Shute

If you have unprotected sex with a person who is having sex with someone else, you are at extraordinarily high risk for getting venereal diseases, that can make you sick and even kill you. A report from Johns Hopkins shows that 25 percent of girls between 12 and 19 who show up at school-based sexually transmitted disease clinics are infected with chlamydia, a venereal disease that causes infertility, pelvic infections, miserable urinary symptoms, joint pains, a sore throat, a cough, heart attacks and even death. Previous studies show that 50 percent of young people with more than three sexual partners a year have sexually transmissible diseases and 40 percent of sexually active adolescent females in one large American city have the venereal diseases, chlamydia or gonorrhea.

The most common causes of burning on urination and discomfort when the bladder is full are venereal diseases. If you feel that you have to urinate all the time, have discomfort when your bladder is full, get up in the middle of the night to urinate, have spotting between periods, feel like there is a hair in your urinary tube or have unexplained pelvic pain, you may have a venereal disease that may be curable with antibiotics. You should get urine and vaginal cultures and tests for venereal diseases. If none is found but you are sexually active and you have symptoms, both you and your partner still should be treated with the newer erythromycins or tetracyclines for several weeks. If you still have symptoms, you need a thorough evaluation by a physician trained in evaluating urinary tract infections.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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The end of the world is coming. Scientists say that the sun will flare out in the future and envelope our entire solar system and all of its planets, burning them to a crisp! This sort of thing is happening now in other parts of our universe, so its not unusual, The earth is not unique. This planet we call home is a tiny dot revolving around a star, and this star is merely one of billions of suns clustered in a single galaxy. Multiply this one galaxy by uncountable billions of galaxies in possibly uncountable trillions of universes and the mind must take pause. Who can know what other unimaginable things exist in this material world, let alone the worlds we cant comprehend? The immensity of time and space seems endless, beyond conception.

So eventually, our earth will no longer exist, and we are helpless to avoid this unless of course we can colonize intergalacticly, otherwise, all of our accomplishments will one day be erased. All things fashioned by our minds in physical existence, our art, our philosophy, our religions, will be lost forever. What accomplishment can survive this?

Even if we colonize the entire universe, there are theories that the universe itself will crash in time, as the big bang turns into a big black hole. But maybe by then we will come up with some other way to save ourselves . . . maybe not. We must bow to our vulnerability as organic forms.

So, understanding all of this, we look to the heavens, which we hope is above the chaos down here. After all, if there is no spiritual dimension above, alongside, or under our universe, then atheists certainly have a point at the end of life is the big eternal sleep! But our flimsy mortal senses cant experience the spiritual dimension to the extent that we can say, There it is! So, we look to a religion that will insure our survival, a religion not too difficult, because we cant fail in this. We therefore choose a religion thats easy, we believe whatever they tell us, we take it as our truth, and we secure our little selves.

But are we securing ourselves . . . or fooling ourselves? Fear can cause us to do desperate things and believe almost anything. Our deepest fear is that we will disappear, and we cant let that happen; were much too important. Therefore, we follow whatever mysteries, miracles, doctrines, rituals, or magic that will insure our immortality. And things are good again but when viewed from an unbiased perspective, all of this is very immature and childish.

Regardless of our strong beliefs, and no matter our spiritual experiences, we must honestly admit that we dont know. We cant know Reality, and therefore our illusions become our comfort zones. Its all based on faith, and faith depends upon whom we believe.

The things that we can know for ourselves can only become known internally. External beliefs become irrelevant. We can know, for example, that the immortality of this self, a self that we think is so important, is irrelevant. The self is but an illusion. Think about it; if our self does not exist, in the way we believe it exists, and has never existed, except in our minds, what is left to become immortal? Nothing. Its only an illusion. This is the same self that is discussed in all responsible religions, the self that separates us from the Grace of God; the experience of God.

Looking at it in this manner, what is there to dread? Nothing! And if we understand life from this perspective, we become unafraid. Instead of fighting life and attempting to puff up an ego that is non-existent, we can relax. We can live life fully as it should be lived, and no longer cower under a shadow of fear. This is the secret to life and the secret to happiness as well.

It begins with the simple act of sitting quietly, discovering what exactly our illusions are, and then transcending them. Meditation or contemplative prayer is where we start, the beginning of a full life, a freedom that fears nothing; neither the end of the world, the end of the universe, nor the end of our illusionary selves.

There is something so much greater; it is all of us and we are all of it a something that will survive the end of the world!

Copyright E. Raymond Rock 2007. All rights reserved

E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com