Valentine’s day evokes images of hearts, cupids, and romantic grand gestures. Along with the romance, however, it’s also a time to consider healthy communication around relationships and sexual activity, as February is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness month. Teen dating violence comes in many forms, but today we’ll focus on sexual violence and consent.
While most of us don’t have a problem talking about ear infections, pneumonia, or strep throat, talking about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) can be a difficult conversation to start and is often considered a taboo topic. Herpes is one of the infections at the top of that list, despite the fact that it’s an infection that can be spread both through sexual and non-sexual contact and that is quite common. Since knowledge is power (and prevention!), today we’re going to spend a little time getting to know more about herpes.
While this may have been especially relevant to post before New Year’s Day, when accidents involving an impaired driver are at their highest rates of the year, we were on a short blog hiatus during the holidays, and – let’s be real – drunk driving never stops being relevant.
We all know that drunk driving is incredibly dangerous; that message has become increasingly clear over the last few decades. The numbers are alarming: drunk driving is involved in the death of about 30 people every day in the United States and about 17 percent of traffic deaths of children under the age of 14 involve a driver that was impaired by alcohol. And motor vehicle accidents continue to be the leading cause of death amongst young people, ages 16-25.
There has been a recent resurgence of at home tattooing, sometimes called “stick and poke.” “Stick and poke” technically refers to use of a needle to manually “poke” ink under the skin. In some cases, this is a technique used by professional artists (which differs from other techniques that use electrical needles to quickly and repeatedly inject ink under the skin). Often, however, it refers to a trend of people doing their own tattoos at home for themselves or their friends (“DIY” tattoos) using a variety of different kinds of needles. While some websites will claim that this is at safe as a tattoo obtained in a regulated, well-maintained tattoo parlor, there are some myths and risks that make this practice a dangerous and often more lasting project than intended.
While many think of football season as a period of excitement and team spirit, this year’s season has been punctuated with tragedy. On November 4, a high school football player named Luke Schemm collapsed on the sidelines after scoring the extra point following a touchdown. He died 5 days later, becoming the 11th high school football death since July of this year. Of these, 7 are thought to be related to trauma, while underlying health conditions are thought to have contributed to the other 4.