School, meet Life.

The Most Reliable Birth Control We're Not Using

I was just talking to a classmate about this.

From Andrew Sullivan:

A study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine points to the IUD:

The results were striking: women using pills, patches, or rings “had a risk of contraceptive failure that was 20 times as high as the risk” among those using IUDs.” And, much as the authors had hypothesized, women younger than 21 who chose to use a pill, patch, or ring—rather than an IUD—were twice as likely to become accidentally pregnant than older women. … The study’s conclusion runs a single, unequivocal sentence: the effectiveness of IUDs is simply superior to other contraceptives. “If there were a drug for cancer, heart disease, or diabetes that was 20 times more effective,” said [senior author Jeffrey Peipert], “we would recommend it first.”

Most of the rest of the world has caught on, compared to the 1 in 20 American women who use it:

A 2011 study from the World Health Organization reports that, in China, a full third of married Chinese women use so-called “long acting” devices. In Scandinavia, nearly 20 percent do. The highest users? Vietnamese and Egyptian women, at around 35 percent. Only in sub-Saharan Africa are IUDs less popular than in the Americas.

Previous Dish on female birth control here, here, here, here, here, here, hereand here.

Seriously, people, get vaccinated.

jtotheizzoe:

It’s been almost a year and a half since I visited the Jenny McCarthy Body Count. In that time, it looks like over 250 unnecessary vaccine-preventable deaths and over 20,000 illnesses have occurred because of Jenny and her ilk spreading brain-meltingly frustrating misinformation about the safety of vaccines. 

Sure, she’s not the only guilty one, but she’s the leader of a dangerous movement that’s still quite active today. 

This from a woman whose website has the following headline up today: 21 Benefits of Enzymes and Why You Need Them … oh I dunno, maybe to complete basic biological functions and literally BE ALIVE?!?!

A society that cares about science more will be a society that cares less about Jenny McCarthy. Keep up the good fight, and keep sharing science with your friends. Someone’s life may depend on it.

jsmog:

Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate drops by 36.9 per cent

Better access to contraception, higher quality sex education and shifting social norms have contributed to a 36.9 per cent decline in Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate between 1996 and 2006, according to a report released today by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada.

America’s emphasis on abstinence-only sex ed “tends to result in a higher percentage of teens becoming pregnant,” as does the country’s lack of universal health care. Poverty is another factor.

Among the four countries compared for 2006, Canada boasted the lowest teen birth and abortion rate per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 (27.9), followed by Sweden (31.4), England/Wales (60.3), and the United States (61.2).

Source:

thedevolution:

From the artist, Leon Farrant:

“Information about the results of vaccine use in the U.S.” 

Source: Vaccine Infographic

(via pubhealth)

Some links on the topic:

• A really great summary on the likely positive and negative repercussions of ACA on veteran health by Kenneth Kizer, MD, MPH in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)
• HuffPo: Caitlin Padula: The Affordable Care Act: Protecting America’s Protectors. Money quote: Americans need to take care of veterans and the Affordable Care Act will do just that. When the ACA is implemented, nearly nine in 10 uninsured veterans will have improved access to affordable coverage.
• Ungated PDF from the U.S. Senate on the issue. Includes points on how the Affordable Care Act 1) protects access to quality, affordable health care that veterans, service members, and their families have now; 2) offers greater flexibility and choice to veterans; 3) lowers costs, provides choices, and assures stable health care for veterans not enrolled in the VA health care system; 4) builds upon the commitment of our nation to serve military families.
• National Prevention Council’s report: National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (June 30, 2011) - ungated pdf. It includes initiatives like that at the Department of Veterans Administration: VHA Preventive Care Program, Move! Weight Management Program, and National Veterans Crisis Line. Money quote: By concentrating on the causes of chronic disease, the Affordable Care Act helps move the nation from a focus on sickness and disease to one based on wellness and prevention.

(Cross-post from fb)

YES!!!! As a military spouse and soon-to-be social worker and public health practitioner, I could not be more thankful for the investments this Administration has put in for the welfare of the military and veteran community.

• the VA’s budget has increased every year that Obama has been in office
• the Administration has advocated for the removal of employment barriers that military spouses face 
• the Administration has spotlighted the strengths and unique needs of military children
• the Administration has created focused initiatives (such as Joining Forces) to organize around military and veterans issues
• the Administration overall has continued to strive for an adequate national response to the mental health and physical health needs of veterans and military families

I was lucky enough to work with ReSurge International and International Medical Corps last summer for my MPH internship. Here’s a taste of the work I did, which focused on reducing burn injuries in Nepal and other low- and middle-income countries. Please watch this 2-minute video and support the efforts to reduce and remedy these devastating injuries.

theatlantic:

A Fast Food Burger Is 3 Times Larger Now Than in The 1950s

Research has shown that the bigger your plate, the likelier it is you’ll overeat. The same logic may apply to fast food, where according to a new infographic by the Centers for Disease Control, portion sizes for popular items have increased dramatically since the 1950s.

Read more. [Image: CDC]

(via ilovecharts)

Survival rates are not the same as mortality rates

Read the whole thing. It’s good information on how we should think about health, health costs, survival, etc.

But here’s the thing.  You can only decrease the mortality rate by preventing death, or curing the disease.  That’s really it.  That’s a cure or a life extension, and both are unequivocally good.  Survival rate, however, can be increased by preventing death, curing the disease, or making the diagnosis earlier.

The VA and the ACA

Only a minority of veterans receive health care at the VA, and most VA patients also receive care in other settings, financed by other systems.

Aaron Carroll from The Incidental Economist on vaccines

The basic argument is that your kids should get ALL their vaccines. There’s no reason not to. Vaccines are safe. Your body can handle it. You prevent disease and infection in yourself and others. Just do it. Stop fretting. Just do it. You and your community will be healthier.

I agree.

Pink Razors

I love these ladies. 

Helen writes:

Yes. They provide abortion services. Deal with it because they also do so much more and we remember the world before them. It wasn’t pretty.

And Margaret’s response is priceless.

women deserve better. women deserve choice.

fuckyeahslampoems:

Culturally-diversified biracial girl with

a small diamond nose ring and a pretty smile
poses besides the words
“Women Deserve Better”.

and I almost let her non-threatening grin
begin to infiltrate my psyche
until I read the unlikely small print
at the bottom of the ad:
Sponsored by the US Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities
and the Knights of Columbus

On a bus
in a city
with a population of 553,000,
4 teenage mothers on the bus with me,
1 Latina woman with 3 children under 3
and no signs of a daddy. 

One sixteen year old black girl
standing in 22-degree weather
with only a sweater
a book bag
and a bassinette,
with an infant that ain’t even four weeks yet
tell me that Yes ….
Women do deserve better.

Women deserve better
than public transportation rhetoric
from the same people who
won’t give that teenage mother
a ride to the next transit.
Won’t let you talk to their kids about safer sex
Have never had to listen as the door SLAMS
behind the man who adamantly says,
“That shit” ain’t his
leaving her to wonder how she’ll raise this kid.

Women deserve better
than the 300 dollars TANF and AFC
will provide that family of three
or the 6 dollar an hour job at KFC
with no benefits for her new baby
or the college degree she may never see
because you can’t have infants at the university

Women deserve better
than lip service paid for by politicians
who have no alternatives to abortion
though I am sure
right this moment one of their seventeen year old daughters
is sitting in a clinic lobby
sobbing quietly and anonymously
praying parents don’t find out
or will be waiting for mom to pick her up because research shows
that out-of-wedlock childbirth doesn’t look good on political polls and
Daddy ain’t having that.

Women deserve better
than backwards governmental policies
that don’t want to pay
for welfare for kids
or health care for kids
or child care for kids
Don’t want to pay living wages to working mothers,
Don’t want to make men who only want to be last night’s lovers
responsible for the semen they lay.

Flat out don’t want to pay for SHIT
but want to control the woman who’s having it.
Acting outraged at abortion.
Well I’m outraged
that they want us to believe
that they believe
that women deserve better.

The Vatican won’t prosecute pedophile priests
But I decide I’m not ready for motherhood
and it’s condemnation for me
These are the same people who won’t support
national condom distribution to prevent teenage pregnancy.
But women deserve better.

Women deserve better
than back-alley surgeries
that leave our wombs barren and empty.
Deserve better
than organizations bearing the name
of land-stealing racist rapists
funding million dollar campaigns on subway trains
with no money to give these women
while balding middle-aged white men
tell us what to do with our bodies
while they wage wars and kill other people’s babies

So maybe women deserve better
than propaganda and lies
to get into office
Propaganda and lies
to get into panties
to get out of court
to get out of paying child support

Get the fuck out of our decisions
and give us back our voice
Women do deserve better
Women deserve choice

Sonya Renee - What Women Deserve

(via wellingtonyoungfeminists)

Let’s keep it going.

(via healthycal)