Healthy Teens, a Music Video, YouTube and STDs??

What can healthy teens, a music video, YouTube and STDs have in common? The 12 Days Of April- aka. "GET TESTED!!" Wonderful teens Catherine "Cat" Butler, Kat G., Nate & Connor McLauchlan all agreed that posting a video on YouTube that featured teens singing about STDs might just be an effective way to reach their peers with an important message. Huge thanks to Dona LeBlanc for her beautiful voice and creative playscape, as well as to her son, Matt for his participation in our dress rehearsal and creative costume additions. Kudos to Richard Lampert, our videographer and computer expert, for his time, talents, and humor. Thanks to Coni for her artwork, and to all the teens' parents for having open minds about letting their kids help other teens with an awkward topic!

So why SING about sexually transmitted diseases? Well, why not? Songs creep into your brain and often crop up years later when something triggers a memory. Picture this-in the middle of a frat party in December, the 12 Days of Christmas starts playing, and instead of "Five Golden Rings" the reminder "Most STDs are SILENT- GET TESTED!" pops into a few mildly intoxicated brains! How great would that be?

Click this to see video: http://www.jillgrimesmd.com/audiovideo-12days.html

BOTTOM LINE: We've got to think out of the box to find new methods to teach people the facts about sexually transmitted diseases so they can make educated choices and preserve their health and fertility. 

Turn Off Week!

Okay, how ironic is it to enter a blog on "turn off week"? Because really, I hope you're not reading this- at least not THIS week! April 20-26th has been designated as "turn off week" to remind families that we really need to be conscious of screen time. What counts as screen time? TV, computer games, WII, email, twitter, facebook- you name it! If it involves a screen of any sort, it counts.

Does this mean you shouldn't check your email or do computer-based homework this week? Our reality is that we rely on our computers for important messages from work or school, and many run their calendars this way, so it's not practical to insist on cold turkey. However, let this be a week where you try to minimize your computer time to actually required interaction, and try NOT to use the computer for entertainment. Pull out a board game or jigsaw puzzle. Grab your helmet and hop on your bike or rollerblades. Take your dog for a walk. Mobilize the family and walk to your favorite local dive for Saturday morning breakfast. 

We need to set the example in our homes that we ENJOY interacting with other humans! Too many kids think play dates mean going over to a friend's house to play video games. Believe it or not, if you turn off the electronics, kids are amazingly creative in their play- BUT, you've got to set the rules.  Screens are not inherently evil or bad, but like everything else in life, they require moderation. Use this week as a springboard towards a more active and interactive lifestyle.

BOTTOM LINE:  Let's use this week to reconnect with our families and friends face to face- not through a screen!  For more information on turn off week, go to http://www.tvturnoff.org/ 

"Passover" the Easter candy!

Happy Easter! And happy Passover, as well. I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their families during these holidays- even if there were occasional squabbles or tears over who ate the bunny ears or who found more hidden eggs. And now comes the hard part...what do you do with ALL THAT CANDY? Let me suggest that the answer is NOT to spread it out over the next week or two, allowing yourself to grab some chocolate with each pass through the kitchen. Before you know it, the calories will erase any hard work you've done since those New Years resolutions have kicked in. Instead, how about donating them to your local homeless shelter (or wherever you know they might be needed.) I'm not about wasting food, but I also realize that candy kept in the house ends up frustrating weight loss goals!

BOTTOM LINE: Enjoy the holidays, treats and all, but give it an end point and jump right back into focusing on MORE fruits and veggies each day!

STD AWARENESS MONTH!!

It's no April Fool's joke that over 20 million Americans have HPV (the Human Papilloma Virus), one in five Americans over the age of 12 have genital herpes, and over 4 million Americans annually catch gonorrhea and chlamydia, which can lead to chronic pelvic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease, and infertility. We spend over $15 billion annually on medical costs directly from STD, so let's start some health reform HERE! If you see someone wearing a green "cause" ribbon this month, they are promoting the CDC (Center for Disease Control) STD Awareness Month.
This is a wonderful opportunity to open a conversation with your teen about some of the risks of physical intimacy. Even if your family promotes abstinence, you need to be certain that your child understands that herpes, HPV, syphilis and even pubic lice ("crabs") can be transmitted by direct skin to skin contact- no "sex" of any kind required! This is how virgins can still catch STDs- a bizarre concept, I know. Additionally, even though it will likely be an awkward discussion, be sure that your teen understands that oral sex can transmit STDs, and in fact, is a very common way that people catch genital herpes. There does NOT need to be a visible cold sore present on the "giver's" mouth for this to happen!
BOTTOM LINE: Let's take advantage of this STD Awareness month designation to make certain that our friends and families learn the facts about STDs and go get tested if they are at risk! Check out the CDC's website for more info. http://www.cdcnpin.org/stdawareness/sam.htm

Silent but deadly

Chlamydia is now the most commonly reported notifiable disease in the United States, with annual cases reaching over a million for the first time in 2006, and now the recently released 2007 statistics show an increase to 1.1 million. Chlamydia is actually very easily treated and CURED with antibiotics, so what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is that you have to know it is there to treat it, and Chlamydia is silent in half of men and 75% of women! Chlamydia will happily remain in your reproductive tract, setting up shop and potentially scarring your tubes and impairing your fertility for years if not treated. It is estimated that if we physicians started screening every woman who is sexually active, we would annually prevent 60,000 cases of pelvic inflammatory disease, 8,000 cases of chronic pelvic pain and over 7,000 cases of infertility! Talk about saving heart ache, pain, and not to mention countless health care dollars!
So, what's the myth? The myth is that you will KNOW if you have an STD. The FACT is that most STDs are silent, and Chlamydia is one where silence is deadly.
BOTTOM LINE: If you have had a new sexual partner, please go to your physician and ask to be tested for all STDs, especially Chlamydia. Do NOT wait for symptoms to worry about STDs!!

Summer lovin'...

Happened so fast! Okay, I'm still on a "Grease" theme, but hey, the music fits the topic! So, what's next? HPV- the Human Papilloma Virus. Did you know over 20 million Americans have active HPV infections as I type this? That over a million Americans have genital warts at any given time? HPV is VERY COMMON. The good news is that now we have Gardasil, which will protect young women against both genital warts and cervical cancer. The bad news is that people are nervous about giving their daughters the vaccine. Remember, we give all babies the hepatitis B vaccine in the first day of life. Hepatitis B is spread through IV drug use and sex, but we give to everyone so we can prevent the end stage disease, which is liver cancer. Similarly, while it's great to prevent genital warts, the larger purpose of Gardasil is to prevent cervical cancer. The safety studies on Gardasil are in (see my earlier post "and she's safe") and so yes, I will be vaccinating my daughters.
So, what's the biggest myth about HPV? I'd have to say that people believe you have to have sex to catch it. HPV is spread from direct skin-to-skin contact- no sex of any kind needed. Condoms can't cover all the area that can harbor HPV, so they can't fully protect against it. Genital warts can show up anywhere that there was direct contact- from the upper thighs, to the anus, to the standard "private parts", and they are no fun to have treated. Having said that, don't wait to come in if you think you have a wart, because the smaller and fewer they are, the easier they are to treat!
Second biggest myth is that genital warts turn into cancer- NOT TRUE! The types of HPV that cause 90% of genital warts do NOT cause cancer.
BOTTOM LINE: HPV is VERY COMMON in the United States. I recommend Gardasil (and no, I'm not on Merck's payroll in any way, shape or form!). Warts do NOT turn into cancer, but untreated silent HPV might- get those Pap smears!

"Tell me more, tell me more..."

Was it love at first site? Okay, that's a Grease reference, for those of you who may not recognize it. Can you believe John Travolta has thrilled another generation of girls- and this time, HE is a MOM?? Gotta love Hairspray...
But I digress! What I want to talk about this month is STD myths. While I could tell you to go buy and read Seductive Delusions for all the answers, I find that people frequently ask me to "tell them more". So, for the next few blog entries, I'll try to hit the highlights on some of the major sexually transmitted diseases.
Herpes, from it's sheer numbers, must go first! Somewhere between half and 75% of Americans test positive for herpes, meaning that they carry antibodies to herpes as a result of being infected- whether or not they get blisters. It is believed that 90% of people with genital herpes, for example, are completely unaware that they have it. While that is GOOD news for them (they are lucky that they don't experience painful blisters) it's BAD news for their unknowing partners who might contract herpes from them. There is no correlation with the severity of disease from one partner to the next, even though it is the same virus. Put another way, you may break out once per year, but the partner you gave it to might break out every month! Not the gift you want to give. The biggest myth about herpes is that people believe cold sores are NOT herpes, and perhaps that is why they do not believe that oral sex can transmit herpes.
BOTTOM LINE: Herpes is COMMON. It is spread whether or not you know you have it, whether or not you can see any blisters. Herpes is VERY OFTEN spread from one person's mouth ("cold sores" or "fever blisters") to another person's genitals through oral sex.