Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine December 23, 2012 HPV Infections Can Return as You Age Without New Sexual Exposures Recent breakthrough research shows that the sexually- transmitted, cancer-causing Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) can come back to cause an infection many years after an old sexual contact that gave you the infection in the first place (Journal of Infectious Diseases, December 15, 2012;206(12)). It can do so without any new sexual contact, just as the chicken pox virus causes shingles many years later, without additional exposure . This recent study confirms the findings of a previous study that showed that HPV infections increase after menopause (Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, December 2010). However, the postmenopausal women most likely to have HPV symptoms are the ones with new sexual partners in the last six months. The data show that a new infection is far more common than a reactivated one from a previous infection. HPV CAUSES CANCERS: HPV can cause cancers of the head, neck, tongue, mouth, tonsils, cervix, vulva, vagina, penis and anus. It is the most common sexually transmitted disease in North America today. The use of condoms can help to prevent HPV infections. SHINGLES: When you were a child, you probably acquired chicken pox and had blisters all over your body. Then the blisters went away and you thought that you were cured. However the virus remains in your nerves for the rest of your life. For one out of three Americans, the virus comes back in later life to cause horrible pain and blisters in one nerve. HPV, LIKE SHINGLES, can also return many years later. Men and women over 50 who develop mouth, vaginal, urinary or penile spots or rashes, could have a recurrence of HPV without a new sexual partner, or they could have acquired a new infection from a new sexual partner. THE MORE LIFETIME PARTNERS, THE MORE LIKELY HPV IS TO RECUR. In this study, about 77 percent of the infections were detected in women who had five or more sexual partners in their lifetimes. The more partners they had, the more likely they were to suffer recurrent infections later in life. HOW COMMON ARE HPV INFECTIONS? Sexually active women have a probability of being infected with HPV at: AGE INCIDENCE OF HPV 14-19 24.5 percent 20-24 44.8 percent 25-29 27.4 percent 30-39 27.5 percent 40-49 25.2 percent 50-59 19.6 percent The Centers for Disease Control estimates that at least 80 percent of sexually active women have been infected by age 50 (CDC, 2004). TYPES OF HPV: You can get more than 150 different types of HPV. Only 15 percent of infections are from the types that are called high risk for cancer. At least 24 percent of women have two types of HPV, and 16 percent have three or more types detected. The types that put you at high risk for cancer are types 16, 18, 52, and 59. These four types are associated with more than 90 percent all cervical cancers. NATURAL HISTORY OF HPV INFECTIONS: When you are infected with HPV, your immune system appears to clear the virus in six to nine months. That does not mean that the virus is gone. It means that doctors cannot find it. More than 150 different HPVs exist and with each infection, you acquire immunity to that specific HPV, but usually not to any other type. So you are still susceptible to getting any of the other HPV types. With each sexual exposure, you can pick up any other one or more of the HPVs. The data clearly show that the more partners you have, the more likely you are to have HPV persist. Men and women with the most partners are most likely to have the most different types of HPV. People who have had the most partners are the ones most likely to have a recurrence of HPV in later life, even though they may not be acquiring any new viruses. DOES EVERY WOMAN WHO HAS HPV ALSO HAVE AN ABNORMAL PAP SMEAR? Many women with proven HPV infections will not have an abnormal PAP smear. The women infected with the high risk 16, 18, 52 and 59 are the ones most likely to have abnormal PAP smears and be at higher risk for cervical cancer. A man or woman who is recently infected with HPV can usually expect doctors to be unable to find the virus six to nine months later. However, if an infected person's immune system is depressed by menopause, pregnancy, chronic illness, or immune suppression drugs, the virus can be activated. The person can develop burning, itching, pain, or irritation in the infected site, and the virus can be found in the skin, vagina or mouth again. The high-risk subtypes are the most likely to come back. IMMUNIZATION: The available vaccines contain only four of the more than 150 different HPV types. One vaccine protects against HPV 16 and HPV 18, while the other protects against types 52 and 59. They are of no value after a person is infected with these HPV subtypes. The CDC recommends the vaccines for all girls and boys before age eleven. CASES OF GONORRHEA AND CHLAMYDIA RISE THIS YEAR: The CDC just reported increases in these sexually-transmitted diseases: * Chlamydia rates increased eight percent, to 457.6 per 100,000; and * Gonorrhea rates increased four percent, to 104.2 per 100,000. *********************************************** Reports from DrMirkin.com Staph aureus in the nose http://www.drmirkin.com/morehealth/G167.htm Multiple venereal diseases http://www.drmirkin.com/men/1833.html How helicobacter causes vitamin B12 deficiency http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/8386.html *********************************************** Diet Affects Prostate Cancer Risk The prospective Malmo Diet and Cancer study followed 8128 healthy men, aged 45-73, for 15 years and found no association of prostate cancer with total carbohydrate or fiber intake. It did find an association of prostate cancer with refined carbohydrates in foods such as low-fiber cereals, cakes, biscuits, white rice and pasta. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 11/09/2012). Nature packages all carbohydrates in foods with fiber. After you eat, the pyloric sphincter at the end of the stomach closes and allows only a liquid soup to pass into the intestines. Since humans cannot break down fiber, it takes a long time for fiber to pass into the intestines. Removing fiber from nature's sources of carbohydrates increases the rate of absorption and raises blood sugar levels considerably. It takes an orange up to six hours to pass through your stomach, compared to minutes for orange juice (liquid sugar) to pass. The higher blood sugar rises after you eat, the more sugar sticks to the outer membranes of cells and damages them, which can increase cancer risk. The same applies to whole grains and flour. Whole grains are seeds of grass that have a tight capsule that cannot be broken down by your intestinal enzymes. Therefore, eating whole grains causes very little rise in blood sugar. However, grinding a whole grain into flour breaks the capsule and markedly increases the rise in blood sugar that follows eating bakery products or pastas. This high rise in blood sugar is probably what increased the men's risk for prostate cancer. *********************************************** What Killed President Andrew Jackson? Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States. At age 39, he was 6'1" tall and weighed 135 pounds. His excessive thinness saved his life. THE DUEL: In a duel, competitors walk a specific distance from each other, turn and fire. Usually the first to fire wins, unless he misses. Then he usually loses. Charles Dickinson, one of the most successful duelers in America, challenged Andrew Jackson to a duel. Dickinson had fought many duels and won them all. He was also a champion marksman. Andrew Jackson was not an experienced dueler, and wasn't even a very good shot. He knew, no matter how hard he tried, Dickinson would get off the first shot. To save his life, Jackson had do something clever. So he wore a long dark blue coat and long black, baggy trousers to the duel. Dickinson did shoot first. Jackson felt severe pain in his chest. His coat turned bright red with blood, but he was still alive. Dickinson was horrified and screamed: "I missed him." Jackson aimed and fired. Dickinson fell to the ground and died soon afterwards. WHY ANDREW JACKSON LIVED: Dickinson's aim was perfect, but he had shot at the wrong place. Jackson took advantage of his incredible thinness by wearing a baggy full-length coat that drooped to his knees. The coat hid the fact that he had pulled his baggy pants to his armpits, so he looked like he was taller than he actually was. When Dickinson took aim at what he thought was Jackson's heart, he was really aiming at Jackson's lower chest. His aim was perfect, but instead of going through his heart, the bullet went through his left lower ribs, several inches below his heart. Jackson bled from his lungs, not his heart, and filled his left boot with blood. LIFETIME SYMPTOMS: Jackson survived the duel but doctors were not able to remove the bullet from his chest, and he had pain for the rest of his life. He also had a bullet in his shoulder from an earlier duel. He suffered from: * excessive salivation, * early loss of teeth, * colic (chronic belly pain), * diarrhea, * pallor, * hand tremors, * irritability, * paranoia, * violent mood swings, and * chronic renal failure. All of these symptoms can be caused by a single medical condition. His physicians treated him repeatedly with the commonly-used early 19th-century medications, calomel and sugar of lead. THE DIAGNOSIS WAS MADE IN 1999: Two hairs from Jackson's head were analyzed for mercury and lead. Mercury levels were 6 and 5.6 parts per million (PPM) from both the 1815 and 1839 hair specimens (Journal of the American Medical Association, 1999;282 (6):569-571). Lead levels were incredibly high at 130 PPM in 1815 and 44 PPM in 1839. All the symptoms listed above can be caused by poisoning from mercury or lead or both. He was poisoned with lead and mercury by his doctors' prescriptions: mercury from calomel (mercurous chloride) and lead from sugar of lead (lead acetate). The bullets also contributed to the high lead levels. WHAT CAUSED ANDREW JACKSON'S DEATH? Now let's see if you can tell what eventually killed Andrew Jackson. In addition to the lead and mercury poisoning, * He smoked his entire life, * he ate meat every day, * he had several bouts of left chest pain that kept him in bed for several weeks at a time. * his wife, Rachel, was the only wife of an American president who smoked a pipe. THE BEGINNING OF THE END: At age 78, he suffered from suffocating shortness of breath. His neck veins swelled and his shoes hurt him because they were too tight. Then his ankles, legs, hands and belly started to swell. Then, to be able to breathe, he had to sit up in bed, propped up on pillows. By late spring, * his face was swollen and * he exclaimed: "I am a blubber of water." * Then he smothered to death. HE DIED OF ??????????????????? The weeks of being bed ridden with chest pain were caused by several heart attacks which damaged his heart muscle and eventually made it too weak to pump blood through his body. Then his heart failed, which caused his body to retain fluid. . People in heart failure retain fluid and swell all over their bodies. The fluid collects in their lungs so they can't breathe, and in their legs, so their shoes feel too tight and then their legs swell so much that they are unable to walk. His lifestyle should scare you. He smoked every day of his life, lived with a smoker, ate meat daily, had chronic gum and tooth disease, carried lead bullets in his body for many years, and was treated by his doctors regularly with medications that contained mercury and lead. All these factors increased his risk for heart attacks that eventually damaged his heart so badly that it could not pump blood through his body so he smothered to death. *********************************************** Recipe of the Week: My favorite holiday "cookie" -- Fruity Pebbles http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/pebbles.html You'll find lots of recipes and helpful tips in The Good Food Book http://www.drmirkin.com/goodfood/index.html *********************************************** "Like" us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Gabe-Mirkin-on-Fitness-Health/200757859968159 Twitter http://twitter.com/DrGabeMirkin *********************************************** BACK ISSUES of the eZine from 2004-2012 are available at http://www.drmirkin.com/public/EzineList.html YOU ARE WELCOME TO COPY the e-Zine's contents for use in your own newsletter, company or club publication, BLOG or website. Please give proper credit and a link back to http://www.drmirkin.com The e-Zine is provided as a service. Dr.Mirkin's reports and opinions are for information only, and are not intended to diagnose or prescribe. For your specific diagnosis and treatment, consult your doctor or health care provider. For more information visit http://www.drmirkin.com We DO NOT sell, rent or give your e-mail address to anyone. Copyright 2012 The Sportsmedicine Institute, Inc. http://www.DrMirkin.com Gabe Mirkin, M.D. 10901 Connecticut Avenue, Kensington MD 20895, USA To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit: http://www.aweber.com/z/r/?zAwszEwstCyMDIwcbAystEa0jGwcTOxMzGw=

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