UTAH MOVES TO THE SECOND ROUND AND YOU CAN HAVE WINE WITH YOUR ANTIBIOTICS!

I don't know why I'm a fan of the Utah Jazz- maybe because they always go farther in the playoffs than my team, the Denver Nuggets. Maybe it's because the coach, Jerry Sloan, has been around longer than a bacterial colony in your underarm hair!
For this lovely Saturday, I'm going to use the blog to address 2 Reader Concerns. I'm eating so crappy lately that I feel guilty even trying to bring you "FOOD OF THE DAY." You probably already know about huge cups of coffee, grilled cheese sandwiches, tacos piled high with meat and cheese, massive bowls of ice cream, and the other things I've been eating.

READER QUESTION OF THE DAY: CAN I HAVE A BIT OF ALCOHOL WITH MY ANTIBIOTICS?
Answer: Probably! There is only one antibiotic I know that really does NOT mix well with even small amounts of antibiotics: That's FLAGYL, generically known as METRONIDAZOLE. This is a tremendously useful antibiotic, and it's used for giardia infections, bacterial vaginal infections, gallbladder and colon infections, sexually transmitted diseases, and some skin infections. But it is NOT one of the common antibiotics your doctor will give you for strep throat, normal urinary tract infections, ear infections, sinusitis, and pneumonia.
MOST antibiotics can make your stomach crampy and uncomfortable, and cause bloating and diarrhea. These effects may be worse if you drink alcohol. And with HIGH doses of alcohol (more than 2-3 drinks), antibiotics can cause liver inflammation, and they can work less effectively.
SUMMARY:
-If you're on an antibiotic other than FLAGYL, it's ok to have a drink now and then. Just don't go on a bender.
-If you have a glass of wine or a beer while on an antibiotic, the antibiotic will still work to fight your infection.
-Even if you are on FLAGYL, a drink won't kill you. It will just give you projectile vomiting.
-Remember: always finish the full course of an antibiotic your doctor gives you. Don't stop it early so that you can go on a drinking binge, or you'll end up with a hangover AND a recurrent infection!

READER POINT OF THE DAY: COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES!
My friend V.T. has the best job ever- she gets to hang out in Antarctica with penguins. She also knows how to eat healthy!
She made a very solid point yesterday- that NOT ALL CARBS ARE THE SAME! This is true, in that COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES, the kind found in whole grains, are more nutrient rich, and less easily converted into fat, than the simple carbs in white rice and baking flour. And most baked goods, and even pastas, CAN be made with whole wheat flour. You can get pizza dough, bread, tortillas, pasta noodles, and many other wheat products made with WHOLE WHEAT rather than white, processed flour.
ADVANTAGES OF WHOLE WHEAT:
-more fiber than processed flour
-retains some of the protein found in the wheat kernel
-retains more vitamins and minerals than processed flour
-longer carbohydrate chains in the wheat take WORK for your body to process; therefore the carbs are PARTIALLY burned up in the process of digesting and storing energy
DISADVANTAGES OF WHOLE WHEAT:
-The carbs in whole wheat, like ALL CARBS, can still be turned into fat. If you eat 500 calories of processed flour, OR 500 calories of whole wheat flour, then you go into hibernation and only burn off 100 of those calories, your body will still store most of the leftover calories in the form of fat. But there will be more carbs left over to turn into fat from the processed flour.
-You will NOT lose weight by switching from processed flour to whole wheat flour, UNLESS your are burning off more calories per day than you are eating.
-If you are allergic to wheat gluten, you will tolerate whole wheat even less than you will processed wheat flour. There may be more WHEAT GLUTEN in whole wheat flour than in processed white flour, depending on the brand.
-The taste is thicker and "wheatier." I'm a big fan of whole wheat bread and pizza dough, but I admit: I personally have trouble enjoying whole wheat pasta and tortillas. It's an acquired taste!

That's all for today: I'm going birdwatching!

SCRAPE YOUR TONGUE

Did you know that in other countries, "common wisdom" about health and disease is sometimes completely different than our own? For example, in Scandanavia, "tongue pain" is considered one of the classic symptoms of a common cold. And in India, scraping your tongue is a routine oral hygeine activity- like brushing teeth and flossing.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK: TONGUE SCRAPER
A tongue scraper is a thin strip of metal, bent into a "U" shape with a little rubber handle on each end. It is designed so that, using both hands, you insert the metal strip to the back of the tongue and scrape forward, scraping all the crap off the top of your tongue. If you do this, you will be amazed- a relatively massive amount of white, brown, and yellow paste will come off your tongue.
Why scrape your tongue? Because like the teeth and gums, the tongue builds up alot of plaque. Plaque is a mortar made of undigested food particles and bacteria- bacteria that can lead to bad breath, cavities, gum disease, and throat infections. Don't you want that bacterial mortar out of your mouth? Sure you do! It is so easy to scrape your tongue, and the best part is that you don't have to do it every day- 1-2 times per week is fine.
Where do you get a tongue scraper? I got mine in a health food store in L.A. 10 years ago. You can buy them online, and some Whole Foods stores have them. Check the bath and cosmetics section of your local food co-op or health food store; most of them have these things.
GUIDELINES FOR USING A TONGUE SCRAPER:
1. Don't scrape too hard. If your tongue bleeds, this is not dangerous and it will stop quickly, but it means you're scraping too hard.
2. Rinse the plaque off the scraper with hot water, and you may need to push some of the thick junk off the scraper with your hand.
3. Periodically sterilize your scraper by wiping it down with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide.
4. Use your tongue scraper a couple times per week. If you have a cold, you will notice the plaque builds up faster, so you can use it daily if you want.
5. Unfortunately, you still need to brush and floss, even if you are scraping your tongue religiously.

MEDICAL QUESTION OF THE DAY: HOW OFTEN DO I NEED A "PHYSICAL?"
Answer: you don't really need a physical, but that's kind of a lame answer. Let me qualify this. You DO need to have some blood work done, and have your blood pressure checked, at least every 2-5 years- and this is USUALLY done in the context of a "physical." But the physical itself, in which the doctor does a comprehensive exam of your body, is a waste of time for most people. The exception is those who are senior citizens, people with diabetes, and people with heart disease- those for whom the physical exam is an important part of monitoring their chronic health conditions.
MY ADVICE: Get yourself a regular primary care doctor (an "Internist" or "Family Practitioner") and ask them to check routine blood work and your blood pressure every 2-3 years. I think "every 5 years" is too liberal- you're likely just to not go at all. They will also be able to give you any recommended vaccines or booster shots. And if you are a woman, PLEASE: get a pap smear and breast exam every 2 years, no exceptions! These tests, unlike much of the "physical," are really worth doing because they really do detect cancers that can kill you.
Any other questions? Leave a comment today!

CARBS ARE VICTIM OF A VAST CONSPIRACY

Today's food of the day is Pasta. Before I start, I acknowledge that pasta is mostly "carbs," as are rice, beans, bread, potatoes, baked goods, and a number of vegetables.
Why do carbs get a bad rap? Simply because they get broken down into sugars, which can then be turned into fat, IF, and ONLY IF, you eat more than you burn off. But remember, carbs in and of themselves are not bad. In fact they are the MOST ESSENTIAL fuel for your metabolism, and without them you would not be able to walk, exercise, or even get out of bed. So please, don't avoid carbs entirely, unless you are on the Atkins diet. Just use them wisely. If you are overweight, you need to use them in small to moderate amounts. But NO ONE, in my opinion, needs to avoid them altogether.


FOOD OF THE DAY: PASTA
If you view pasta as a vehicle for sauce, you quickly realize that the Universe of Pasta is boundless. I can't think of any other food that can be paired in so many variations with so many wonderful sauces. And even if you are watching your weight and need to cut down on carbs, you can still use small portions of pasta noodles and pair them with tasty and satisfying suaces of all sorts. If you want to emphasize the pasta, eat alot of noodles with a light sauce; if you want to minimize the carbs, eat a few noodles heaped high with suace. You get the idea.
What I did not realize is how healthy pasta actually is. This is in part because most flour used in bread and in pasta is fortified with extra B-vitamins and iron. For example the pasta on my desk right now has 10% of the iron, 10% of the fiber, and 35% of 4 different B Vitamins I need on a daily basis- per serving. And I usually eat 3 servings at a time!

PASTA: BENEFITS
-Relatively high in iron, fiber, and B vitamins.
-Loaded with carbs, pasta is a good "fuel food." It's a great thing to eat the night before you run a marathon, go on a long bike ride, or box for 12 rounds.
-Easy to cook. You really have to be a retard to mess up a pot of pasta noodles.
-Stores well- dried pasta stores for many months, even up to 2 years.
-Cheap.
-As simple or as complicated as you want it to be, depending on the sauce.
-It's filling. If you eat pasta slowly, you will find yourself full without eating much.

PASTA: DRAWBACKS
-Want to eat too much pasta? Just order some pasta at a typical restaurant. You will be served 1/3 to 1/2 pound of pasta drenched in sauce at many venues, and this provides approximately 850 calories- just the noodles! Moral: it's easy to get too many calories eating pasta.
-Pasta goes down easily with minimal chewing. It's therefore easy to inhale a large amount and get stuffed.

IN SUMMARY: Read the nutritional information on your next packet of pasta noodles. Learn how to make a healthy sauce, such as a marinara or other tomato-based sauce. Get used to eating a smaller portion than you want, and actually chewing it. But don't think you can't eat pasta and still be healthy!

FOOD OF THE ALMOST EVERY DAY?

Readers: I realized at 11PM after I had polished off 3 glasses of wine and 3 episodes of "24" that I had not yet posted the Food of the Day. Then a friend reminded me: when you blog, you don't have to blog every day!
I checked this by going to some of my favorite blogs- blogs much better and more "professional" than mine. Indeed, I was shocked to find that most bloggers DO NOT blog each and every day! In fact, some blogs have no new posts for a WEEK at a time sometimes!
Dr. Tofuhead cannot live with that situation. However, in the interest in having a life outside my blog, some modifications are needed. The new RULES are:
1. Something new will appear on Doctor Tofuhead's Truth in Medicine EVERY DAY, unless he is both out of town, and has not access to an internet connection.
2. The Food of the Day feature will not have a new food every single day. Maybe every other day, or 5 days a week, or something like that.
3. Reader Medical Questions will be answered randomly as they come in, and relatively frequently. So send more!
4. You can leave a READER MEDICAL QUESTION AS A COMMENT ON ANY BLOG ENTRY! You don't need to go back to the blog where I'm soliciting your medical questions. For example, instead of commenting on the Food of the Day, at the bottom of that post, just put in your totally unrelated medical question.
5. PRODUCT OF THE WEEK will appear on average once a week.
6. A new feature, "READING OF THE WEEK," will start later this week. It will feature some good medical book or literature that has been personally read and reviewed by me so that I can certify its "Truth and Usefulness."
7. Doctor Tofuhead will not put images on his blog, since his brother Randy does such a DAMN good job of that! But you can still comment on the photos because Randy works on this blog also, and he can answer your questions as well.
8. NEW BENEFIT: a few other doctors I work with are now reading this blog, and helping me answer the questions that are too tough for me. I will give them due credit if they do most of the work answering your medical question. They also check my facts to make sure I'm not lying to you. So now: Dr. Tofuhead's blog is "PEER REVIEWED!" AWESOME!!!!

LATER: FOOD OF THE WEEK: PASTA!

YOUR MEDICAL QUESTIONS: IGNORED FOR DAYS, EDITED, SIMPLIFIED, AND ANSWERED!

The frightening truth about health problems is that AT LEAST as often as not, doctors have no solution to them. Even in this advanced medical age, many of the symptoms that afflict people simply have no good explanation. Similarly, many of the questions patients ask doctors don't have good answers. There is much more in the world of health and disease that we DON'T know, compared to how much we do know. But at least we can be honest. If I have no idea what the answer is to your medical question, I will tell you.
This week, however, I've gotten some medical questions that I CAN answer. I'll recap those questions, and hopefully answer them!
READER QUESTION #1: WHY DOES MY WIFE COMPLAIN ABOUT MY B.O.?
Answer: because her nose is too sensitive! Just kidding. This is actually the best question I have been asked in a long time. Why? Because there really are good answers. There really is hope for you, if you have bad B.O. (body odor). Not only are there good explanations, there are effective and simple solutions, if you simply memorize these BODY ODOR AXIOMS:
Axiom #1: Your SWEAT is the main causative agent of your body odor.
Axiom #2: Your SWEAT is a cousin of your PEE. If your PEE stinks, your SWEAT stinks.
Axiom #3: Deodorants do not work well.
Axiom #4: Your armpit hair is a lost cause. If it smells, it needs to be eradicated completely.
Let's delve deeper.
Axiom #1: Sweat is mostly saltwater, just like urine. But it does carry proteins and other chemicals derived from your diet. The less effectively you are secreting food-related metabolites via stool and urine, the more you will be secreting these chemicals in your sweat. And many of these metabolites just smell like shit. Solution: you need to keep urine and shit regularly and rapidly leaving your body. Particularly if you eat alot of meat, which gets broken down into stinky proteins, you need to FLUSH these proteins out with LOTS of fiber and LOTS of water. You should be eating AT LEAST one salad or one healthy plate of vegetables for every meat dish you eat.
Axiom #2: Is your pee yellow and stanky? Then so is your sweat!!! It is that simple. Concentrated urine is full of protein, yellow in color, bubbly, and smells horrible. Dilute urine is clear and so clean you can almost drink it. Dilute your pee and your sweat will follow. Solution: drink enough water all day long that your pee is clear, or at least a very subtle, light yellow. This will keep your sweat almost odor-free.
Axiom #3: deodorants. When you apply a deodorant, all you are doing is temporarily slowing down sweat, and only on 1% of your body. And you are masking how your sweat smells with Old Spice, Speed Stick, or some other slightly less offensive odor. HOWEVER, I do not think deodorants pose and health risk. And the "salt lick" crystal deodorant does work, but it can itself become colonized with malodorous bacteria. So if your crystal deodorant stinks, toss it.
Axiom #4: armpit hair- I think, though I cannot prove, that armpit hair is the reason there are a lot more smelly dudes out there than there are smelly women. Armpit hair traps sweat, and then becomes colonized by smelly bacteria. Application of greasy deodorants then traps the bacteria in the hair. Eventually, you end up with a permanently stinky carpet of bacteria under your arms. This armpit carpet is a lost cause- it can't be steam cleaned, sprayed, washed, or remedied in any way. Solution: SHAVE IT OFF! You don't have to shave your armpits permanently; just shave them every few months, or every year, whenever you notice a lingering funk.
IN SUMMARY: If you stink, get your urine clear, your diet high in fiber, and shave your armpits! Then feel free to use, or not use, the deodorant of your choice.

READER QUESTION #2: CAN TOFU MAKE ME STERILE?

Answer: NO. There are not true "endocrine disruptors" in soy; rather, there are some "phytoestrogens" in very small amounts. These plant-derived chemicals can VERY WEAKLY imitate the action of estrogens in the body. But you already have some estrogens in your body, even if you are male. And a little estrogen does not hurt. It does not reduce or disrupt your own testosterone in any way. A large amount of ingested estrogen can give men breasts and lower their sperm count, but it takes high-dose estrogen hormone pills to accomplish this. No amount of soy in your diet can approach the doses that cause these effects. And soy is a fantastic source of protein, calcium, and vitamins.
Personally, Dr. Tofuhead eats tons of tofu and drinks 12-16 ounces of soy mild daily. And he has not yet transformed into a woman! He recommends that everyone incorporate some soy into their diets.

READER QUESTION #3: CAN TOPICAL SKIN PRODUCTS GIVE ME CANCER?
This is a question that honestly does not have a great answer. All I can say is "I doubt it." That's because the skin is actually a fairly impenetrable barrier to most chemicals that contact it. Chemicals that can penetrate the skin into the body tend to be industrial solvents: things like acetone, turpentine, paint thinner, DMSO, ether, etc. Most cosmetics are based on relatively weak oils or on water, which cannot penetrate below the most superficial layers of skin.
HOWEVER, this is an ongoing area of research, and we may be blissfully ignorant. A study last year, for example, found that lavender oil could penetrate into the system of babies, and have estrogen-like effects. Lots of baby skin products have lavender oil, but pediatricians are now warning against using these products. I honestly have a hard time understanding why lavender baby products have not been banned completely. But that has to do with the FDA and with cosmetics companies, a topic that deserves its own comprehensive rant.
As an adult, I don't think you can do yourself much harm with the lotions, deodorants, and soaps you put on your body. But I recommend extreme caution with things that you are supposed to put on your baby or your kids. If a product for children has not been in wide use for years with no reports of bad effects, I don't recommend using it, no matter how "natural" it claims to be.

SO WHAT IF MY TEAM GOT SWEPT IN THE NBA PLAYOFFS?

The Denver Nuggets are over for the season. But maybe your home team isn't! And in other good news, maybe you don't give a crap about basketball! I wish I didn't- then I might be a lot happier this time of year. I guess we all have our vices.

The best news is: the "Nuggets of Wisdom" you'll find on Dr. Tofuhead's blog aren't going anywhere!

Thank you to all who have left comments. Sorry if yesterday's post was confusing: the Food of the Day was "chives," NOT "sexually transmitted diseases!" I try to do an early post and a Food of the Day post later; but on some days I'll only have time to do the Food of the Day. Tomorrow Dr. Tofuhead will be tackling his first "Reader's Medical Question," and I promise: it will leave a delightful fragrance in your brain. Stay tuned!

FOOD OF THE DAY: PINTO BEANS

This is a tough one to tackle; not because the subject is so difficult, but because it is so dear to me I can hardly do it justice. Pinto beans are truly a delight. I went through a "black bean in my burrito" phase; everyone from San Francisco does at some point. Then I decided to be "hardcore" and eat refried pinto beans for a few years. For the last 10 years, however, I've been loyal to whole pinto beans when it comes to Mexican food, and when it comes to the beans on the stove in my kitchen.

One thing that people forget is that beans, despite their awesome protein quantities, are still mostly carbs. In pinto beans, for example, there are still 3 grams of carbohydrate for every 1 gram of protein. But as I've said before, you need carbs! And to get such QUALITY, filling carbs with so much protein, and iron and vitamins to boot, is rare in a food. Best of all, they taste wonderful.

I don't think great pinto beans are hard to cook, they just take a long time. I also don't think there is anything wrong with buying them in a can. Today I got a 12 oz. can of pinto beans, King Sooper's store brand, with no added fat and low sodium. It cost 88 cents! They're practically giving these things away! When you get them this way, just the beans in the can, they have almost NO fat. The fat column on my can said "0". How often do you see that?

PINTO BEANS: BENEFITS

-Higher protein than most plant-derived foods. You CAN get enough protein in your diet with pinto beans, and other beans, even if you are a vegan.

-They also have substantial amounts of iron, b-vitamins, and fiber.

-Dried pinto beans keep for a year or more.

-Cheap, any way you buy them.

-They are the main bean in Mexican food; so you can eat them in burritos, tacos, tortas, you name it. They also work well in American classics like baked beans, chili, and barbecued beans.

PINTO BEANS: DRAWBACKS

-If you are cooking them from scratch, you'll need 5-8 hours of stove time, depending on the elevation you live at.

-Many canned preparations of them come with added lard, saturated fat, and lots of salt.

-They can cause gas- it's true. Most of the tricks, except for one, will not prevent this. The one trick that does work I learned from a Rick Bayless cookbook. Rick notes that eating beans regularly in your diet reduces bean-related gas. I eat beans at least twice a week and as my wife would tell you, I have no gas whatsoever! (Don't ask her to verify this). But seriously, the more often you eat beans, the less serious your gas from them will be.

RECIPE: BASIC, FOOLPROOF PINTO BEANS, FROM SCRATCH:

1. Take a few cups of dried pinto beans, toss them in a colander, and rinse them. Pick out any severely deformed beans, or any small rocks or dirt clods. DON'T soak the beans. Soaking before cooking cuts down the cooking time, but it also gives the beans a chalkier texture.

2. Put the rinsed beans in a heavy colander on the stovetop, with enough water to cover them by 2 inches. Bring to a boil.

3. Drizzle in some olive oil. This is optional, but it will make the end product smoother and tastier. That's the reason restaurants add lard, but you don't need lard! The perfect amount is 1 tablespoon olive oil for every 1 cup dried beans.

4. Toss in a bay leaf or two, or a teaspoon of ground cumin (optional). If you know what epazote is, add a sprig of that. I really think a bay leaf is just as good.

5. Cut up a white or yellow onion and toss it in (optional).

6. Reduce heat to low (barely bubbling), and cook for many hours. Keep covered for most of the time. If they are too thin, take the lid off for awhile; if they are too thick, add more water. In Denver, this takes about 7 hours. Cook time will vary depending on your altitude.

7. Salt to taste, but not until they are almost done! Salting early seems to increase the cook time.

8. Serve some fresh- they are wonderful! Freeze the rest, and thaw out any time for great Mexican food.

Are You Stuck in a Food Rut?

All day long, I talk to patients about what they eat. Some of my patients eat a far more healthy and diverse diet than I do; when they talk about food, I take notes. Others eat fast food 3 times a day, 7 days a week. I don't criticize them, I simply am amazed; I try to understand what it is like to subsist entirely on fast food. There is always a lot to learn about how people eat.
Most of us are somewhere in the middle- we eat a variety of things, in a variety of ways. But we've probably restricted our choices a bit- we've come to rely on a few, or perhaps many, foods we like that we commonly eat. There are other foods that we MIGHT like, we've just forgotten about them.
I call this forgetting about foods a "food rut." Being in a food rut may not be at the top of your list of problems. But perhaps there is MORE you could be trying, MORE variety you could be experiencing in your culinary life. If you ever feel like, "I'm hungry but I don't know what I want to eat," perhaps you're in a serious food rut.
So try this exercise. Next time you are in a supermarket, look around for foods you've never tried, or foods that you haven't eaten in awhile. I bet you'll even find some "familiar old friends"- foods you used to eat and love, but that you've just neglected or forgotten for a few months (or years). Try buying something new. If you don't cook, try eating something new, or neglected, next time you are in a restaurant. But get yourself a cookbook at the bookstore the next day, because YOU REALLY SHOULD COOK.

FOOD OF THE DAY: CHIVES
I found chives by trying to think about foods I hadn't eaten in a long time. For me it was easy; I simply had to think about foods that grow in my garden that I hadn't eaten in a long time. I have chives all over my garden, mostly because they are reliable, attractive perennials that grow where most plants die instantly. In fact, I garden with them so much, and admire their flowers so often, that I was just oblivious to the culinary treasure growing right under my nose.
Chives, for eating purposes, are much like little green onions. You can essentially eat them in any recipe that calls for green onions, but good ones are milder and less "oniony." Try dicing them up and putting them on a baked potato, some pan-fried fish, a salad, a bagel with cream cheese, just about any soup, or even a sandwich. I think you'll agree: CHIVES KICK ASS!

CHIVES: BENEFITS
-Chives are full of fiber, B-vitamins, vitamin C, zinc, and potassium.
-Chives are like a mild spice; they can be used in moderate amounts on MOST cooked food. Raw, they add spice and taste to salads and sandwiches.
-They are so damn easy to grow that even the brownest thumb can grow them profusely. Don't have a garden? Stick a small seedling in a window box or indoor pot with potting soil.
-Chives really work magic on baked potatoes and baked white fish, 2 foods that can be relatively bland otherwise.

CHIVES: DRAWBACKS
-They tend to be sold in little clear plastic boxes that are a huge waste of packaging.
-Chives are overpriced in most stores, given that they grow like weeds.
-They don't keep very well. That's why you should grow your own and cut them as needed.

So do yourself a favor. Get out of your food rut. Get some chives!

STDs: the new Ipod?

Remember learning about VD and STDs in your sex-ed classes and assemblies in Middle School? No? Maybe you didn't need to- maybe you have your own STD! After all, if you have an iPod, there is a good chance you have an STD, otherwise known as a SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE.
I remember looking around at the gym last year and realizing that every young person, it seemed, had an iPod. It seemed like I was the only decrepit old dude on the treadmill with knee-high socks and a "Walkman." Then I checked out an iPod in the store, and thought it was cool. Then someone gave me one as a surprise, even though I hadn't asked for one. Now I've had one for awhile, and it seems that I can't remember a time when EVERYONE didn't have an iPod. When I meet someone, especially someone under 30, who does not have an iPod, I feel like I am meeting a rare and endangered creature for the first time.
Guess what: SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES are just like iPods, I think. They are cool again; cooler than ever. Everyone is getting one, and most people are getting them as a present from someone else- for free! Soon, you might have a hard time finding a young person who does not have an STD!
A recent massive survey showed that close to 25% of girls between 19 and 25 ALREADY HAVE an STD. Why did they survey girls? I'm not sure, but I think it's because girls more often have symptoms with certain STDs and therefore MAY be more likely to actually know it when they have an STD. Furthermore, surveys like this rely on people responding to the survey, and being honest, so they tend to UNDERESTIMATE the true percentage of people wiht STDs. In my practice (which is just a small sample), a good estimate is that between 30 and 40% of men AND women 30 and under HAVE AN STD.
So what is an STD? It's an infection, acute or chronic, with one of the following organisms:
1. HIV
2. Syphilis
3. Human Papilloma Virus or HPV
4. Gonorrhea
5. Chlamydia
6. Genital herpes or HSV
7. Trichomonas urethritis
8. Some doctors consider Hepatitis B to be an STD. I don't, and it's not counted in the above percentages.

HOW DO I FIND OUT IF I HAVE AN STD?
Don't rely on Dr. Tofuhead- see your own doctor. You can be reliably tested for most of the diseases above, and what's scary is that most of them have an "asymptomatic carrier state," in which you can have AND transmit the disease without knowing it!

HOW DO I PROTECT MYSELF FROM STDs?
1. Fewer partners=less chance of getting, or having, an STD. Bummer, right? This is not a moral argument, there is actually a direct, proven statistical correlation between the number of sexual partners someone has had, and their chances of having an STD. So be like George Michael: have FAITH in monogamy and give it a try. (OK, maybe that was a bad example.)
2. Condoms. No one loves them, and they are as dull as a Walkman. But some old technologies just work, and this is one of them. They are thinner and stronger than ever, plus like iPods they come in all sizes, colors, and flavors. They CAN protect you from EVERY ONE of the STDs listed above.
3. Get tested, for any STD, as often as you want. No doctor in their right mind would deny you this. The bad news is that there is no reliable test for HPV in men, and for women you need a full pap sample to run an STD test. If your doctor works at an academic medical center, he or she may have access to some newer HPV testing techniques.

So much for your health education of the day! Later: Food of the Day

AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY GOD RESTED, AND SO SHOULD YOU

Welcome to the Sunday Doctor Tofuhead!

I do believe in "resting," so the Sunday post will be short. It will still contain the Food of the Day, which I mislabeled as the Food of the Week yesterday. But it was Pizza, which is such a wonderful food that it was hard for me to give Pizza just one day.

FOOD OF THE DAY: SAUSAGE

Sorry to be a downer on a Sunday, but most sausage is not that great for you. However, I just had 6 breakfast sausage links and they were damn good! Loaded with saturated fat and salt, sausages cannot possibly be said to be "heart healthy." And many commercially available sausages have sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite preservatives, which MAY (it has not been definitively proven) slightly increase the risk for stomach and other cancers.

The good news is that the universe of sausages (like the Universe in general according to Stephen Hawking and others), is EXPANDING continually. So now you can find sausages made of things other than pork and pig fat. For example, a recent trip to Costco allowed me to witness the following:

1. Locally-made pork sausage that had NO nitrate or nitrite preservatives

2. Turkey and chicken sausages with less fat, some with fruit such as apples mixed in

3. Soy and tofu sausages of various sorts with low sodium and almost NO fat!

My advice is simple:

1. If you like pork-sausage, get locally made sausage without preservatives, and eat it no more than 2 times per month.

2. If you eat sausage several times per week, buy turkey-apple, chicken, or soy-based sausages.

SAUSAGE: BENEFITS

-Lots of iron and protein. Premenstrual and pregnant women are much more likely than others to be iron deficient, so I advise them to eat sausage more often (IF they can find preservative-free sausage).

-Stores well. Freeze it for months, thaw it out, and when cooked it tastes the same as fresh sausage.

-You can make your own if you are handy with intestines and ground meat.

-A little goes a long way. A single Italian sausage can really "pork up" pasta and red sauce for 2 people!

-Healthier sausages are now pretty easy to find (see above).

SAUSAGE: DRAWBACKS

-Saturated fat from beef and pork are the worst fats for you in terms of cardiac health. Most sausages are loaded with this type of fat. If you have high cholesterol, you probably should indulge in pork sausage rarely, if at all.

-Nitrates and nitrites, the preservatives in most mass-produced commercial sausages, MAY increase your blood pressure and your risk of getting gastrointestinal cancers.

-You could theoretically get a pork tapeworm or a case of E. coli from undercooked sausage, though reports of this are very rare.

-Sausage is like bacon- you might want to eat a serving but if it's around, you may find yourself eating 2 or 3 servings like I did this morning.

THANKS TO MY BROTHER RANDY WHO DOES THE GRAPHICS FOR THIS BLOG!!!!

And to all: have a wonderful Sunday and I'll see you here tomorrow.