Ah, sexually transmitted infections. The modern scarlet letter. “Stay away!” we cry. Particularly if it’s herpes. Oh, religious deity, forbid it be herpes.

For many, STIs exist on an intangible parallel plane. This or that promiscuous so-and-so might have had it coming, but we’d like to think we’re far removed from that plane of existence. STIs are seen as “dirty,” a blight upon whoever might have them. We dread joining their ranks.

In truth, however, STIs are as ubiquitous as bedbugs in New York. And like bedbugs, STIs are often more discomfiting than necessarily nefarious. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly all sexually active adults will contract some strain of HPV at some point, but the body magics away most HPV infections.

This unfortunately isn’t quite the case with herpes, the second-most-common medically incurable STI. One in six people in the United States — 50 million people, y’all — have genital herpes, or HSV-2, and somewhere between 60 and 80 percent have oral herpes, or HSV-1, also called canker sores. Although there is no cure for either strain, both can be treated and their symptoms vastly ameliorated. And for the more notorious HSV-2, besides the occasional flare-up — which can lie dormant for years, in any case — there doesn’t seem to be any larger health issues. No complications with the female reproductive tract, no internal damage, no cancer.

Despite HSV-2’s commonness and relative harmlessness, it is still surrounded by social stigma second only to HIV, according to a 2007 Harris Interactive Poll. Not to cast HIV as some sort of extreme (modern medicine can help the HIV-positive live long lives full of salacious sex if they like), but herpes? C’mon. It’s like slightly misplaced acne.

Let’s start by asking you, the reader: Would you call a relationship off if your potential or current partner told you he or she had herpes? In the Harris poll, most respondents without HSV-2 said they would either avoid partners with herpes or end things with their partner if they were told he or she had herpes. That’s indiscriminately voting one out of every sixth potential mate out for something that doesn’t cause any problems and that doesn’t need to be passed on if you practice safer sex. For groups with one herpes-positive partner and one not, paying attention to breakouts and always using condoms and/or antiviral medications can cut your rate transmission down to 1 to 2 percent per year of regular sex — pretty minuscule, if you ask me.

The most alarming statistic in my eyes is that an estimated 80 percent of people with herpes don’t even know they have it. Yeah, we’ve talked about how herpes isn’t that bad. But the larger issue behind this stat — besides not possessing the ability to be open with your partner or practicing safer sex — is the fact that these people probably aren’t getting tested for other entirely curable — but more dangerous — STIs such as chlamydia, trichomoniasis, gonorrhea and syphilis, either. This convenient forgetfulness or ignorance about our own susceptibility to STIs could potentially be what damns us. We sexually active folk are likely all exposed to STIs at some point in time, so why do we evade the issue?

Chlamydia, trich, gonorrhea (the “clap”) and syphilis are all bacterial, so you can be rid of them for good with treatment. Left alone, however, they can have devastating effects in the long run, although they might not manifest any symptoms in the short run. Chlamydia — the most commonly reported STI — and gonorrhea can cause infertility if left untreated. Scary syphilis, if not caught early on, can cause damage to the brain, heart and nervous system and possibly even lead to death.

If you’re sexually active, whatever sex you identify as, the CDC recommend getting tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV once a year. The Tang Center covers an annual checkup for chlamydia, the clap, HIV and Pap smears (the last recommended to be administered every three years for women above the age of 21). Other STIs, such as trich, syphilis and herpes, aren’t generally tested for unless you feel you have been exposed to them or display symptoms, but you can ask for these screenings at either the Tang Center or Planned Parenthood.

Stigma won’t go down without a fight, unfortunately, but perhaps talking about it and dispelling falsehoods will help combat it. Hopefully with more openness and knowledge will come more testing, acceptance, treatment and discussion. It’s better to play it safe and get routinely checked, so if necessary, you can plan ahead or get treated accordingly — but remember, it’s not an end-all if you contract something. Life and sex go on. A tour guide and actor at Kink.com once told a classmate of mine about the first thing a colleague told him when he discovered he had herpes: “Welcome to the club.” You won’t be alone.

Vi Nguyen writes the weekly Sex on Tuesday column. You can contact her at sex@dailycal.org or follow her on Twitter: @yonictonic.

The post Misplaced acne, bedbugs and stigmas appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Jan Flatley-Feldman/Staff

UC Berkeley researchers have discovered a link between the regional prevalence of the common air pollutant ozone and an increased risk of premature death from heart disease, the No. 1 cause of death in the United States.

The team used a state-of-the-art statistical model to aggregate mortality rates from different regions in California from 1982 to 2000 and levels of ozone and particulate matter gathered from government monitors situated across California. They found that in sunny areas such as Los Angeles, where there is a high concentration of ozone, more deaths resulted from cardiovascular issues.

The study is the first to show that exposure to ozone — a powerful greenhouse gas that protects the Earth from ultraviolet rays but acts as harmful chemical smog in the lower atmosphere — can lead to death from cardiovascular disease instead of just respiratory disease.

According to Michael Jerrett, chair of the School of Public Health’s environmental health sciences department and a participant in the study, ozone and a few other pollutants penetrate deep into the lungs, where they exchange oxygen and cause “oxidative stress.” The lungs then mount a defense against the foreign substances that, in combination with the stress, begins an inflammatory process that can spread to the cardiovascular system. This causes both a shrinkage and thickening of the coronary artery, blocking blood flow to the heart and potentially causing a heart attack.

“Another reason to like the Bay Area is the fogginess protects us from this pollution,” Jerrett said.

He estimates that according to the statistical model, anywhere from 100,000 to half a million deaths can be attributed to air pollution, although there is “no guarantee” that global organizations will take the data into consideration to further regulate ozone levels, despite the potential benefits.

“One of the problems is that some of the effects we’re dealing with may happen 30, 50, a hundred years out, and people have a tendency to discount the future,” Jerrett said.

Another obstacle in increasing regulation of ozone — which also could help mitigate climate change — comes from what Seth Shonkoff, an environmental health researcher at UC Berkeley who wasn’t affiliated with the study, calls an “environment against the economy” narrative.

“A lot of political pressure comes from this false idea that doing things better for the environment are worse for the economy,” he said, adding that emission-reduction technologies are regarded as too costly for businesses to legitimately consider.

However, he noted that “morbidity and mortality” driven by air pollution creates a significant drain on the economy, because tax dollars have to pay for the hospitalizations.

According to the researchers, about 119 million people live in areas that do not meet ozone regulation standards in the United States, but many are unaware of this fact and its implications.

“It’s not just doing the science but communicating the science to the community in ways that make people feel empowered to do something about it,” Shonkoff said.

Virgie Hoban is the lead research and ideas reporter. Contact her at vhoban@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @VirgieHoban.

The post Researchers find link between ozone, heart disease appeared first on The Daily Californian.