Health Update #2 - I'm Switching to Netscape

Well if you haven't already read the comments from the BatMan article, it seems that there is a "diversity" of opinions on this issue. It certainly garnered a lot of interest & feedback from the readership.

I just downloaded Netscape since I'm tired of my Opera web browser not functioning on a lot of things. Would you believe they published on their front page a Focus on the Family 20 year study which found:

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Virgin at 18? Here's a Big Payoff!

http://channels.netscape.com/love/package.jsp?name=fte/virginat18/virginat18&floc=wn-ns

Teens who remain virgins throughout high school may think they're missing out on some of the fun, but the reality is their sexually active peers are the ones missing out.

The study: A new study from the Christian group Focus on the Family analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth that was conducted in waves from 1979 to 2000 with 3,750 men and 3,620 women. It controlled for ethnicity and previous educational or economic disadvantage. About half the students were virgins at 18 and half were not. Students were surveyed at age 18 and again at age 38.

The results: When the two groups were evaluated 20 years after their high school graduation, the data showed that both the male and female high school students who remained virgins at least until age 18 enjoyed huge advantages as adults, compared to those who had had sex in high school:
They completed an average of one year more of higher education.
Their incomes were 20 percent higher.
They had about half the risk of divorce.
"It is very much as we suspected--that adolescent virginity has a significant impact on well-being in middle adulthood," said lead study author Reginald Finger, M.D. "We found, as well, that these better outcomes were not merely the result of avoiding teenage pregnancy or fatherhood. The outcomes are inherent to remaining abstinent. In addition, we found that female virgins were more likely than their non-virgin counterparts to have a positive financial net worth and were almost half as likely as non-virgins to use welfare benefits."

The research findings were published in the journal Adolescent and Family Health.

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ANOTHER ARTICLE exposes how you can get meningitis from kissing too many people. Summary -

These are the risk factors for meningitis:

Intimate kissing with multiple partners
A history of preceding illness
Premature birth
Being a student, especially when living in a crowded dormitory

These are the protective factors for meningitis:

Meningitis vaccination
*Recent attendance at a religious event*(!!!)

About one in 10 teenagers carries the meningococcal bacteria in their throats. While the bacteria do not survive outside the body, they can be passed easily in the saliva from one person to the next. That is why intimately kissing multiple partners is such a high risk factor for meningitis.

The researchers are realistic. Encouraging teenagers to change their behavior to reduce their risk of disease probably won't have a major impact. What will have an impact is vaccinations, and that should become a key public health priority.

[Oh jeez, here goes BatMan again!]

The study findings were published in the British Medical Journal.

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How 'bout them Brits? I'm really surprised by this - that these leftist browser news homepages actually published it. Cool.