More youngsters having unsafe sex

More youngsters having unsafe sex - Young people across the globe are having more unprotected sex and know less about effective contraception options, a multinational survey revealed on Monday.

The "Clueless or Clued Up: Your Right to be informed about contraception" study prepared for World Contraception Day (WCD) reports that the number of young people having unsafe sex with a new partner increased by 111 percent in France, 39 percent in the USA and 19 percent in Britain in the last three years.

"No matter where you are in the world, barriers exist which prevent teenagers from receiving trustworthy information about sex and contraception, which is probably why myths and misconceptions remain so widespread even today," a member of the WCD task force, Denise Keller, said in a statement with the results of the study.

"When young people have access to contraceptive information and services, they can make choices that affect every aspect of their lives which is why it's so important that accurate and unbiased information is easily available for young people to obtain," Keller said.

The survey, commissioned by Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals and endorsed by 11 international non-governmental organizations, questioned more than 6,000 young people from 26 countries including Chile, Poland and China, on their attitudes toward sex and contraception.

The level of unplanned pregnancies among young people is a major global issue, campaigners say, and the rise in unprotected sex in several counties has sparked concern about the quality of sex education available to youngsters.

In Europe, only half of respondents receive sex education from school, compared to three quarters across Latin America, Asia Pacific and the USA.

Many respondents also said that they felt too embarrassed to ask a healthcare professional for contraception.

"What young people are telling us is that they are not receiving enough sex education or the wrong type of information about sex and sexuality," spokeswoman for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Jennifer Woodside said in a statement.

"The results show that too many young people either lack good knowledge about sexual health, do not feel empowered enough to ask for contraception or have not learned the skills to negotiate contraceptive use with their partners to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies or STIs (sexually transmitted infections)," she said.

More than a third of respondents in Egypt believe bathing or showering after sex will prevent pregnancy, and more than a quarter of those in Thailand and India believe that having intercourse during menstruation is an effective form of contraception.

But the fact that many young people engage in unprotected sex and the prevalence of harmful myths should not come as a surprise, Woodside said.

"How can young people make decisions that are right for them and protect them from unwanted pregnancy and STIs, if we do not empower them and enable them to acquire the skills they need to make those choices?" she said. ( Reuters )

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Who You Could Befriend on Facebook

Who You Could Befriend on Facebook -- It's now who you know - it's where you go that determines who you are most likely to make new friends with. That's the finding of a study by University of Cambridge researchers.

They say they have found a new way of predicting which people may become friends on social networks - based on the type of places they visit.

Their surprise finding is that going to the same gym or school or working in the same office can be more likely to bring people together than having the same friends. That may seem obvious but it has important implications for websites like Facebook or LinkedIn.

To date, most social networking sites have relied upon the ‘friend-of-a-friend’ approach to guess which people may have connections with one another.

But Salvatore Scellato, Anastasios Noulas and Cecilia Mascolo, of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, have a new approach that not only looks at friends of friends, but also the places people visit – with weightings given to different places such as airports and gymnasiums.

Smart thinking: Log on to Facebook and it will often suggest people you may know based on your existing friends. Now it may suggest pals you could make at your local gym

Scellato said: 'Essentially this is a way in which we can predict how people will make new friends. We know that we are likely to become friends with "friends of friends", but what we find is there are specific places which foster the creation of new friendships and that they have specific characteristics.'

The problem for social networks wanting to suggest new friends for you and increase the number of connections is the sheer volume of users. Millions of users may be good business but makes the task of recommending friends more and more difficult.

For example Facebook has 750 million active users. The two-hop approach – sharing at least a common friend –ignores the possibilities of recommending new friends based on shared places.

The research looked at the problem from the perspective of a long-standing sociological theory that people who go to the same places may be similarly-minded. That would make them individuals likely to form a connection with one another.

To test their theory, they used data from four months at a relatively small but fast-growing website called Gowalla to see how social connections grew in that time.

Scellato said: 'We discovered that about 30 per cent of all new social links appear among users that check-in to the same places. Thus, these ‘place friends’ represent disconnected users becoming direct connections.

'By combining place friends with friends-of-friends, we can make the prediction space about 15 times smaller and yet, cover 66 per cent of new social ties.

'It turns out that the properties of the places we interact can determine how likely we are to develop social ties. Offices, gyms and schools are more likely to aid development rather than other places such as football stadiums or airports. In those places, it’s highly unlikely people will develop a social connection.

'Our results show it’s possible to improve the performance of link prediction systems on location-based services that can be employed to keep the users of social networks interested and engaged with that particular website.' ( Dailymail.co.uk )

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How Teens Feel the Recession's Impact

How Teens Feel the Recession's Impact - It might be graduation season, but teens have much weightier matters on their minds than prom and parties. A new survey from Charles Schwab found that the recession has left an indelible mark on today's high schoolers, making them more grateful for what they have and less likely to make material demands on their parents.

Nine in ten teens say the recession affected them and led to major perspective shifts, including a greater appreciation for what they have and more awareness of hardship, according to the poll. The majority of the 1,000 respondents said they were less likely to ask for things they want, they have a greater appreciation for what their parents have done, and they also believe that one day, they will achieve greater financial success than their parents. The recession, it seems, is the cure for any "spoiled brat" tendencies.

The survey also found that parents are more likely to talk about money with their teens now than they have been in the past. Three out of four teens said their parents have discussed finances with them. Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president of Schwab Community Services, calls that the "silver lining" to the downturn. Parents and educators have the chance "to communicate critical lessons about financial decision-making" to their children, she says.

Parents have long felt awkward doing so. In fact, previous Schwab surveys found that parents felt more comfortable talking about the birds and the bees than investing. A 2008 survey found that only 23 percent of parents explained how income taxes work, and just 14 percent talked about what a 401(k) plan is.

To get the conversation going, Schwab-Pomerantz suggests discussing money around key milestones in a child's life, such as getting a first toy, car, or job, which gives parents a chance to teach kids to save 10 percent of their income. Parents can also involve their kids in daily discussions about family budget decisions, Schwab-Pomerantz says. SchwabMoneyWise.com offers an interactive game and other tools to get the conversation started.

There are plenty of topics to choose from, because even though most teens describe themselves as "knowledgeable about money management," they are a little fuzzy on the details. The survey found that only 60 percent know how to write a check, 35 percent said they could balance a checkbook or confirm the accuracy of a bank statement, and just 25 percent know whether using a check cashing service was a good idea. (It's not.)

Just 39 percent of respondents said they know how to manage a credit card and 32 percent said they understand how interest and fees on cards work. Only 17 percent know what a 401(k) is and almost half said they have no idea how much car insurance costs. Teens also say they want to learn more about income taxes, how to save money, and how to budget.

The best source for this knowledge? Parents. Few high schools and colleges teach these skills, which leaves parents as the primary source of knowledge. More than 80 percent of teens say their parents are the ones who have taught them the basics of managing money. Three in four describe their parents as "great role models." While parents are most likely to bring up college costs with their teens, kids would rather hear about how to invest, how to establish good credit, and career plans.

Over and over again, research has found that children often absorb the financial habits of their parents. A new survey from CESI Debt Solutions found a connection between growing up with frugal parents and saving money on a regular basis as adults. Similarly, adults who remember being told as children that their family could not afford things tended to use credit cards sparingly as adults and carry relatively small amounts of credit card debt.

Parents might want to consider dishing about their own mistakes, too, and they probably have plenty to choose from. A recent Scottrade survey found that most baby boomers said they wished they started saving earlier, almost half wished they had saved more, and half recommend starting to save before age 25--the current age of many of their children. Sharing those lessons could help those adult children from repeating their mistakes.


Here are some extra tips for parents who want to teach their kids about money:


Get help online.

You don't have to do all the hard work yourself, because other people have done it for you. Mymoney.gov, AmericaSaves.org, ING Direct's Planet Orange, and SchwabMoneyWise.com are just a few of the websites designed to help parents educate themselves, and their children, about the ins and out of money.


Practice one financial tip a week.

Arkadi Kuhlmann, chief executive of ING Direct, recommends picking one financial tip each week, such as setting up a budget, and talking about it as a family. That way, parents can also make an effort to set a good example. At the grocery store, they can take a minute to explain how to choose an affordable brand of dishwasher detergent, or how to compare the cost of bread.


Show kids what you can do with money.

Susan Beacham, co-founder of Money Savvy Generation, invented a piggy bank with four compartments--save, spend, donate, and invest--to teach kids how to budget. "You're teaching them to stop, pause, and reflect, and this is the first step toward teaching them to delay gratification," she says.


Watch out for the subtle messages you send.

Mary Ann Campbell, a financial educator, received mixed messages about money growing up. Her parents, in fact, implied that sending a girl to college was a waste of money, so she had to find a way to pay for her own education, along with the help of one of her brothers. That's one reason Campbell wrote her Ph.D. thesis on how 20-somethings learn about money from the way their families talk about it. She discovered that the way parents and grandparents talk about money, as well as the way they act, makes a big impact.


Let them make their own mistakes.

Lewis Mandell, a finance professor at the University of Washington who has studied financial literacy, says allowing children to experiment and make mistakes can provide more useful lessons than anything taught in school. He encouraged his now-grown daughter to invest as a teenager; she learned how to diversify after losing money in Pepsi stock.

In other words, just as with teaching children to ride bikes, at some point you have to let go so they can learn to balance on their own. ( usnews.com )

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What Causes It, And How To Avoid It

What Causes It, And How To Avoid It - Today in the U.S., about 16 percent of girls enter puberty by the age of 7, and about 30 percent by the age of 8. A recent study determined that the number of girls entering puberty (defined by breast development) at these early ages has increased markedly between 1997 and 2010.

Trends in Age at Menarche

The average age at menarche in Western countries began declining during the early part of the 20th century due to increased consumption of animal products and increasing calorie intake; the decline slowed in the 1960s, and now in the U.S. there has been a more recent surge in early puberty starting in the mid-1990s.

In Europe, in 1830, the average age at menarche was 17. Similarly in the 1980s in rural China, the average age at menarche was 17.3 In the U.S. in 1900, the average was 14.2. By the 1920s, average age at menarche in the U.S. had fallen to 13.3 and by 2002, it had reached 12.34. Similar trends are occurring in other Western nations. For example, age at menarche in Ireland has declined from 13.52 in 1986 to 12.53 in 2006. In Italy, a recent study showed that girls' age at menarche was on average 3 months earlier than their mothers'.

Taking all this data together, we can estimate that the normal, healthy age at menarche under conditions of excellent nutrition without caloric excess would probably fall somewhere between 15 and 18. But today in the U.S., about half of girls begin developing breasts before age 10, and the average age at menarche is less than 12 ½ and still declining.

Why Is this happening?

The neurological and hormonal systems that regulate pubertal timing are complex, but research has identified a number of environmental factors that may be contributing to the decline in age at puberty:

Increasing rates of childhood overweight and obesity

Several studies have found associations between higher childhood BMI and earlier puberty in girls. Excess body fat alters the levels of the hormones insulin, leptin, and estrogen, and these factors are believed to be responsible for the acceleration of pubertal timing by obesity. Also, physical inactivity may decrease melatonin levels, which can also affect signals in the brain that trigger pubertal development.

Increased animal protein intake

Higher total protein, animal protein, and meat intake in children age 3-7 have been associated with earlier menarche in multiple studies. In contrast, higher vegetable protein intake at age 5-6 is associated with later menarche. High protein intake elevates IGF-1 levels and promotes growth, which could accelerate the onset of puberty - IGF-1 contributes to pubertal development on its own and in part by its involvement in estradiol signaling. Meat and dairy consumption in children may also reflect ingestion of environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that have accumulated in animal tissues (see EDCs below).

Other dietary factors:

High dairy consumption is associated with earlier than average menarche. Soft drink consumption is associated with early menarche.

Children with lower nutrient diets (based on analysis of macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, and certain whole foods) tend to enter puberty earlier. Overall our modern diet rich in processed foods, dairy, processed meats and fast food is disruptive to normal development and aging. Early puberty is an early sign of premature aging.

Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs)

EDCs are hormonally active synthetic chemicals that either mimic, inhibit, or alter the action of natural hormones. These chemicals are ubiquitous in our environment, and are considered by scientists to be a significant public health concern. Although EDCs are thought to pose a threat to adults as well, children's bodies are more sensitive to exposure to exogenous hormones.

Chemicals are not currently tested for their endocrine disruption potential before they are approved for use and enter our environment, and there are endocrine disruptors in a vast array of products we come into contact with every day, including organochlorine pesticides, plastics, fuels, and other industrial chemicals.

The substances of most concern currently are BPA and phthalates. BPA is one of the highest volume chemicals produced in the world. It is used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics, such as rigid cups, water bottles and food storage containers; BPA is also found in the linings of food cans and dental sealants. BPA can leach from containers into food and beverages, especially during heating and washing. BPA exposure is associated with early puberty in girls.

Phthalates are chemicals used to make PVC plastics more flexible, and are found in a variety of products including toys, food packaging, hoses, raincoats, shower curtains, vinyl flooring, wall coverings, lubricants, adhesives, detergents, nail polish, hair spray, and shampoo. Phthalates are associated with early breast development in girls. They are considered chemicals of concern to the EPA and may be phased out -- some phthalates have already been removed from children's toys and cosmetics.

Additional EDCs that have been associated with dysregulation of pubertal timing include industrial chemicals such as PCBs, pesticides such as DDT and endosulfan, the flame retardant PBB, and dioxins and furans, which are formed during incineration of waste, chlorine bleaching of paper, and chemical manufacturing.

It is important to note that EDCs break down very slowly and accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals, so animal foods contain higher levels of these chemicals than plant foods.

Why is this troublesome?

The most significant and alarming consequence of early maturation is an increased risk for breast cancer in adulthood. Early menarche is an established risk factor for breast cancer, and this is believed to be due to the extended lifetime exposure to ovarian hormones. Similarly, exposure to EDCs during childhood is associated with hormonal cancers, such as breast and testicular cancers.

Girls of 7, 8 or 9 years old are not emotionally or psychologically equipped to handle puberty. As such, earlier puberty is also associated with a higher risk of psychological problems during adolescence such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Girls who mature earlier are also more likely to take part in risky behaviors like smoking and alcohol use.

What can parents do to protect their children?

• Children's diets should focus on whole plant foods rather than animal foods -- this will keep protein intake in a safe range and reduce their consumption of EDCs.


• Minimize dairy products in children's diets -- use almond and hemp milks instead of cows' milk


• Encourage children to exercise and exercise with them.


• Minimize processed foods -- these are calorie-dense and nutrient-poor, and they promote obesity and other diseases.


• Children's diets should include a wide variety of natural plant foods as possible including, green vegetables, squashes, corn, carrots, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, avocados, beans, fruits and whole grains. This means that healthy eating is a lifetime event.


• Buy organic produce when possible to avoid synthetic pesticides.


• Minimize children's exposure to BPA: Avoid using of rigid polycarbonate plastics (recycling label #7) whenever possible; Do not use plastic water bottles if they are old or scratched; Do not microwave in plastic containers; Minimize the use of canned foods and avoid canned infant formulas.32


• Minimize children's exposure to phthalates:Avoid plastics marked with recycling label #3 (PVC) whenever possible; Check ingredient lists on personal care products for phthalates. Also be aware that "fragrance" listed as an ingredient often means that the products contains phthalates. For more information, visit the Environmental Working Group's guide to children's personal care products.

To conclude, the earlier occurrence of puberty is an ominous event that we can stop. We can even win the war on breast cancer in America and prevent millions of young females from developing it. The answer however, must begin in the way we feed ourselves and our children. The most effective type of health care is vigilant and excellent self care. ( huffingtonpost.com )

READ MORE - What Causes It, And How To Avoid It

Me and my email best friend

Me and my email best friend - There's nothing quite so intimate as a relationship conducted entirely in an inbox

A few years ago my friend DeDra had a miscarriage. She sent me an email the next day to tell me. She could have told me in person. I was sitting just a few cubicles away in the same office. She could have walked over to my desk; we could have met in the break room.

But she told me in an email because that’s where our friendship lived – in our inboxes. That’s where we cracked jokes and talked trash. That’s how we propped each other up. Quietly. Electronically. Without ever leaving our desks.

It would have been a disaster if any of our bosses had read our messages. We weren’t even supposed to think about our own lives when we were on the clock. Getting the computers involved violated about 12 different rules. We’d had to sign something like a purity pledge, promising never to send personal emails at work.

Our emails were purely personal. DeDra had emailed me when she decided to have a baby, and gave me regular updates.

'We’re not going to try to get pregnant. But we’re going to stop trying not to.’

'Isn’t that the same as trying?’

'No. Trying means calendars and thermometers and monitoring your mucus.’

'What do you monitor it for? Babies?’

While she tried to get pregnant (or didn’t try not to), I struggled with family problems and anxiety and a job that felt too big for me. Also, the more DeDra talked about getting pregnant, the more I worried it would happen to me, too. Whenever my period was two minutes late I’d send her a flurry of frightened emails.

'My breasts are tender. That’s a symptom, isn’t it? And I’m moody. And I feel this tension in my uterus. You know what those are? Symptoms.’

'Yeah, symptoms that you’re getting your period.’

We almost never talked about this stuff in person, precisely because it was so personal. Because DeDra and I aren’t the sort of girls who talk about vaginal mucus out loud. And because some things – like trying to get pregnant, like worrying that you are or that maybe you never want to be – are just too big to talk about face-to-face.

When you’re typing an email nobody’s watching your face. Nobody wonders why you’re huddled at your best friend’s desk. Nobody can listen in. (Well, nobody but the guy in the IT department who was supposedly reading the whole company’s email. But we weren’t worried about any computer-nerd bogeyman.)

In a way, there’s nothing so intimate as an email conversation. It’s just the two of you, reading and replying, while the rest of the world buzzes around you, without a clue.

When I was a teenager my friends and I exchanged notebooks at school. Two of us would share a book, and write notes back and forth, handing it to each other between classes. Inter-office mail felt like a grown-up version of those notebooks.

When DeDra told me about her miscarriage, how it had been happening for a couple of days, I didn’t know what to say.

I couldn’t comprehend the logistics – weren’t miscarriages instant and invisible, like conception? – and I couldn’t even fathom her loss. I told her I was sorry, that she should go home.

'I don’t want to. I don’t want anyone to know.’

'If they knew they’d support you.’

'I don’t want them to support me. I don’t even want them to look at me.’

'Does it hurt?’

'Yeah. It feels like cramps.’

Our emails went from personal to soul-baring. But there was nothing I could do to help her. In the awful months that followed I never came up with the right thing to say – but I never ran out of things to type. I tried to make her laugh. I saved up funny stories and gossip to send to her.

I don’t think she truly recovered until more than a year later when her daughter was born. When Isabel arrived DeDra decided she wasn’t coming back to the office.

Well, I couldn’t expect her to stay on my account. (Though I probably asked her to.) That might have been the end of us. But our friendship lived in inboxes. We’d started a conversation that never had to stop. ( telegraph.co.uk )

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Many Girls, Young Women Continue to Use Tanning Beds

Many Girls, Young Women Continue to Use Tanning Beds - The dangers of indoor and outdoor tanning have been hammered home over and over again by health experts, but that hasn’t made a difference to a large percentage of girls and young women who continue to worship the sun in order to get that sought after "glow."

In a new survey by the American Academy of Dermatology, 32 percent of respondents admitted using a tanning bed in the past year, and of those respondents, 25 percent used a tanning bed at least weekly. Even more concerning is the fact that 81 percent off all of the women surveyed said they had tanned outdoors either frequently or occasionally in the past year.

The survey involved more than 3,800 white non-Hispanic females ages 14 to 22.

"Our survey underscores the importance of educating young women about the very real risks of tanning, as melanoma – the deadliest form of skin cancer – is increasing faster in females 15 to 29 years old than in males of the same age group," Dr. Ronald L. Moy, president of the American Academy of Dermatology, said in a news release. "In fact, most young women with melanoma are developing it on their torso, which may be the result of high-risk tanning behaviors such as indoor tanning. In my practice, I have had patients – young women with a history using tanning beds – who have died from melanoma."

Indoor tanning is so risky that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services along with the World Health Organization have “declared ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun and artificial light sources as a known carcinogen,” according to the report, and numerous studies show indoor tanning increases a person’s risk of melanoma by as much 75 percent.

Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and is the leading cause of death from skin disease. The National Cancer Institute estimates that there will be more than 68,000 new cases of melanoma this year, resulting in nearly 9,000 deaths.

"Exposure to UV radiation is the leading risk factor for skin cancer, yet – despite this knowledge – droves of teens and young women are flocking to tanning bed facilities and beaches or pools to tan every year," said Moy. "The challenge is that teens have access to indoor tanning salons on almost every corner. A recent survey of 116 U.S. cities found an average of 42 tanning salons per city, which means tanning salons are more prevalent than Starbucks or McDonald’s. We are very concerned that this tanning behavior will lead to a continued increase in the incidence of skin cancer in young people and, ultimately, more untimely deaths from this devastating disease."

At current rates, 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime, with approximately 75 percent of skin cancer deaths resulting from melanoma. ( foxnews.com )

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