Herpes Blog

How can you tell someone has genital herpes? Do you take a good look at the person? Do you ask and look straight in their eyes? Do you inquire about their sex lives? Well, my answer is no, maybe and maybe.

It may be a good idea to ask someone if they’re aware of having genital herpes. The more sexual partners a person has had in their lives, the more likely they’re to be infected by herpes. But these methods are quite insufficient. Did you know that the majority of people who have genital or oral herpes are not aware of it? So how do you explain that? Simple, many oral or genital herpes infected people just don’t have any herpes symptoms, others have some symptoms which are mild enough to confuse them with a rash or a mosquito bite or anything that may cause, redness, swelling, itching, burning and blisters, and some may not even know what herpes symptoms are.

The fact that somebody doesn’t have or recognize herpes symptoms doesn’t mean they don’t have it. About 25% of the US population is infected with genital herpes, with women being more affected than men. Studies have shown that the vast majority (80%-90%) of people who have genital herpes have not been diagnosed with the condition.

According to a recent paper published by Carnegie Mellon University in January 2006, most sexually active teenage girls know almost nothing about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), except AIDS, until it is too late. Another 2006 study led by Dr. Herbert Kaufman, Boyd Professor of Ophthalmology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, found herpes virus-1 in 98 percent of healthy participants. None of them displayed any symptoms; however they shed the herpes virus in their saliva and tears at least once during the course of the 30-day study. Even though this study didn’t target genital herpes directly, it demonstrates that most people can be totally unaware of carrying the virus and being infected by herpes.

Shed or shedding means that the virus is present on the skin and ready to be transmitted. Herpes is transmitted through skin contact 98% of the time. Studies have shown that shedding may occur in almost 40% of HSV-2 (usually associated with genital herpes) infected people. Asymptomatic viral shedding may last 1 to 5 days, meaning that a person can be contagious without presenting any symptoms at the time. The average duration of each period of viral shedding has been assessed through laboratory studies but is just an estimate.

So how can you tell for a fact if someone has genital herpes? The only way to know is to look at blood, PCR or swab test results. Swab and PCR tests are very accurate when they detect herpes. However, if a test was performed late or delivered to the lab late, it may return a false negative result. Western blot test, a blood test, is the most accurate test available but may return a false negative if the person tested was first infected within the past 3 months. So it is not easy to know if a person has genital herpes or not.

One last consideration, herpes Simplex 1 or HSV-1 usually causes oral herpes and cold sores and herpes simplex-2, genital herpes. But herpes virus-1 genital herpes is becoming more and more prevalent nowadays. It is mostly transmitted during oral sex from a person who’s having an oral herpes infection with or without symptoms. So if getting genital herpes is a concern to you, you should consider oral herpes as well as genital herpes when asking a partner.

As you can see, it is very difficult to assess if a partner has genital herpes. There are no proven products to prevent genital herpes transmission at the moment. Some are currently undergoing testing for FDA approval and will hopefully be marketed soon. In the meanwhile, the best option is using a condom.

What does herpes look like? Click here

Posted by Nathalie Foy at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments

You go to your doctor’s office for a routine check-up. Everything is fine but your cholesterol is a little high. The doctor wants to put you on medication because lowering your cholesterol will significantly reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. Sounds good until you get to the pharmacy and realize this will cost you a hundred dollars a month, for life. Why would my doctor prescribe a medication for me that is going to cost $1,200 a year? Why didn’t he choose something a little cheaper? Why didn’t he tell me about eating better and exercising?

Your doctor will go through a thought process before prescribing your medication. Some of it is based on age, sex, race, weight, experience, and other medical conditions. You may be surprised to find out that some of his decision may be based on the “attention” he receives from the drug companies. The term attention is used to refer to the many number of gifts or freebees given to the doctors for prescribing certain medication.

The billion dollar drug manufacturers know how to influence your doctor into prescribing their drug. In years gone by, the gifts given to doctor were pretty extravagant. I’ve heard stories of a leased car, an Alaskan cruise, and untold free rounds of golf. Recently, the companies have come to a “gentleman’s agreement.” They discovered the gifts were getting out of control with each company trying to one-up the other. The free items were reduced significantly to pens, pencils, pads, clocks, and anything else you can use in a doctor’s office. Look around the office; everything has a drug name on it.

The manufacturers have now gotten clever again and give away free continuing education, or CEs. These are something every health professional must have in order to keep his or her license active. They are usually sponsored by drug companies. When a doctor has been prescribing the company’s drug, the representative may give him a ticket to a continuing education seminar. The seminar is usually held in a nice vacation area like Miami, New York, San Diego, or even Hawaii. Everything is paid for; flight, hotel, and rental car. All the doctor has to do is attend the seminar to get his credits. The CE credits are important and keep health professionals up to date on the latest therapies, but they are also held locally. The fact that they are held in these exotic locations is the bonus for prescribing the medications.

You may be wondering how the drug manufacturer’s representative knows how many prescriptions the doctor is writing. The manufacturers print up a prescription pad with everything on it including the medication for the doctor to sign. All that is needed is a signature. The pads have a sequential number printed on them. So when the representative returns weeks later, all he has to do is look at the next number to know how many prescriptions have been written.

He will also drop off free samples for the doctor to give away to his patients. Your doctor will give you free samples to get you started on the medication. The companies know once you start, you will probably stay on the medication for a long period of time. So giving away a little bit of medication up from will pay off in big profits at the end.

When your doctor has the decision to make in regards to the medication he will prescribe, do you think these gifts are in the back of his mind? Now he has to decide whether to prescribe the less expensive generic or the more expensive brand and possibly get some freebees. The more expensive brand name drugs he prescribes, the more gifts, freebees, and “vacation CE” he receives. The more free samples he gives out, the better he looks in his patient’s eyes, and the better he looks in the manufacturer’s eyes. But you, the patient, will be spending money at the pharmacy for months buying the expensive brand drug.

The purpose of this article is not to decide whether this method of drug selection is immoral. Your doctor is supposed to choose the right medication for your condition. The fact that he is getting a reward for prescribing expensive medication has to be an issue.

The next time you get a prescription from your doctor, ask him about a less expensive generic. Just about every medication has an alternate that is available in generic form. The generics will always be cheaper. In prescription drugs, it is definitely not; “you get what you pay for.” Less expensive generics must work just like the more expensive brand name drugs. By using generics, you will spend less money every month.

Dr. West Conner is the author of the incredibly popular workbook "How To Save Money On Your Prescription Drugs" and the audio CD "Are You Spending Too Much On Your Prescriptions?" He is currently active in assisting clients who are having difficulty affording their prescription drugs. Through his many years of practice, Dr. Conner has developed a number of unique and creative ways to lower prescription costs. Visit http://www.rxcostcutters.com for more details.

Posted by Nathalie Foy at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments

A story in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) debunks the claim made by American pharmaceutical companies that they charge more for their products because they spend more on research and development than firms in the rest of the world do.

In fact, thepiece shows, U.K. drug companies spend proportionately more on R&D than their U.S. counterparts, but British drug prices remain much lower than those in the United States.

The BMJarticle argues convincingly that in fact, American drugmakers invest three times more money on advertising, marketing, and administration than on research, and could cut costs in those areas if they truly wished to.

British Medical Journal October 22, 2005; 331(7522): 958-960

Dr. Mercola's Comment:You are spending three times as much for drugadvertising, marketing, and administration as for their research!

Think about that the next time you are faced with a high-cost prescription drug. Think about that branded calendar in your doctor's office, or the free sample he or she gives you. Think about all those annoying ads, selling typically useless drugs that feature "cute" characters, all designed to separate you from your hard-earned cash.

The costs of American prescription drugs isn't high because of research. It's high so that drug companies have plenty of extra cash on hand to buy off Congress and market their potentially toxic products to you.

Drug companies and their officials contributed at least $17 million to federal candidates in the 2004 elections, including:
Nearly $1 million to President Bush
More than $500,000 to his opponent, John Kerry
At least 18 members of Congress received more than $100,000 apiece

Over the past seven years, drug companies have spent more than $750 million on lobbying alone-- more then any other single industry! There are more drug company lobbyists in Washington than their are members of Congress.

Meanwhile, the drug companies are spending $4 billion every year to market their products to you ... and another $16 billion spent trying to influence your doctor to prescribe their drugs to you.

It is information like this that fuels my vision to spearhead a movement to replace the existing, broken health care paradigm, focused on drug-based solutions for curing conditions, and replace it with one that emphasizes prevention and treats the true causes of disease.

This article is reprinted from Mercola.com, the world's #1 most visited and trusted natural/alternative health website. For a limited time only, you can take the FREE "Metabolic Type Test" to help you learn the right foods for your particular body type so you can achieve optimal fitness & health. Just go to http://www.mercola.com/forms/mt_test.htm right now to take this quick test!

Posted by Nathalie Foy at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Nathalie Foy at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments