practical advice about the need for continued use of Pap screening to prevent cervical cancer rather than relying on the vaccine to do the job. ” If you are at all concerned, then don’t have the vaccine - have regular Pap smears and you will be equally protected from cervical cancer….Pap screening is still the only proven method we have for cervical cancer prevention,” said Professor Diane Harper, Ph.D. “We don’t know how long the vaccine will protect a woman from HPV infection, and the vaccine does not protect against all types of HPV infection that cause cervical cancer.”

The “coincidence” defense mounted by doctors and drug company officials every time a vaccination is followed by injury and death is as old as it is unscientific. It is amazing that they have been able to get away with it for so long. Babies can’t talk and babies can’t walk so who they will become is still a dream. But young girls and women have already become much of who they will be and, on the cusp of fulfilling the dream, their vaccine deaths and injuries are much more difficult to sweep under the carpet.

It is immoral for doctors in government and industry to continue to look away from the damage done when vaccines cut down the brightest and most physically fit among us. The suggestion that these healthy, high functioning girls were biologically compromised and would have died or been injured that day even if no vaccine had been given is ludicrous. If those in government responsible for protecting the public health and safety look the other way when healthy individuals die and are injured by pharmaceutical products pronounced by government as “safe” for public use, then we cannot be assured that any licensed drug or vaccine is safe.

Last year, the head of the FDA in China was executed for allowing toxic pharmaceutical products to be licensed and released for public use that ended up killing and crippling people.

New research indicates that cancer patients who are optimistic can better manage pain. Having a sense of mastery enables a cancer patient to reduce pain. This however is not new knowledge. We all know intrinsically that the ability to smile and to face adversity with inner strength is ultimately an essential skill we all need. And such a skill will help one to master life’s challenges of which an illness may be one.

Anyone who can use their mind in a way to maintain optimism is wise indeed.

“These findings underscore the need for physicians and nurses involved in the care of cancer patients to recognize, encourage, promote, and take advantage of these traits in their patients to help them more effectively manage their cancer care, so that they ultimately can achieve a better quality of life,” Dr. Margot E. Kurtz and colleagues from Michigan State University in East Lansing, the study’s authors, conclude.

SOURCE: Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, July 2008.

Diverticulitis is an inflammatory condition of diverticulosis. Diverticulosis is the condition of pouches, like outcroppings, developing usually in the lower portion of the large intestine also known as the sigmoid colon. The inflammatory condition may produce abdominal pain. Pain in the lower left abdominal quadrant is suggestive of diverticulitis.

Who Gets Diverticulosis?

The condition is common for those over 40 and by the age of 60 at least half of the population has this complaint. It is more common in men than women.

Dietary Considerations

Patients with this condition are often advised to avoid nuts, popcorn, seeds. A recent study of 47, 228 men was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It showed that there is no increased risk of eating of diverticulosis as a result of eating the formerly forbidden foods. The report suggests that the recommendation to avoid these foods to prevent complications should be reconsidered.

Anthropological studies show that cultures where people eat high fiber diets rarely have gastrointestinal disorders. These disorders are more common in diets high in meat, white flour products and dairy.

Healing Suggestions

If your doctor informs you that you have this condition, get to work! Let the healing begin. Nothing comes out of the “blue”. Learn to listen to your body. How do you feel after you eat? Are you irritable, sluggish, weak or angry?

• Examine your diet.
• Move more.
• Reduce the size of your waist. Several studies have indicated that a trim waist (waist-hip ration) is indicative of reduced risk of developing certain chronic diseases.
• Whole grainss
• Vegetables
• Legumes

P.S. Those in the natural health arena of all stripes were already aware of the causes of this condition and how to prevent it. It will be really wonderful when all healers will be able to work together to help heal the sick.

According to a recent study inhalation of incense over long periods may lead to cancer of the upper respiratory tract. The incense smoke doesn’t apparently lead to increased risk of lung cancer.
The type of incense used isn’t mentioned. Cheaper quality charcoal and incense ingredients should be avoided when one is purchasing incense. Some incense producers using inferior ingredients and extend their use adding various extenders, such as DPG (dipropylene glycol methyl ether).

DPG Signs and symptoms of exposure from Osha.gov

1. Acute exposure: Irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat may occur and be associated with symptoms of burning, itching, runny nose, and nose and throat soreness. At very high concentrations, central nervous system impairment may occur with sleepiness, headache, inability to concentrate, and other symptoms of narcosis [Sittig 1991].

2. Chronic exposure: No signs or symptoms of chronic exposure to dipropylene glycol methyl ether have been reported in humans.

Potassium nitrate is another chemical that is often used in the manufacture of charcoal.

Incense is wonderful to cleanse your space to uplift the vibration and also useful to change your mood to a more tranquil state. Incense is also synonymous with religious/spiritual ceremony.

To make your incense experience healthy seek out quality blends made with quality ingredients.

by Catherine Carter

No need to be overwhelmed with packing the kid’s lunches. Packing a healthy lunch doesn’t require one to be a dietitian or a nutritionist it just takes label reading and a little planning. You will save money and build your young one’s health.

One of the challenges of the mid-day meal is that if it is too heavy it interferes with mental work. After all, nodding off in the classroom will lead to other problems. Have the children start off with a healthy breakfast of a whole grain cereal, such as steel cut oats. It’s good for mom and dad too. The oats have plenty of fiber and b-vitamins which are excellent for the nervous system, the brain and emotional stability. Add a protein shake for extra nutrition. Eating a nutritious breakfast cuts down on cravings and will enable you to make it to lunch time with out feeling famished.

Less Healthy Lunch Options
For lunch avoid processed meats, the salt, the sugar, the additives, the source of the meat itself all lend it to be not a great choice. Avoid white bread and sugary snacks. Avoid items with artificial colors. Repeatedly these substances, although labeled by the FDA as “generally recognized as safe” , have been implicated in aggravating hyperactivity and mood disorders. One last thing to avoid are sugary drinks. Young people are developing diabetes at an astounding rate and even fruit juice has been implicated as a factor. Consider diluting fruit juice with mineral water for a tasty lunch beverage.

Healthier Lunch Options
Prepare sandwiches made with whole grain bread. Use a tasty home made spread. It is cheaper and you have better control over the quality of the ingredients. And of course nothing can substitute for the love you put into it. Slice veggies like carrots, celery, broccoli and cauliflower with a dip. Use delicious nut butters for sandwich spreads. Bean burgers are very easy to make and are tasty alternatives to meat as are grain burgers. Adding a few nuts and seeds or a home made trail mix to the lunch box is tasty and nutritious too.

“He who suppresses a moment’s anger may prevent many day’s sorrow.”
-unknown

While there are some who believe it is better to let it all hang out, it can be much more redeeming to forgive and overlook the faults of others, or remove ourselves from a negative situation. Speaking out of anger helps no one. Once it is “out there” it is difficult to take back. A little forbearance can go a long way.