Condom Homework Increases Compliance, Comfort and Consistency

A new and successful strategy for combating the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV was revealed today at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in Boston.

The idea is based upon the decades old premise that practice makes perfect!.

In the study entitled “A novel, self-guided, home-based intervention to improve condom use among young men who have sex with men.  The men were given a “ditty bag” full of eight different types of condoms and five different types of  lubricants, taught how to apply the condoms correctly, and then assigned homework. The men were expected to try out at least six condoms solo, paying particular attention to their own pleasure and which condoms they liked best.

The purpose of this study was to test of feasibility and efficacy of this intervention and to promote positive condom attitudes and to reduce risk behaviors.

30 volunteer subjects were recruited from a Midwestern University and its surrounding community. A pre-test questionnaire was administered.  A post-test questionnaire was given at Day 15 and an additional follow-up questionnaire at Day 45.

It’s such a simple idea, but nobody has every structured an approach like this,” said William L. Yarber, professor in the Indiana University School of Public-Health. “These are pilot studies. But even with small samples, the results are really good. Men become more motivated to use condoms; they use them more correctly and consistently. They also appreciate learning that there are different condoms available.”

A pilot study, published in the Journal of Men’s Health in 2011, focused on heterosexual men. The new study, focuses on young men who have sex with men, or MSM.  It will be published in the Journal of American College Health, MSM aged 18 – 29 are diagnosed with HIV more than any other group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. are among MSM between the ages of 13 and 24 years. College-aged MSM are more likely than older MSM and men who only have sex with women to be infected with HIV.

“This is an important group of men to reach,” says  Roberta Emetu, who coordinated the research project.  “The men who experienced this intervention became better in their condom use. They not only used them more often but used them correctly. We saw an increase in motivation to use them.”

When pre-test and post-test responses were compared, significant post-intervention improvements were found for beliefs and application of condoms, self-efficacy, condom attitude, motivation to use condoms, and consistency of condom use for insertive penile-anal intercourse.

Yarber and his colleagues have documented for more than 10 years how merely wearing a condom is not enough to provide effective protection against STDs and unwanted pregnancies. Condoms need to be used correctly, yet fit-and-feel issues can result in erection difficulty, loss of sensation, removal of condoms before the intercourse episode ends, and other problems that can interfere with their correct use.

These findings suggest that this intervention could be applicable to college-aged MSM, and could be a great resource or model for other public health condom interventions.

Sex, Lies and…Polygraphs

What is the one thing people are most likely to lie about?  No prizes for guessing –  the answer, more often than not, is sex.

And, why do people lie?

Well according to new research – people lie about their sexual behavior to match cultural expectations, even though they don’t distort other gender-related behaviors.

The study, published in the journal Sex Roles, included 293 heterosexual college students between the ages of 18 and 25. Students completed a questionnaire that asked how often (from never to a few times a day), they engaged in 124 different behaviors.

One group of students was hooked up to a lie detector while they filled out the questionnaire, but were not informed that the lie detector did not actually work. The use of the bogus polygraph was intended to make participants feel pressured to tell the truth. The other group was connected to the apparatus before the study began, supposedly to measure anxiety, but the machine was removed before they completed the questionnaire.

In general, the results showed that both men and women tended to act as would be expected for their gender. Men reported more typical-male behaviors and women reported more typical-female behaviors, regardless of whether they were attached to the lie detector or not.

But for non-sexual behaviors, the participants didn’t seem to feel any added pressure to respond in stereotypical ways for their gender.

In other words, women who were hooked up to the lie detector and those who weren’t were equally likely to admit to bench pressing weights – a stereotypical male activity, while the men happily admitted to reading and writing poetry – a stereotypic female activity.

“Men and women didn’t feel compelled to report what they did in ways that matched the stereotypes for their gender for the non-sexual behaviors,” said lead author Terri Fisher, professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

However when it came to sex, everything changed!

Men wanted to be seen as “real men:” the kind who had many partners and a lot of sexual experience. Women, on the other hand, wanted to be seen as having less sexual experience than they actually had, to match what is expected of women.

“There is something unique about sexuality that led people to care more about matching the stereotypes for their gender,” said Terri Fisher “Sexuality seemed to be the one area where people felt some concern if they didn’t meet the stereotypes of a typical man or a typical woman.”

The one exception was sexual behavior, where, for example, men reported more sexual partners when they weren’t hooked up to the lie detector than whey they were. Women, on the other hand, reported fewer partners when they were not hooked up to the lie detector than when they were. A similar pattern was found for reports of ever having experienced sexual intercourse.

“Men and women had different answers about their sexual behavior when they thought they had to be truthful,” Fisher said.

This suggests that unless there is extreme pressure to be honest, both men and women will continue to lie about their sex lives. Shocker!

Fighting Flab with Flying Insects

If, like us, you live in the East Coast of the US, you’ve probably stated to see some of the billions of bug-eyed cicadas that have returned after a 17 year absence.   Cicada sightings are trending on Facebook and other social media sites, almost as frequently as reports of the devastation in Oklahoma and the outcome of the Jodi Arias trial.

I saw my first red eyed cicada on Sunday night…not while out walking my dogs or mowing my yard but in the Emergency Department of my local hospital!  While I’m not certain if it was there as a patient or a visitor, it caused one of my EMS colleagues to run screaming from the room.

This got me thinking about what will you do when ‘swarmageddon’ hits?

Will you be locking yourself inside out of terror and to avoid the potential ear trauma resulting from the insects’ loud mating noises, or, will you be embracing the winged critters as a diet delicacy?

That’s right!  Cicadas are an excellent source of nutrients and apparently one of the most versatile ingredients around. They can be deep fried, stir fried, skewered, blanched and even made into ice cream.

But you’ll need to be quick.  Just like another delicacy – truffles – the season will be short. By the end of June, the 2013 cicada invasion will come to a close, and it will be another 17 years before we see them again.

“Cicadas are the shrimp of the land,” says entomologist Isa Betancourt .  She explains: “They are arthropods, which means they have an exoskeleton. We regularly eat the arthropods of the sea … shrimp, lobster, and crabs.”

Better still, cicadas are high in protein and low in fat.  Apparently they have a delicate nutty flavor and buttery texture and are best when they first emerge from the ground in the morning, still soft after shedding their skin.

And even though the thought of eating cicadas might give you the creeps, a U.N. report published this week, unrelated to cicadas, says consuming insects can help fight obesity.

More than 1,900 species of insects are eaten around the world, mainly in Africa and Asia. However, “in the West we have a cultural bias, and think that because insects come from developing countries, they cannot be good,” says  Arnold van Huis, one of the authors of the report, from Wageningen University in the Netherlands,

As well as helping in the costly battle against obesity, which the World Health Organization estimates has nearly doubled since 1980 and affects around 500 million people, the report said insect farming was likely to be less land-dependent than traditional livestock and produce fewer greenhouse gases.

It would also provide business and export opportunities for poor people in developing countries, especially women, who are often responsible for collecting insects in rural communities.

Van Huis said barriers to enjoying dishes such as bee larvae yogurt were psychological – in a blind test carried out by his team, nine out of 10 people preferred meatballs made from roughly half meat and half mealworms to those made from meat!

Share your cicada, and other insect, recipes and experiences with us.

The Growing Cost of Aging

With the election looming, we’ve heard a lot of rhetoric about healthcare. Rising costs, limited access, reforming Medicare…the list goes on and on.  Whatever happens on November 6, it seems the American public has already spoken. According to new research just unveiled at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting, the cost of lifestyle drugs now exceeds the cost for medications used to treat chronic disease.

The research suggests that medicines used to treat conditions considered a normal part of aging, including those related to hormone replacement therapy, sexual dysfunction, menopause, aging skin, hair loss and mental alertness, are becoming so popular that they now rank third.  Only diabetes and high cholesterol have a greater cost impact among commercially insured patients.

Researchers at Express Scripts in St. Louis looked at trends in prescriptions filled for aging medications.  In 2011 alone, the cost per person for aging medications ($73.30) was 16% greater than the amount spent on both high blood pressure and heart disease medications ($62.80).  The cost for diabetes medications was $81.12 and high cholesterol medications was $78.38.

The research found that among these insured individuals use of drugs to treat the physical impact associated with normal aging was up 18.5% and costs increased nearly 46% from 2006 to 2011. Increased use of these drugs was even more pronounced for the Medicare population (age 65+), up 32% from 2007 to 2011. The largest utilization jump among Medicare beneficiaries was from 2010 to 2011, up more than 13% and outpacing increases in the use of drugs for diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure combined.

“At a time when people are forgoing care due to rising health costs, this study reveals a growing trend on where the public is placing its healthcare dollars,” said Reethi Iyengar, PhD, researcher at Express Scripts.  “Continued monitoring and potential management may be warranted for this category of medications.”

While there is no doubt that pharmaceutical advances and greater awareness have improved the quality of life for many aging Americans what was not known, until now, is the significant cost associated with treating these conditions. Couple that with the proliferation of people living longer and it’s clear that managing the trend and spend from treating conditions associated with aging will become increasingly important.

The United States is in the midst of a profound demographic change, with the number of elderly people projected to reach nearly 20% of the entire population by 2030, up from less than 13% in 2009. This increase will continue to drive both use and costs of medications to treat the natural conditions of aging.

But the problem may be even bigger. The greatest growth in cost per insured was seen among the 45 to 54 age group – up almost 21% over the last five-years. And because the study only analyzed prescription medications it may have underestimated the total costs of aging treatments, which include a variety of over-the-counter medications, cosmetic treatments and surgery.

Seems getting old hurts not only our bodies, but our wallets and the economy too.

Some VERY strange allergies

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 90% of all food related allergies are caused by milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, fish, soy and wheat.

While these are the most common, there are other allergy triggers you may not be so familiar with.

How about water?  Yes, it is possible to be allergic to one of the most abundant substances in the world, including the water in our own bodies. People with this condition, properly known as aquagenic urticaria, can experience severe itching and hives within five minutes of coming into contact with water, regardless of its source or temperature.

This condition is rare – only around 30 cases have been reported in the literature and the reason for it isn’t known. Worse still for those affected, histamine levels — the usual allergy culprit — don’t actually increase in these patients, meaning that traditional antihistamines don’t work.

While it might be hard to envision a life without water, spare a thought for women who are allergic to their own female hormones.  Although it’s not uncommon for women to suffer from acne, water retention and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) at certain times their cycle, a small number of women suffer from a condition called autoimmune progesterone dermatitis (APD). This skin disorder is triggered by progesterone hypersensitivity after ovulation.

And speaking of women’s problems – just imagine if you were allergic to semen.  While it’s more common in women, we need to point out that it’s also possible for men to be allergic to their own sperm.

Dutch researchers recently reported 45 cases of post-orgasmic illness syndrome. In both cases, the men experienced allergic symptoms around their eyes and nose, and transient flu-like symptoms within seconds, minutes or hours after sex, masturbation or spontaneous ejaculation. Yikes!

As if life without water or sex is difficult to contemplate, imagine if you were allergic to the weather.  In some people, a drop in the temperature can set off an inflammatory disorder known as cold urticaria.  Patients with the condition can experience redness, itching, swelling, hives and, in rare cases, death when they come in contact with cold air, cold water or even cold drinks. For others it’s the sun that’s the problem. Solar urticaria, can cause similar symptoms within minutes of exposure, in affected individuals.

And if all of this has left you feeling a little faint, be careful where you lie down! Although as we told you earlier soybeans are a common food allergen, and sufferers need to omit soy products from their diet, soybean allergies can be triggered by beanbags. According to a case study reported in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, a 6-year-old boy experienced respiratory distress while playing at school. His reaction was apparently triggered by dust from the dry soybeans in the beanbag.

Are you allergic to anything strange?  Share your stories and suffering with us!

Assault, Bath-Salts and Battery

Last month the internet was abuzz with the gruesome story of the nude face-eating cannibal zombie attack in Florida.

This month it’s the Pennsylvania mom, who attacked nurses and tried to bite a cop in a naked brawl, two days after giving birth.

For those readers who somehow missed these stories, allow us to summarize.

The first case happened on May 27th in Miami, Florida when a naked 31-year-old man tried to eat the face off of a complete stranger. He was largely successful in his efforts, mauling off 80% of his victim’s face. It was a gruesome spectacle that baffled police officers, ending with the attacker dead, and the victim virtually faceless. For those who witnessed this disturbing and puzzling attack, either first hand or through the media, it appeared as though the zombie apocalypse had begun.

The second, occurred on June 17, when a new mom stripped naked and repeatedly attacked staff and law enforcement officers on the maternity ward of Altoona Regional Hospital.

What links these two cases is not just the nudity and the biting – but also “bath salts”.  Bath salts are a relatively new group of designer drugs sold as tablets, capsules, or powder and purchased in places such as convenience stores and gas stations.

When the Miami mauling originally appeared in the news, the words “bath salts” were almost always included in the headlines, suggesting that dangerous or hallucinogenic drugs were the real culprits behind the attack. Subsequently, toxicology reports indicated that the only drugs the attacker had in his system at the time were traces of cannabis.

In the more recent case, it seems the woman had been smoking bath salts. After the attack, cops found a hollowed out pen covered with what they said looked like residue from smoking drugs, and  a silver disc containing a white powder that the attacker  identified as Disco – a street name for bath salts.

So what exactly are bath salts and why are they so dangerous?

First of all they are not the colored crystals you would add to your tub to promote a relaxing soak.  Although they sound innocent enough, they are in fact dangerous stimulants that mimic cocaine, LSD, methamphetamine, or ecstasy.

Between January and February 2011 alone there were over 250 calls to U.S. poison centers related to bath salts.

Given the recent surge of cases in which the use of these drugs has been associated with violent acts SRxA’s Word on Health believes it’s important to educate our readers. Society needs to understand bath salts before we can create an effective means of stopping or controlling their distribution, and providing treatment for those unfortunate enough to experience its effects.

Bath salts are produced from Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), a psychoactive drug with stimulant properties first developed in 1969.  MDPV causes intense stimulation, euphoria, elevated mood, and a reportedly pleasurable “rush.” Increased heart rate and blood pressure, chest pain, hallucinations, paranoia, erratic behavior, inattention, lack of memory of substance use, and psychosis have also been observed.

Part of the appeal of using bath salts has been their relative availability and the difficulty in picking up its use on routine drug screens.

Bath salts have been packaged and labeled as “plant food” or “not for human consumption,” and product labels do not list the ingredients. Brand names include Blizzard, Black Rob Blue Silk, Charge+, Cloud 9Ivory Snow, Ivory Wave, Mad Cow, Magic, Maddie, Ocean Burst, Pure Ivory, Purple Wave, Snow Leopard, Stardust, Super Coke, Vanilla Sky, White Dove, White Knight and White Lightning.

On October 21, 2011, the US Drug Enforcement Administration issued a temporary one year ban on bath salts, classifying them as a schedule I substance – a status is reserved for those substances with a high potential for abuse.

On December 8, 2011, under the Synthetic Drug Control Act, the US House of Representatives voted to ban bath salts and a variety of other synthetic drugs which, until then, had been sold legally in stores.

The bottom line?

Bath salts are a relatively new drug, so it’s hard to know the full long-term effects, but they seem to have many similarities to methamphetamine. They can lead to emotional and physical “crash-like” feelings of depression, anxiety and intense cravings for more of the drug.  And since they contain amphetamine-like chemicals, bath salts will always carry the risk of stroke, heart attack and sudden death. While they may be still be legal in some countries, so is rat poison, and you probably wouldn’t want to ingest that either!