Cancer has a fearsome reputation. Not without reason either. It is a disease that has not yet fully yielded to the skills and intelligence of medical scientists and doctors. And, as if the pain from the disease is not enough, the treatment for cancer, too, inflicts heavy suffering on the body.

Cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled and abnormal cell division. Cancer spreads in the body and destroys tissues when the cancer cells travel through the blood stream or the lymphatic system. The runaway growth of cells is caused by mutations to the DNA in the cells that makes the cells unable to control cell division. This mutation can either be inherited or acquired. The mortality rate in cancer depends on the type of cancer and where it develops.

Among cancers, lung cancer is the biggest killer, causing up to 3 million deaths every year worldwide. It affects the above-50 age group population most and is one of the most common types of cancers that occur in the Western countries. The main risk factor for lung cancer is smoking. Cigarette smoke, especially, contains several carcinogens. It is estimated that 80 per cent of all lung cancers are caused by smoking. The role of passive smoking in causing lung cancer is also being recognized by studies.

Another carcinogen that causes lung cancer is asbestos. This substance, which is widely used because of its fire-resistant qualities, causes a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma cancer. In mesothelioma asbestos lung cancer or asbestos cancer, malignant cells develop in the pleura, the outer lining of the lungs and the chest cavity.

The problem with asbestos cancer is that diagnosis is difficult. For one, the symptoms of mesothelioma cancer occur only 30-50 years after the exposure to asbestos. Second, the symptoms of asbestos lung cancer, such as shortness of breath and chest pain, are similar to those of many other medical conditions.

The incidence of mesothelioma asbestos lung cancer has increased in the last two decades. Still it is considered a relatively rare form of lung cancer, because the incidence rate is only 1 per 1,000,000 people. This could be as high as 7-40 per 1,000,000 in the industrialized nations. By contrast, the incidence of lung cancer is 1,000 per 1,000,000.

The common lung cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. However, the conventional treatment methods have not been very successful in the case of asbestos cancer, yielding only a median survival rate of 6-12 months after the presentation.

Again, surgery does not have much effect on small-cell lung cancer. A treatment method for lung cancer that has become increasingly popular in recent years is radiofrequency ablation. This technique is especially effective in destroying the cancerous cells inside the tumors. These cells are ‘cooked’ by inserting a small heat probe into the tumor. This technique is also non-toxic and causes very little pain for the patient.

However, there is hope for the cancer-affected. Scientists are developing new techniques of treatment, such as molecular targeted therapies, for lung cancer. Better and more effective therapies can be expected as scientists and researchers coax out more secrets from the human cells.

The origins of contemporary bingo go back to 16th century Italy, where the lottery game Lo Giuoco del Lotto dItalia was introduced. The popular chance game was introduced to North America in the late 1920s by the name of Beano. A toy salesperson of New York was responsible for changing the name of the game into Bingo and to the increase of its popularity throughout the US.

In the late 18th century, the original Italian lotto game made its way to France. Historical evidence shows that a game called Le Lotto was popular among the French high society who used to play the game in parties and social gatherings.

Le Lotto used to be played with special cards that were divided into three rows and nine columns. Each of the three columns consists of 10 numbers, while each column had five random number and four blank spaces in it. Each player had a different lotto card where he used to mark the number announced by the caller. The first player to cover one row won the game.

By the 19th century, the lotto game spread around Europe and started to serve as a didactic childrens game. In the 1850s, several educational lotto games had entered the German toys market. The lotto games purpose was to teach children how to spell words, how to multiply numbers, etc.

By 1920s, a similar version to the lotto game, known as beano was popular at county fairs throughout the US. In beano, the players placed beans on their cards to mark the called out number. The first player who completed a full row on his card, used to yell out Beano!, until one night in December 1929, when a New Yorker toys salesperson by the name of Edwin S. Lowe visited a country fair outside Jacksonville, Georgia.

On his way back to New York, Lowe had purchased beano equipment including dried beans, a rubber numbering stamp and cardboard. At his New York home, Lowe has been hosting friendly beano games. During one game, one excited winner who had managed to complete a full row stuttered out Bingo, instead of Beano. Listening to the excited stuttering girl, Edwin S. Lowe thoughts went away. Lowe decided to develop a new game that would be called Bingo.

While Lowes Bingo game was making its first steps in the market, a Pennsylvanian priest asked Lowe to use the game for charity purpose. After a short tryout period, the priest had found out that the bingo game causes the churches to lose money. Since the variety of bingo cards was limited, each bingo game ended up in more than five winners.

In order to develop the game and to lower the probabilities of winning, Lowe approached Prof. Carl Leffler, a mathematician from Columbia University. Leffler was asked to create bigger variety of bingo cards that each of them will have unique combination of numbers. By 1930, Lowe had 6,000 bingo cards and Prof. Leffler went insane.

Since then, the popularity of the bingo game as a fundraiser continued to grow. In less than five years, about 10,000 weekly bingo games took place throughout North America. Lowes company grew to employ several thousands of employees and to occupy more than 60 presses 24 hours a day.

Now, bingo is one of the most popular chance games in the world. It is played in churches, schools, local bingo halls and land based casinos in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world.

Question

Many of the symptoms and signs that you describe apply to other personality disorders as well for instance, the histrionic, the antisocial and the borderline personality disorders. Are we to think that all personality disorders are interrelated?

Answer

The classification of Axis II personality disorders – deeply ingrained, maladaptive, lifelong behavior patterns – in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition, text revision American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV-TR, Washington, 2000 – or the DSM-IV-TR for short – has come under sustained and serious criticism from its inception in 1952.
The DSM IV-TR adopts a categorical approach, postulating that personality disorders are “qualitatively distinct clinical syndromes” p. 689. This is widely doubted. Even the distinction made between “normal” and “disordered” personalities is increasingly being rejected. The “diagnostic thresholds” between normal and abnormal are either absent or weakly supported.

The polythetic form of the DSM’s Diagnostic Criteria – only a subset of the criteria is adequate grounds for a diagnosis – generates unacceptable diagnostic heterogeneity. In other words, people diagnosed with the same personality disorder may share only one criterion or none.
The DSM fails to clarify the exact relationship between Axis II and Axis I disorders and the way chronic childhood and developmental problems interact with personality disorders.

The differential diagnoses are vague and the personality disorders are insufficiently demarcated. The result is excessive co-morbidity multiple Axis II diagnoses.
The DSM contains little discussion of what distinguishes normal character personality, personality traits, or personality style Millon – from personality disorders.

A dearth of documented clinical experience regarding both the disorders themselves and the utility of various treatment modalities.
Numerous personality disorders are “not otherwise specified” – a catchall, basket “category”.

Cultural bias is evident in certain disorders such as the Antisocial and the Schizotypal.
The emergence of dimensional alternatives to the categorical approach is acknowledged in the DSM-IV-TR itself

An alternative to the categorical approach is the dimensional perspective that Personality Disorders represent maladaptive variants of personality traits that merge imperceptibly into normality and into one another p.689

The following issues – long neglected in the DSM – are likely to be tackled in future editions as well as in current research

The longitudinal course of the disorders and their temporal stability from early childhood onwards;

The genetic and biological underpinnings of personality disorders;

The development of personality psychopathology during childhood and its emergence in adolescence;

The interactions between physical health and disease and personality disorders;

The effectiveness of various treatments – talk therapies as well as psychopharmacology.

All personality disorders are interrelated, at least phenomenologically – though we have no Grand Unifying Theory of Psychopathology. We do not know whether there are and what are the mechanisms underlying mental disorders. At best, mental health professionals record symptoms as reported by the patient and signs as observed.

Then, they group them into syndromes and, more specifically, into disorders. This is descriptive, not explanatory science. Sure, there are a few etiological theories around psychoanalysis, to mention the most famous but they all failed to provide a coherent, consistent theoretical framework with predictive powers.

Patients suffering from personality disorders have many things in common

Most of them are insistent except those suffering from the Schizoid or the Avoidant Personality Disorders. They demand treatment on a preferential and privileged basis. They complain about numerous symptoms. They never obey the physician or his treatment recommendations and instructions.
They regard themselves as unique, display a streak of grandiosity and a diminished capacity for empathy the ability to appreciate and respect the needs and wishes of other people. They regard the physician as inferior to them, alienate him using umpteen techniques and bore him with their never-ending self-preoccupation.
They are manipulative and exploitative because they trust no one and usually cannot love or share. They are socially maladaptive and emotionally unstable.
Most personality disorders start out as problems in personal development which peak during adolescence and then become personality disorders. They stay on as enduring qualities of the individual. Personality disorders are stable and all-pervasive not episodic. They affect most of the areas of functioning of the patient his career, his interpersonal relationships, his social functioning.
The typical patients is unhappy. He is depressed, suffers from auxiliary mood and anxiety disorders. He does not like himself, his character, his deficient functioning, or his crippling influence on others. But his defences are so strong, that he is aware only of the distress and not of the reasons to it.
The patient with a personality disorder is vulnerable to and prone to suffer from a host of other psychiatric problems. It is as though his psychological immunological system has been disabled by his personality disorder and he falls prey to other variants of mental illness. So much energy is consumed by the disorder and by its corollaries example by obsessions-compulsions, or mood swings, that the patient is rendered defenceless.
Patients with personality disorders are alloplastic in their defences. They have an external locus of control. In other words they tend to blame the outside world for their mishaps. In stressful situations, they try to pre-empt a real or imaginary threat, change the rules of the game, introduce new variables, or otherwise influence the world out there to conform to their needs. This is as opposed to autoplastic defences internal locus of control typical, for instance, of neurotics who change their internal psychological processes in stressful situations.
The character problems, behavioural deficits and emotional deficiencies and lability encountered by patients with personality disorders are, mostly, ego-syntonic. This means that the patient does not, on the whole, find his personality traits or behaviour objectionable, unacceptable, disagreeable, or alien to his self. As opposed to that, neurotics are ego-dystonic they do not like who they are and how they behave on a constant basis.
The personality-disordered are not psychotic. They have no hallucinations, delusions or thought disorders except those who suffer from the Borderline Personality Disorder and who experience brief psychotic “microepisodes”, mostly during treatment. They are also fully oriented, with clear senses sensorium, good memory and a satisfactory general fund of knowledge.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV-TR, Washington, 2000 defines “personality” as

“enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself exhibited in a wide range of important social and personal contexts.”

Click here to read the DSM-IV-TR 2000 definition of personality disorders.

The international equivalent of the DSM is the ICD-10, Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders, published by the World Health Organization in Geneva 1992.

Click here to read the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for the personality disorders.

Each personality disorder has its own form of Narcissistic Supply

HPD Histrionic PD Sex, seduction, “conquests”, flirtation, romance, body-building, demanding physical regime;
NPD Narcissistic PD Adulation, admiration, attention, being feared;
BPD Borderline PD The presence of their mate or partner they are terrified of abandonment;
AsPD Antisocial PD Money, power, control, fun.
Borderlines, for instance, can be described as narcissist with an overwhelming separation anxiety. They DO care deeply about not hurting others though often they cannot help it but not out of empathy. Theirs is a selfish motivation to avoid rejection. Borderlines depend on other people for emotional sustenance. A drug addict is unlikely to pick up a fight with his pusher. But Borderlines also have deficient impulse control, as do Antisocials. Hence their emotional lability, erratic behaviour, and the abuse they do heap on their nearest and dearest.

News about avian influenza–often called bird flu–is everywhere these days. But American consumers needn’t worry. Experts at the American Meat Institute in Washington, D.C., say they can continue to enjoy their meals with confidence because U.S. poultry is among the healthiest and safest in the world.

“Multi-Firewall” Strategy

Protects U.S. Poultry

Multiple U.S. “firewalls” are in place to prevent the high pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus now making news from crossing our borders–and to detect, contain and destroy it rapidly if it does occur here. They include

&8226; Import controls. Americans consume poultry from North America. Strict import restrictions prohibit imports of poultry from nations with the high pathogenic H5N1 virus.

&8226; Surveillance. The U.S. government and industry have aggressive surveillance programs in place that aim to detect the virus if it does enter the U.S. This surveillance is currently on “high alert.”

&8226; Target and destroy. If the virus were to occur here, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would isolate and humanely destroy affected flocks.

U.S. Production

Methods Different

U.S. poultry is produced in secure farms where bio-security is the top priority. These controlled systems protect poultry from a host of viruses that can threaten their health. In some regions of the world, however, community-raised poultry can move through towns and streets freely and come into contact with each other and with people. As a result, the high pathogenic H5N1 virus has spread rapidly from bird to bird and in some extreme cases, to people who have come into close contact with live birds.

Americans rarely come into contact with live poultry and those who work in poultry facilities receive special training. Together, U.S. firewalls and secure production systems have helped keep the U.S. free of the high pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza strain.

No Food Safety Issue

Leading animal health experts say that the chance of an infected bird entering the food supply is virtually zero. Poultry that do become infected are detected through surveillance or become noticeably sick and cannot survive transportation to a processing plant. All birds that do arrive at plants undergo health screening by federal veterinarians, making the chance of infected poultry entering the food system extremely low, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Consumers should be reassured, however, that ordinary safe handling practices–like handwashing, separating raw and cooked foods and cooking thoroughly as measured with a thermometer–destroy viruses like avian influenza in the same way they destroy bacteria. Experts say unequivocally that properly cooked and handled poultry products do not pose a risk of avian influenza.

Tuberculosis Treatment

Tuberculosis, commonly referred to as TB, is an infection that affects the lungs and may also affect bones, joints, the circulatory system and central nervous system. This disease can be highly contagious if left untreated. In 1993, the World Health Organization declared TB to be a world health emergency because of the frequency of infection and the ease in which it spreads. It is estimated that nine billion new cases are reported each year.

As with any disease, it is better to ensure prevention. TB vaccinations are common and highly effective, especially in children. TB vaccinations are very common in the United States as well as other countries. Although a higher percent of children are successfully protected, if adults have not received a TB vaccination it is recommended they get one.

Symptoms of TB include chest pain, coughing, inability to breathe and pneumonia-like symptoms. However, it is also common to be infected and show no outward signs. Diagnosis of the disease will occur with a complete examination including a TB skin test. It is important to minimize the damages by early detection and prompt treatment. This can mean the difference between full recovery and possible death.

Treatment of this disease can be complicated, especially if there are other factors such as HIV. It is recommended that quarantined hospitalization occur to monitor progress and reduce the risk of spreading. Common drug therapies include antibiotics specifically designed for TB treatment such as Isoniazid, Rifampin, Pyrazinamide, Streptomycin and Ethambutol. Unfortunately, there are many strains of tuberculosis that have become resistant to the medications. It is very important for continued monitoring to ensure effectiveness of a drug or combination of drugs.

In the instance where the body is resisting drugs, surgery may be necessary. The portion of the lungs affected may be removed. Also, chest tube drainage may be required. In these cases, recovery percentages are very low. In order to reduce this risk, treatment as early as possible is advised. Patients who have an early diagnosis or are not immune to the drug treatments have a high success rate of complete recovery. Relapses are extremely rare with proper treatment.

With over two billion people affected with tuberculosis in the world, the seriousness of this disease can not be denied. Prevention of the disease is the best way to keep the spreading of it in check. This includes ensuring children are properly vaccinated and all shots are kept up to date. Early detection and treatment are also key factors in guaranteeing complete recovery and minimizing risk of relapse.

How do you know if that forgetfulness youve had is an early sign of Alzheimers disease, or just normal aging?

You may forget the occasional name or sometimes have trouble thinking of the right word to use. Maybe you walk into another room and wonder what you were looking for. Is it Alzheimers, aging, or just plain being distracted, doing one thing while youre thinking of another?

There are signs to look out for, signs that tell you its time to get to the specialist and get checked out. Treatments for Alzheimers disease work best in the early stages so its vitally important to get an early diagnosis. An early diagnosis and early treatment can give you more years of normal functioning, and save you and your family tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Warning Signs

Memory Loss We all forget things like appointments, names, and phone numbers occasionally, and thats normal. Forgetting freshly learned information more often can be a warning sign though.

Communication Problems Having trouble finding the right word is not unusual, but the Alzheimers sufferer often forgets simple words and may use unusual words or strange descriptions. A camera may become that box that makes pictures.

Problems with everyday tasks A person with Alzheimers disease can start having trouble doing jobs or hobbies that theyve had many years of experience with. For example, they may be halfway through their favourite recipe and forget how to finish it though theyve done it many times before.

Misplacing Things This isnt the normal losing the car keys, but more like putting things in unusual places such as the ice-cream in the oven, or clothes in the dishwasher.

Disorientation A person with Alzheimers disease can get lost in their own street or stay sitting at the bus station because they cant remember where they were going. They may not remember how to get home.

Impaired Judgement Wearing a thick jacket on a blazing hot day or a swimsuit in the middle of winter could be a sign of dementia. Having poor judgement with money can be a symptom too, such as spending big amounts of money with telemarketers or buying products that arent needed.

Trouble with Complex Tasks Having trouble with tasks that require abstract thinking like balancing a check book or playing a favourite game can be difficult for the Alzheimers sufferer.

Mood Swings, and Personality Changes Mood changes for no apparent reason can be another symptom. The sufferer could be happy and cheerful one minute, and then suddenly become extremely angry over something that is quite trivial, or that they have imagined. They can become clingy with a family member, or suspicious of the neighbours.

Loss of Initiative We can all get tired of housework or our business activities sometimes. But someone suffering from Alzheimers disease can become quite passive, watching television for hours, not wanting to do their normal activities, or spending more time sleeping.

Many more people are worried that they may have Alzheimers disease than actually get the disease. However, if you are suffering from these symptoms, see a specialist.

With the current development of a vaccine for the H5N1 strain of the Bird Flu Virus still 2 to 3 years away. We dont have much of a choice but to really be very cautious that the H5N1 strain does not mutate with a human flu virus.

If the outbreak we fear does happen without the vaccines ready yet, all we can possibly do is just quarantine the geographical area where the virus is rampant. Give them the vaccines that have been developed and prevent them from spreading it further. This will only work if the outbreak is limited geographically. When the outbreak does happen to 10,000 places, were in Big ST.

The development of a vaccine is so slow because we still use methods dating back 50 years ago. Ironically this is because they still use chicken eggs to develop the vaccines. New methods are on the horizon, instead of using chicken eggs, they may be able to use mammal cells.

Scientist would be storing the mammal cells in large numbers. So that when a flu strain or threat develops, they can just inject it to the cells. The injected cells will then burst and die. The scientist will then harvest the proteins of the influenza and distribute them as vaccines already.

Vaccines made from DNA are really appealing because they could be made and administered quickly. However this kind of vaccine is still being tested on humans. DNA vaccine works by attaching itself to a segment of our DNA. It contains the coded information of the flu virus protein.

Now you would want to ask why we would vaccinate everyone instead of just treating them. This is because giving vaccines is cheaper compared to treating everyone. With a vaccine the person only needs one or two doses in total. Compared to giving two doses a day for a period of time to treat the viral problem. It is also pretty stupid to wait for someone to suffer before treating the person. The person might not even live to see the day just to receive the medication.

The current stand of some people however is that why waste precious money on a threat that may never materialize. The best answer here is its better to be prepared than be sorry.

In the last 87 years we have had three pandemics. So its better to prepare for something that could be really catastrophic. The longer our world goes without a pandemic; there is more chance that it could occur in the upcoming years.

Thats why we should be very thankful for every company out there trying to create a vaccine for a pandemic that might hit us. Rather than be worried of money that might get wasted.

There are currently 13 states that have legalized gambling and they have over 450 casinos between those states, and they bring in 72 billion dollars a year.

From this money states get extra money for road repair, schools and many other things that a state needs money to fix and maintain.

In the last 10 years there have also been a large number of Indian casinos being granted licenses in states that do not have legalized gambling, which means the only place t gamble in those states is in the Indian Casino, and they do not pay taxes on that money.

Many states are waking up and realizing that there is a very profitable business out there that they are not getting any revenue from, and not only does it bring money into the state it also creates thousands of jobs for each casino that opens. So for a state with a high unemployment rate this means more people are working and less of the stats money needs to be spent on these people, again a win for the state and the people.

It also means more money for the state to feed kids a hot meal at lunch and the money to put new books in the classrooms and maybe to build more schools. This money is also used in some states to hire more police officers.

Legalized gambling besides bringing in more money to the government in taxes also brings money into the community gamblers will use services such as hotels, restaurants and other local attractions while they are in the area. This can bring a major boost to a small starving economy separate from that of the casino.

Another reason why many states are pushing to make gambling legal is to attempt to wipe out the illegal gambling business. Many people feel that if gambling is legalized there is no reason for people to go to sleazy and dangerous back room casinos.

These type of places are becoming harder and harder for the police to find and as soon as they do find them, they will either pack up and change locations or another will just take their place. Another bad thing about illegal casinos s that there is no one monitoring to make sure the casino is not cheating their players.
In many cases police have raided illegal casinos and found that all the table and card games are rigged for the casino to win, and if this is ever discovered the casinos operators have in the past committed murder to keep their secrets, and most people fear for their lives and refuse to cooperate with the police.

Legalized gambling is monitored to make sure both the player and the house are playing an honest game.
Do not let all of this make you think that gambling has no downside. A lot of this money has to go to treatment for people, who develop gambling addictions, and most cities with a casino do usually see a rise in crime in those areas, so more police officers are not just a luxury it is a necessity.

Passover, or Pesach as it is called in Hebrew, is the 8 day festival where the Jews celebrate their liberation from Egypt more than a thousand years ago. One of the most important features of this freedom festival is that the Jews cannot eat anything that is leavened. They eat unleavened bread.

They must also make sure that no bread crumbs exist in or around the house the cupboards, the drawers, the kitchen, behind the bed, under the refrigerator and anywhere else where crumbs might have fallen through. To ensure that the house is clean of leavened food materials, the Jews have to clean the entire house from top to bottom as thoroughly as possible. And they do. During the week before Passover, house cleaning is what goes on in most Jewish houses. To answer this demand and to ease the tension, here is a joke on this subject called Impossible Timing, which highlights this cleaning tension.

Impossible Timing
Samuel, an observant Jew, who was also a financial wizard, left Brooklyn to accept the position of Vice President in a famous broker firm in Utah, which is well known for being a Mormon state.

When they learned this, the company’s directorate applied tremendous pressure on the company’s president. “We are religious people here,” they said. “It can’t be that a Jew will handle all our money.”

The president tried to ward them off, but when he couldn’t manage it anymore, he called Samuel to his office and explained the situation to him. Samuel was offered the choice of either converting or leaving the attractive job which also had a six figure salary quote attached to it.

Samuel had no choice but to convert, and he went home and told his wife that from Sunday, they will start attending the Church services.

A few months went by and his wife kept troubling Samuel about the conversion. “This is too difficult for me. I miss the Sabbath lighting candles and blessing the wine. I miss the holidays. Money is not everything, Samuel dear.”

And with each time that his wife complained, Samuel’s conscience increased until he could not take it anymore and he went to meet the company’s President.
“Look, I can’t go on like this,” Samuel said. “I am full of regret. Money is not everything. I can’t sleep and neither can my wife. This is too heavy a burden for me to carry. I was born a Jew and I want to die a Jew. And if you want me to quit, I will without making any trouble.”

The President looked at him in wonder, “Listen, Samuel, I had no idea that this was so difficult for you. I thought it was a trivial matter. But you don’t have to leave. Everything will be the same as before you can stay here with us without converting.

Samuel returned home happy and grinning from ear to ear. He ran to his wife, who was watching Ricky Lake, “You won’t believe it! It’s a miracle. We are going back to being Jews, and I still retain my job.”

His wife looked at him with eyes that spat fire, and said,” Are you mad?”

Samuel was shocked. “But I thought that this is what you wanted!” He cut in. “All this while you have been crying and complaining. Don’t you wish to go back to becoming a Jew”"

His wife looked at him with ever more fury, “Of course I want to. Of course I want to,” she said. “But now? Only a week before Passover?”

Those of us who have so-called genital herpes are caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand we are ostracized by the minority of the population about 40 who dont currently have herpes simplex in their body, which is bad enough, but more cruelly we are often isolated by our fellow members of the herpes community who have so-called cold sores heroes simplex 1 of the mouth and face. Frankly the lack of support form the majority of population who has cold sores bothers me far more than the stigma placed on me by unsympathetic members of the uninfected population. After-all they dont know what it feels like to have herpes so I can cut them some slack. But for those of you who have cold sores and continue pretending that you dont have herpes and who distance yourselves from those who have their outbreaks genitally rather than facially- shame on you. If it wasnt for your unwillingness to come to terms with the reality of your herpes infection, the herpes community would be a more united majority of the population far more empowered to boldly go out into the community and reject the unjust and irrational stigma placed on people with herpes.

Sixty percent of the population has herpes. We are living in a herpes nation. There is no reason for us to be a despised minority. If we were more united and more out of the closet we would be in a so much better position to inspire understanding and support from those who do not have herpes. We would be better able to educate young people on herpes prevention and herpes awareness. We would be better able to reach out to the people with herpes who have had their self-esteem devastated.

So-called cold sores are herpes. I have had too many people in my clinic and through the Internet say to me, I dont have herpes, Ive never had an STD, but I do get these cold sores on my lips.

Herpes is herpes whether you get your outbreaks above the waist or below the waist. Its true that people with type 1 herpes of the mouth and face often have fewer outbreaks than people with herpes type 2 of the genitals, but it is also true that herpes of the mouth and face is just as contagious if not more so than genital herpes. It is also true that many people with type 1 herpes of the mouth and face shed virus without symptoms and are giving many people type 1 herpes on their genitals from oral sex. It is also true that herpes of the mouth and face can spread to parts of the body that genital herpes rarely ever spreads to including the nostrils and into the brain, the hands and fingers, down the esophagus and into the stomach, into the eyes, and elsewhere.

For those who dont have herpes and give people with herpes a rough time, I really have no words for you. If you believe that having genital herpes is an indication of promiscuity or moral deficiency then you are probably too far-gone for anything I say here to reach you. And for the record I dont think theres anything inherently wrong with promiscuity. I got my herpes in the context of a monogamous relationship but I wouldnt feel bad about myself if I had been infected by herpes through promiscuity. How you got herpes is irrelevant. Herpes is a virus. Viruses have different strategies for gaining access to our bodies. A virus that chooses sex as its preferred method of infection is less scary to me than an airborne virus that indiscriminately devastates huge populations in a matter of days.

Jesus said let he is who is without sin cast the first stone. I say let he or she who is without a virus cast the first stone. Between the Chicken-Pox virus a member of the herpes family, the Epstein-Barr virus another member of the herpes family, the HPV virus genital warts and cervical dysplasia and Herpes Simplex there is virtually no adult reading this article who doesnt currently have a virus in their body and except for the HPV virus, these viruses are lifelong infections and thats without even discussing bacteria, fungi, yeast, and protozoa.

Herpes has been around since the time of the dinosaurs and affects akmost every animal with a backbone including cats and elephants and many animals without a backbone. In fact cats and elephants are dying of herpes. I know that cats can be randy but I have never heard of anyone accusing elephants of being promiscuous. If anyone has ever seen an elephant orgy let me know so that I can print a retraction.

When someone has the integrity and courage to tell you that they have herpes they are making themselves vulnerable to you. How you react can often either crush them or help set them free from a prison of shame. I believe that most people are intelligent and compassionate. Please treat people with herpes with the compassion and understanding we deserve. We are the same people we were before we got herpes. We are no less moral, no less attractiv, just as good in bed, just as good of a friend or son or daughter or brother or sister as we were before we got herpes. When someone tells you they have herpes if you treat them unsympathetically it only discourages them for telling others about their herpes in the future, which isnt a good situation for anyone. When someone tells you they have herpes its an opportunity and challenge to you to show that you are not prejudiced and mean-spirited. It is a chance for us all to create more love and understanding.

For those of us who have genital herpes – dont buy into the lies and myths that make you ashamed and marginalized. You can choose not to let herpes define you and dominate your life. No one can take away your power and dignity except for yourself.

When someone gives you a bad time for having herpes instead of dwelling too long in anger or sadness, just forgive them for they know not what they do. Embrace all the beauty and love around you and if there isnt enough beauty and love, create it. You are a human being equipped with infinite potential for loving and appreciating the wonders of this world.

Christopher Scipio
HomeopathHerbalist
Holistic Herpes Treatment Specialist