Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis infections rose again in the United States in 2006, the second year in a row that rates of these sexually transmitted bacterial infections increased.
The rate of chlamydia increased by 5.6 percent between 2005 and 2006, with more than 1 million reported chlamydia cases in 2006 -- the highest number of annual U.S. cases ever for any sexually transmitted disease. According to the CDC, the reported cases of chlamydia are likely less than half the actual occurrence.
The rate of gonorrhea rose 5.5 percent in 2006, with more than 350,000 cases reported, and the rate of syphilis rose 13.8 percent, with nearly 10,000 cases.
About 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year in the U.S., almost half among people ages 15 to 24. “This is a hidden epidemic,” said Dr. Stuart Berman, who helps track STD’s for the CDC.
According to Dr. John Douglas, who heads CDC STD prevention efforts, local and state health departments lack the funds necessary for prevention programs, and lack of health care insurance among many Americans might be a contributing factor as well.
These alarming statistics should serve to reinforce the benefits of abstinence, or at the very least safe sex. Staying involved with your children’s lives and teaching them about the “realities of life” is paramount in this case, as they will surely learn other, less responsible versions through mass media.
In previous studies, teen intercourse has also been linked to higher incidences of depression and suicide. Energy psychology tools like Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be very helpful to teens who are having problems with sexual addictions, feelings of pressure, or negative self-images that may be leading them to have sex before they are emotionally ready.
It is important to educate sexually active teens and young adults that safe sex practices do NOT include birth control pills. In fact, the risk of contracting an STD when on the pill, or using other hormonal contraceptives, is 35 to 50 percent higher than when using non-hormonal contraceptives, such as condoms.
It is also important to know that while many STD’s are easily treated when caught early, they can cause severe health problems if left untreated.
Chlamydia: Health Risks and Treatment
The chlamydia bacteria, for example, can trigger heart disease, in addition to lung and eye infections.
A protein on the outer coat of the bacteria mimics a protein found in your heart muscle. Normally this molecular mimicry allows the bacterium to evade your immune system. But sometimes your immune cells are not fooled; they mount an attack against the chlamydia germs, which can be misdirected against your heart cells as if they were the enemy. So what scientists found is that you do not need to have bacterial damage to your heart in order for bacteria to cause heart disease.
Heart attack survivors may also quadruple their risk for a second coronary or other adverse cardiac problems if blood tests show evidence of infection with a form of chlamydia. Other health problems caused by untreated chlamydia, as well as gonorrhea infections include:
Chlamydia is easily treated with antibiotics. However, it is also very important to boost your immune system with nutritional interventions, as people who follow my diet recommendations do much better with the antibiotics. They do not generally experience a severe worsening of their symptoms, and usually respond very well to the treatment.
Gonorrhea Becoming Antibiotic Resistant
As of this year, the CDC had to revise their antibiotic treatment guidelines after a sharp and rapid rise in fluoroquinolone-resistant gonorrhea. Currently, only the cephalosporins, which are antibiotics such as Rocephin, are recommended for gonorrhea treatment. According to the CDC, new gonorrhea drugs are urgently needed, but none is in the drug development pipeline as of yet.
Since treatment options are rapidly running out for this common STD, making sure you’re practicing safe sex, and maintaining a healthy immune system, would surely be the most logical option.
If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to infertility. It can also spread to your blood or joints, which can be a life threatening condition. In addition, if you have gonorrhea you can more easily contract HIV, and HIV-infected people with gonorrhea are more likely to transmit HIV to someone else.
Syphilis – A Dangerous Imitator
The syphilis bacterium has often been called “the great imitator” because so many of its signs and symptoms are indistinguishable from those of other diseases, which makes it that more important to get properly tested for the disease at frequent intervals.
While the first two stages are marked by the appearance of small sores, followed by skin rashes or lesions, the late stages of syphilis may cause severe damage to your internal organs, including your:
This internal damage can take years to show up. Signs and symptoms of the late stage of syphilis include difficulty coordinating muscle movements, paralysis, numbness, gradual blindness, and dementia. It can even be serious enough to cause death.
Fortunately, syphilis is also easy to “cure” if you catch it in its early stages. A single intramuscular injection of penicillin will kill the bacteria if you’ve had syphilis for less than a year. Additional doses are needed if you’ve had syphilis for longer than a year.
It’s important to remember that the antibiotic treatment kills the syphilis bacterium and prevents further damage, but it cannot repair damage that has already been done.
What You Need to Know When Taking Antibiotics
As you can see, antibiotic treatment is the only treatment protocol currently available for these STD’s. And while they can save you from further internal damage caused by the bacteria, taking antibiotics comes at a price as well.
Simply put, antibiotics are poisons that are used to kill, and they do so quite indiscriminately, killing both good and bad bacteria at the same time. As an adult human, you have three to four pounds of beneficial bacteria and yeast living within your intestines. These microbes compete for nutrients from the food you eat. Usually, the strength in numbers that beneficial bacteria enjoy keeps the ever-present yeasts in check, and causes them to produce nutrients such as the B vitamins.
However, every time you swallow antibiotics, you kill the beneficial bacteria within your intestines. As your intestinal bacteria die, you upset the delicate balance of your intestinal terrain so that yeasts can grow unchecked into large colonies and take over.
Any time you take antibiotics, your friendly bacteria, which include Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidus and Bulgaricus, must be replaced. Fortunately, you can easily buy these probiotics supplements at your local health food store.