AID’s in Iran is a new pandemic

In the area of sexual health, it is a common notoriety that AID’s is continually in the media. This time it has reached a new level, AIDS has now claimed part in the lives of 19.435 Iranians. Not only are these figures staggering, but religious and cultural values are being challenged as homosexuality is completely forbidden in Islam.

This article posted in Google News explains the new AIDS statistics.

At least 19,435 Iranians have been infected with the HIV virus, with more than 1,000 new cases recorded since December 2008, the ISNA news agency reported on Sunday, quoting the health ministry.

It said the highest rate of HIV infection, 40.2 percent, was among the 25 to 34 age group, with most victims being men. Males accounted for 93.3 percent of all infected cases.

Sexual relations outside marriage and especially homosexual engagements are strictly forbidden in Islamic republics. The numbers are beyond ridiculous and almost seem unbelievable. I must also express, it’s not only through homosexual relations the disease is spread, but it is the most common factor.

The main cause of infection remained intravenous drug use, the report said, with 77.5 percent of people contracting the virus this way.

Infection through sexual contact accounted for 13.1 percent, while transmission from mother to baby accounted for 0.9 percent of the total infections.

Sexual Health in Australia taken to a climactic level

SEX toys are being sold next to pain relief and cough medicine by some major chemist chains, sparking criticism from family groups.

Family-friendly stores Priceline and National Pharmacies are stocking vibrators at selected stores, saying it is no different from selling other sex-related products such as Viagra and condoms.

The event causing the biggest stir in Australian news this week is the selling of vibrators in pharmacies in Australia.  This new avenue for promoting sexual health has sparked a significant amount of controversy and similarly, a lot of media space.

The Australian family association has spoken out on the topic.

The Australian Family Association has called for the vibrators, sold at selected stores in low-key packaging, to be removed.

Spokesman John Morrissey said children visiting the stores should not be exposed to sex products.

“There’s only one use for them and that’s not a habit we want to encourage in teenage girls,” he said.

“If these products belong anywhere it’s in an adult sex shop that people don’t want to be seen entering.”

While the recent news has shocked many in the community, there are some of the Australian public who are choosing not to rebut against the idea. Neil Retallick the general manager from National Pharmacies merchandising section spoke out on the issue.

National Pharmacies general manager of merchandising Neil Retallick said the products had satisfied the needs of “literally hundreds” since going on sale.

“(The vibrators) are really important for a lot of people,” he said.

“Pharmacy has been for generations a contributor to the sexual health of the community.”

The vibrators are being promoted as a sexual health product is  seen as being a reasonable explanation for their sale in pharmacies.

A Priceline spokesman said selling vibrators was no different from selling other sexual health products.

“We sell a range of these products, including condoms,” he said.

Vibrators are still being sold in pharmacies.

Womens Health Summit

FARGO – Hundreds of women are gathered at Ramada Plaza Suites and Conference Center in Fargo today to learn about the connection between mind and body.

This is the first time the First Lady’s Women’s Health Summit has sold out in Fargo, said North Dakota First Lady Mikey Hoeven.

The goal of every summit is to get women to take charge of their own healthcare, Hoeven said.

Presenters are talking about topics like nutrition, menopause, cancer, and drug addiction.

Pamela Peeke, one of the keynote speakers and New York Times bestselling author on women’s health, fitness and nutrition, told the crowd of 500 that they must “adapt and adjust” to life’s challenges.

“Own every moment of your life,” Peeke said. “Enjoy and empower yourself every single day.”

Womens Health Week!

National women’s health week begins May 10^th. It’s a great time to jump in, assess your health and how to improve your health this month and beyond. I find this to be a better time for resolutions than New Years because spring is all about renewal.

Creating goals allows you to set a plan for yourself, a realistic plan and a path to achieve it. Each day we’re filled with choices about what to eat, drink, listen to, and exercise. It’s time to re-evaluate those choices and look at improving them.

Our government actually had a very nice site offering some great tips: www.womenshealth.gov and they had the following spot on, “Women are often the caregivers for their spouses, children, and parents and forget to focus on their own health. But research shows that when women take care of themselves, the health of their family improves.”

This is the perfect time to call and schedule your annual female exam. Don’t put it off; this is a critical area to keep up on because these cancers, infections or conditions caught early are very manageable and treatable. I am a huge procrastinator on this one, even after having three kids, I really hate the exam process, but upon finding cancer cells and their removal, I no longer put this off.

I have the most success with specific goals rather than saying, drink more water, choose a nice portable reusable bottle, fill it and increase it where you’re comfortable like two, three, or five a day. This is probably the single most beneficial change that costs nothing but the initial bottle cost. It can fend off headaches, extra weight, over-eating when you’re actually thirsty and considering we’re mostly water, H2O is critical.

Exercise doesn’t have to mean treadmill, elliptical, weights or even the gym. With better weather arriving try to implement outdoor activities. Plan an evening walk with the family; say every Thursday after dinner, or whatever works in your schedule. A game of volleyball, racquetball, badminton or even hide n seek gets your body moving and creates positive mood changes.

Include ‘me time’ to allow you to just think, dream, compose or unwind. Each Sunday afternoon is my time. My kids respect that now because I am a better mom with that time. Sometimes I go for a drive, other times I take a notebook and write, draw or even doodle.

Ladies, our health affects everyone, so take care of you and you’ll be able to continue caring for them.

Australia’s urgent attention the maternal and child health

Australia: Urgent need to invest in childhood and maternal health

The global economic crisis is putting the health of women and children in the Asia-Pacific region at greater risk, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, said today.

Mr McMullan co-launched a report, Investing in Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, the Case for Asia and the Pacific, at the Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting, Bali, which exposed gaps in health investment for women and children.

“It is clear that the Millennium Development Goals to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health will not be met unless there is an increase in funding and development of national strategies to ensure effective allocation of resources,” Mr McMullan said.

Mr McMullan said the report by the Maternal Newborn and Child Health Network for Asia and the Pacific exposes where, why, and how there should be greater and better spending in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Engaging donors and partner organisations to invest in maternal and child health is crucial now more than ever,” Mr McMullan said.

“The World Bank estimates that 200,000-400,000 more children will die each year if the global economic crisis continues.”

Each year 9.2 million children under the age of five die from mostly preventable causes. More than a third of these deaths occur in the Asia Pacific region.

The World Health Organization believes that more than 80 per cent of maternal deaths could be prevented or avoided through affordable means, even in resource-poor countries.

Mr McMullan said Australia is spending at least A0 million over the next four years to improve women’s and children’s health in the Asia-Pacific region and strengthen national health systems.

“For example, Australia is providing A million over four years to support the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Maternal and Neonatal Health,” Mr McMullan said.

Australia is also part of the Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems, established to help save 10 million mothers and newborns by 2015, and was instrumental in the formation of the Maternal Newborn and Child Health Network for Asia and the Pacific.

Health Care Availability at an All Time Low

Published: Friday, May 1, 2009

Updated: Friday, May 1, 2009

February 2009 saw rookie president Obama sign a bill expanding the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover 4 million more children, a bill that Congress passed twice two years ago but vetoed each time by then-President Bush.

However, in America 6 million children are still left without health coverage under the current system, and millions more are under-insured with coverage that falls short of children’s health needs.

This blog entry from David Poms explores the implications of the SCHIP program to a twelve year old boy in America.

He explains the situation of Deamonte Driver.

Consider the story of Deamonte Driver, a 12 year old from Maryland who died February 25, 2007 of a toothache.  He couldn’t find a dentist who would accept Medicaid and his mother couldn’t afford an $80 tooth extraction. But his condition soon took a turn for the worse when he was rushed to surgery, where it was discovered that the bacteria from his abscessed tooth had infected his brain. Heroic efforts were made to save him, including two operations and eight weeks of additional care and therapy, totaling about $250,000. Unfortunately, it was all too late.

The outrage is that Deamonte’s life could have been saved by a routine dental visit and an inexpensive extraction, if only Medicaid’s reimbursement rates to providers weren’t so low, causing Medicaid providers to be extremely scarce.

Deamonte’s story illustrates not only the immoral and barbaric nature of the system even for those who are insured, but the sheer stupidity of it, economically speaking. In Deamonte’s case, the numbers are almost too much to believe – would you rather pay $80 to save a boy’s life or pay $250,000 in hospital costs and still lose him? This is a story that turns into a pattern when the system is examined.

Prevention costs far less then illness, and primary care doctor vists cost less then emergency rooms. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, every $1 spent on vaccinations saves $16 in later costs to the community. Uninsured children cost the local community $2,100 more than a child with Medicaid or SCHIP. At least 40 states are facing budget shortfalls this year; many are considering cutting programs that will affect low-income children’s or families’ eligibility for health insurance. This is not only tragic but more costly for us in the long run. Covering all children will have positive stimulative effects on the economy by not wasting resources in this manner.

Covering all children will also have positive effects in many other areas. It has long been known that healthy children do better in school. Those children without health coverage are also often those most in need of mental health services, as children often come to school from dysfunctional or damaging environments not conducive to learning.  A congressional study a few years ago found that there were currently 15,000 children in the juvenile justice system due solely to the lack of community mental health services. Making those services available will reduce strain on the justice system while increasing student achievement.

Covering all children will also greatly reduce the burden on parents—especially homeowners. The number one cause of bankruptcy in the country is a medical emergency, and almost half of people with homes in foreclosure named medical problems as a cause. And it is in line with free market principles. When parents don’t have to consider whether they should take or stay in a job due solely to health benefits for their children (or themselves), they have more freedom as economic actors.

Full disclosure: I have founded a group on campus this semester called Students Advocating for Youth (SAY), which is affiliated with the Children’s Defense Fund. CDF is the foremost proponent of policies and programs that provide children with the resources they need to succeed. CDF and SAY believe that all children need affordable, comprehensive, and seamless health coverage.

We also believe that in the upcoming health care reform bill, children may be left out. As I noted at the beginning, many in Washington believe the SCHIP expansion was enough, but it is not. That is why we are collecting letters to send to President Obama to tell him that ALL children need health coverage. We will be collecting letters in the Union until reading day. If inspired, I hope that you will contribute a handwritten letter. Ensuring health coverage for all children is a key moral test of the nation – one that I am confident we can pass.

Alcohol brings new risk to women

As many people are aware, Cancer is something that appears in day-to-day life, that affects many people and can devastate the many foundations of people you know. Therefore, it’s interesting to come across an article once in a while that brings forth new evidence surrounding the speculation of cancer as found from University Research.

This article from www.wedmd.com claims that Women who drink as little as one alcoholic beverage per day are more susceptible to retracting cancer than those who do not drink alcohol.

Researchers followed more than 1.2 million middle-aged women for an average of seven years. The women were participants in the ongoing Million Women Study in the U.K.

Those who drank alcohol consumed on average one drink a day. These women had an increased cancer risk with increasing alcohol intake, especially for cancers of the breast, liver, rectum, mouth, throat, and esophagus.

Based on their findings, the researchers estimated that alcohol could be to blame for 13% of these cancers in women.

I find it incredibly daunting that every time I go to consume an alcoholic beverage, I could be increasing my own risk of getting cancer. The study reveals that not only does drinking alcohol increase your risk of getting breast cancer (previously speculated) but also increases your risk of getting several other cancers.

The link between alcohol and breast cancer has been extensively researched and reported on, but the study is among the first to link low-to-moderate alcohol consumption to other cancers in women.

“There were no minimum levels of alcohol consumption that could be considered to be without risk,” cancer epidemiologist and study researcher Naomi Allen, DPhil, of the University of Oxford, tells WebMD.

Women have a new risk to be worried about in everyday life, we can only hope there is a cure soon enough. The article then goes on to break down the results of the research.

Most of the excess cases were breast cancers. Allen and colleagues concluded that as many as 11% of breast cancers can be attributed to alcohol consumption.

Last year, about 250,000 women were diagnosed with invasive and non-invasive breast cancers in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. The latest research suggests that 27,000 of these cancers were alcohol related.

I think this is a healthy reminder to women everywhere, the risk of drinking alone is not good for your health, but now there is a new danger in the mix.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world at present, could alcohol consumption have been the reason behind it all this time? Perhaps all women should cut down on drinking to see if there is any decrease in breast cancer in women. It is also intriguing to see what the research concluded when it came to the amount of alcohol consumed from each woman.

The study also shows that:

Women who drank only wine had the same risk for developing cancer as those who drank beer, spirits, or a combination of alcoholic beverages.

Less than 2% of the women in the study regularly consumed more than three drinks a day, but each additional drink increased risk.

Women who smoked and drank alcohol had an increased risk of oral, throat, and esophageal cancer that was greater than the risk associated with smoking alone.

Womens demands for anti-aging developments has escalated

When discussing womens health, it is often debated that women have a general fear of aging or getting older. The fear of looking unattractive to the opposite sex, or the fear of younger women has many women turning to anti-aging creams to fix out creases and lines on the face.

There is often a war of words surrounding this topic;  A woman be free to make the choice to age gracefully VS. A woman should be free to do whatever she likes to appear younger (whether this be through anti-aging creams or plastic surgery, botox etc.).

There is an interesting article on www.wedmd.com relating to womens anti-aging creams and how and if they work.

The first section of this article immediately grabbed my attention:

From magazines and newspapers to web pages and online blogs, it is hard to miss the promises being made for products designed for beauty and skin care. And the most tantalizing promises of all? Those that touch not just our vanity, but also our fears of growing old.

It’s an approach that seems to be working. According to Euromonitor International, anti-aging products now account for close to 9.8 billion dollars of the skin care market. That’s a nearly 109% increase since 1997.

But is the drive to deliver on the promise of still more hope in a jar bringing us any closer to finding the fountain of youth? The answer, it seems, depends on whether you are looking for a trickle or a gusher.

I find it extremely interesting, however, inadvertently, Women have become such a target through internet advertising. You very often could be browsing on the internet and have multiple advertisements lined up on the side of your page employed to attract women. Frequently I see these ad’s on my Facebook page, “Get the flat tummy you have always desired” and “Take inches off your thighs within 10 days!”. With body image being such a big spotlight in the media lately, it is no wonder women are feeling so insecure about their weight and/or appearance.

Which comes to my point of a woman’s fear of growing old. Society has dictated what is beautiful in the public eye, and not one of these universal ideas of beauty has ever been depicted as a healthy 50 year old woman for example. A women should be able to age gracefully and not be made to feel insecure about growing old.

One more class of products offering new hope in a jar takes the sci-fi approach of tinkering with DNA to turn back the clock one molecule at a time. One such product is called “Remergent.” Sold through doctor’s offices, Remergent reportedly works by delivering to cells small packets of enzymes with the capability of repairing DNA. When DNA, the basic component in all living cells, is damaged ― whether by too much sun exposure, or through the chemical assaults of pollution ― cells undergo changes that can result in anything from accelerated aging to disease, including cancer. The company’s website points to several published clinical studies they say document their product’s ability to control or even reverse DNA damage.

But while Beer is certain the technology is possible, he is less sure it is here. “None of these (studies) correlate the reversal of any age related symptoms or of any skin cancer treatment with their ingredients,” he says. “So while I believe that the technology for DNA repair holds great promise, I am awaiting evidence to convince me that it comes in a bottle.”

Jamal is even more skeptical: “In order for DNA repair to occur, the effect has to take place in the nucleus of the cell ― and my question is, are the agents able to affect nuclear processes [in your skin] as well as in the dish in the lab?”

Anti-Aging creams are acting as merely a glimmer of hope for the 35-45 year old woman, but as you can see above, there is a more desperate demand for a treatment that will physically take you beyond your years, through tampering with DNA.  “Remergent” is the latest development in the area of anti-aging and involves the reversing of cell development in your own DNA that stops/renders the aging process.

I think it is safe to say, aging and getting older has now escalated to a new height.

Domestic Violence & Health Care for Women

FRIDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) — Women who are physically or psychologically abused by their partners spend more each year on health care, even years after the abuse stops, a new report says.

The long-term study of more than 3,300 women in the Pacific Northwest revealed that women in ongoing abusive relationships spent about 42 percent more a year on physical and mental health-care services than did women not in abusive relationships.

Even those who had not been subjected to abuse in at least five years spent 19 percent a year more for health care than those who had never suffered abuse from an intimate partner, according to findings by a team from Ohio State University, the Group Health Cooperative, and the University of Washington in Seattle.

“Along with all the physical and emotional pain it causes, domestic violence also comes with a substantial financial price,” Amy Bonomi, an associate professor of human development and family science at Ohio State and a co-author of the study, said in a news release from the university.

In relationships involving psychological abuse, such as verbal threats, stifling control by a partner and other such tactics, women spent 33 percent more on health care than their non-abused peers, even though the incidents had occurred not at the time of the survey but within the previous five years.

Abuse victims sought care from specialists, prescription services and radiology far more than other women, the report found

The findings were published online in the journal Health Services Research.

The study, which included data from 1992 to 2002, found that physically and psychologically abused women sought help from mental health services at least twice as often as women who were not abused, Bonomi said.

“This lends support to the idea that mental health providers should always ask women about their abuse history when they first come in for treatment,” she said.

Abortion bringing mental and physical harm.

It is obvious that Abortion is a touchy subject in Australian society and a recent study at the University of Melbourne  has found conclusive and disturbing evidence that women living in Victoria who choose to abort their pregnancies are subject to physical harm from their partners.

The results from the study show that there are 3 common reasons surrounding the decision for abortion in women living in and around the city of Melbourne.

“Of about 3000 women who gave a primary reason for wanting an abortion, 23 per said they did not want children now, 11 per cent said they were too young, and 2.4 per cent said their partner was violent or they had been raped.”

The study also revealed distressing evidence that young women are struggling for social support in their own circumstances….

 

 

HUNDREDS of women seeking abortions in Victoria each year have experienced violence at the hands of their partners.

And almost 1 per cent of those considering abortions say they have been raped.

A University of Melbourne study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, is the first Victorian study to look at those who consider aborting unplanned pregnancies.

It audited 12 months of calls to the Royal Women’s Hospital’s Pregnancy Advisory Service, Victoria’s largest public pregnancy support service.

The service received more than 5400 calls from women seeking advice between October 2006 and September 2007.

About 3200 of the women wanted abortions, and 752 of them had previously had at least one abortion.

Study lead author Dr Heather Rowe, from the university’s Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society, said pregnancy-advice services should be reviewed in light of the results.

She said younger, poorer women, who live outside Melbourne, made contact with abortion counsellors later in their pregnancies than other women, meaning they faced more dangerous abortions.

“(The audit) suggests there is inadequate access to some local services,” Dr Rowe said.

More than half of the women considering an abortion were between 18 and 29, but more than 260 were 17 or younger. The youngest caller was 13.

Only 0.6 per cent of women wanting abortions made contact with counsellors after the 19th week of their pregnancies.

Of about 3000 women who gave a primary reason for wanting an abortion, 23 per said they did not want children now, 11 per cent said they were too young, and 2.4 per cent said their partner was violent or they had been raped.

But 16 per cent of callers mentioned violence as a contributing factor in their decision to seek advice, a statistic Dr Rowe said was disturbing.

“It does suggest that ‘exposure to violence’ needs to be included in all health services for women, because it is a common occurrence in the community and it’s only just been acknowledged,” she said.

Dr Rowe said some callers were very young, and more research to explore problems for teens and unplanned pregnancies was needed, as was more education.