For STD Awareness Month, MTV Debunks Sex Myths

Despite education and awareness efforts, many myths about sex persist in our culture, particularly among young adults. Tonight, in accordance with the GYT: Get Yourself Tested campaign and STD Awareness Month, MTV will air the Top Ten Most Outrageous Sex Myths. The show will debunk sex myths such as: “pulling out” is an effective prevention method against pregnancy and STDs; oral and anal sex aren’t really “sex”; if a woman is taking birth control pills, she doesn’t need to worry about STDs; STD testing is for cheaters; and many others. Check out the trailer for tonight’s show here or go to http://www.gytnow.com/ to learn more. And tune in tonight, April 26th, to MTV at 8:30 ET/PT to watch the show!

Partnership CMO Interviewed for STD Awareness Month

Partnership for Prevention’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jason Spangler, was interviewed by Luis Perez and Shantell Jamison on Chicago Public Media’s Vocalo Overdrive about STD prevention and sexual health. The key message of the interview was the importance of getting screened for STDs. Dr. Spangler also discussed providing a continuum of care, privacy issues, shifting away from fear-based health messages, and why the STD prevalence is so high. Overall, Dr. Spangler emphasized the need to make prevention a priority, discussing how only a small percentage of health care funding actually goes into prevention. You can listen to the entire broadcast here. For more information on STD awareness month visit the National Chlamydia Coalition or the GYT campaign.

Jacky Fontanella
Partnership for Prevention Intern

Consequences of Too Much Salt

Consumption of excessive sodium is a direct cause of hypertension, which affects nearly 1 in 3 Americans. CDC’s next Public Health Grand Rounds, entitled Sodium Reduction: Time for Choice, will be webcast live from CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday, April 21st at 1 p.m. (EDT) at www.cdc.gov/about/grand-rounds. Dr. Darwin Labarthe, Director of CDC’s Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Division, will lead a discussion with other experts on the consequences of too much sodium in the diet and the regulatory and technological context for the use of salt in our food supply. The session will also review current sodium control efforts such as the National Salt Reduction Initiative and food procurement policies, and separate fact from fiction to support actions needed to address this very real public health burden.

Controlling the amount of sodium is not as simple as removing salt shakers from tables. Much of the sodium in food comes from processing and restaurant use. A multi-pronged strategy is needed to address the health consequences of excessive sodium. Tune in to the CDC webcast to learn the facts and options for addressing this critical issue.

Improve the Health and Well-being of your State

Healthways CEO Ben Leedle, Jr. was joined today by Dan Buettner, Blue Zones founder and The New York Times best-selling author of Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest and Thrive-Finding Happiness the Blue Zone Way, on Capitol Hill for an educational seminar focused on health and well-being.

Ben Leedle opened the seminar with an overview of Healthways dedication to making the world a healthier place by being a leading provider of programs that maintain or improve public and personal health and well-being.

He demonstrated how, through their simulation model, Healthways is able to profile various populations to determine how that population will “age” in five years. Predicting health outcomes in a community allows Healthways to determine the most costly health related conditions for that population. Behavior change initiatives can then be added to the model to determine what kind of impact they will have on slowing the “aging” process of that population.

Teaming up with Blue Zone’s founder Dan Buettner, Healthways and Blue Zone have created Healthways Blue Zones Vitality City in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. Dan Buettner, an internationally recognized researcher, explorer and author implemented a successful prototype Blue Zone community in Albert Lea, MN. By applying the nine lifestyle characteristics, Power 9, Mr. Buettner and his team were able to improve the lives of individuals living in Alber Lea, MN.

This same principal will be applied to the South Bay area of Los Angeles with support from Healthways. Mr. Buettner ended the seminar on an enthusiastic note by illustrating the importance of how changing people’s environments can have, through his experience, the most impact on an individual’s health.

Health Markers

People tend to accept their daily energy level and their sense of physical decline beginning in middle age as normal and unrelated to diet. "Normal" in this sense means average, it means what is happening to the vast majority, it means acceptance of disability and death in your seventies or eighties, rather than freedom from disease and the enjoyment of an active, vigorous, youthful life to well beyond the century mark. Many people simply have not experienced the increased well-being and remarkable physical transformation that a truly wholesome diet guarantees.

There are tests you can do yourself, or have done by your doctor, which give an indication of your "functional" age and/or your health status. Both types of tests are often referred to as biomarkers. While there is some overlap between biomarkers of "functional" age and those of health, the two categories are not the same. Biomarkers or indicators of health status mainly reflect susceptibility to disease. If you are a relatively sedentary person on a diet high in saturated fats and fairly high in total calories, you are almost certainly developing arteriosclerosis at a rate much higher than active persons on a good diet. This situation can be estimated rather well by certain health indicators, mainly your blood fat profile. But having severe arteriosclerosis, even though it may kill youfrom a heart attack or stroke, for exampledoesn't necessarily mean you are "functionally" older in your whole body. You may have skin that is unwrinkled and hair that is without graying, but still have blood vessels in your heart that are progressively clogging up. Your blood fat profile will tip you off to this situation while you still have time to effect a change.