Your Health: Teens and HIV tests
Teens and HIV tests
Almost 50 percent of HIV-positive American teens and young adults don't know they are infected, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Data from a 2007 survey of high school students showed that only 22 percent of those who were sexually active got tested for HIV. Students were more likely to get HIV testing if they had learned about AIDS or HIV infection in school.
As many as 1 million Americans are infected with HIV, according to the CDC. Up to a third, however, don't know it because they haven't gotten tested.
Tylenol for kids
Too much Tylenol can be dangerous, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering banning infant Tylenol as part of its efforts to reduce the risk of potentially fatal liver damage that can result from overdosing.
These steps can help you make sure you're using Tylenol safely, courtesy of Bernard Dreyer, a professor of pediatrics at the New York University School of Medicine.
1. Pick your dose based on a child's weight, rather than age. It's much more accurate.
2. Don't give Tylenol more than five times a day.
3. Beware of infant Tylenol. It's three times as strong as regular children's Tylenol, but many parents presume it's less strong. Parents often get confused and give, say, a 2-year-old a teaspoon of the infant formula, which is three times as much as the child should take. The FDA panel recommended getting rid of infant Tylenol to avoid that risk.
4. Check cough and cold remedies to see if they contain acetaminophen. Taking them along with Tylenol could cause an overdose.
5. Use a measuring syringe, not a plastic cup. In a study, parents who used the cup that comes with some medicines frequently gave more than they intended, with 5 to 10 percent measuring twice the dose.
New egg donor site
A new Web site called Donor Network Alliance (www.donornetworkalliance.com) aims to pair couples with potential egg donors. Similar to a multiple listing service used by real estate agencies, the site includes listings from 20 different egg donor agencies. Prospective parents enter their search preferences - hair color, eye color, education level, race, nationality, religion, location - to generate a list of potential donors.
The site has about 1,000 donors, and plans are in place to download 2,000 more in the coming weeks, according to its cofounder. In addition to the fees couples pay agencies and donors, which run from about $5,000 to $12,000, users will pay an additional $100 for two weeks' use of service.
Coffee not so bad
Coffee is believed to improve mood, alertness, and energy. But is it bad for you? Despite past concerns about coffee, tea, and other sources of caffeine being detrimental to health, recent research suggests that regular coffee consumption may reduce the risk of health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and liver cancer.
Regular coffee drinkers might even live longer. Coffee is "not only a vehicle for caffeine," says one expert. "It has a lot of other components." It's likely that those other components - such as antioxidants and fiber - account for some of coffee's health benefits.