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Tag: Human papillomavirus

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Another reason to improve your lifestyle - to treat erectile dysfunction (ED).

From Medical Daily: Erectile dysfunction can be reversed without medication

Men suffering from sexual dysfunction can be successful at reversing their problem by focusing on lifestyle factors and not just relying on medication, according to research. Researchers have highlighted the incidence of erectile dysfunction and lack of sexual desire among Australian men aged 35-80 years. 

Over a five-year period, 31% of the 810 men involved in the study developed some form of erectile dysfunction. The major risk factors for this are typically physical conditions rather than psychological ones, such as being overweight or obese, a higher level of alcohol intake, having sleeping difficulties or obstructive sleep apnoea, and age.

"The good news is, our study also found that a large proportion of men were naturally overcoming erectile dysfunction issues. The remission rate of those with erectile dysfunction was 29%, which is very high. This shows that many of these factors affecting men are modifiable, offering them an opportunity to do something about their condition," Professor Wittert says.

"Erectile dysfunction can be a very serious issue because it's a marker of underlying cardiovascular disease, and it often occurs before heart conditions become apparent. Therefore, men should consider improving their weight and overall nutrition, exercise more, drink less alcohol and have a better night's sleep, as well as address risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol.

A question that some may have about the persistence of the HPV virus on surfaces . From Medical Daily: Sex Toys Can Show Traces Of HPV 24 Hours After Use, Have Increased Chance Of Spreading Virus, Despite Cleaning

Shared sex toys between two women and between women and men could have traces of the human papillomavirus even after they’ve been cleaned. According to a study published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections,researchers from the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Indiana University School of Medicine found that women could be potentially putting their partners at risk...HPV is one of the most commonly sexually transmitted diseases, approximately 79 million Americans are currently infected with the disease, and that number increases by 14 million each year.

The study focused on women between the ages of 18 and 29 who had been in sexual relationships with both a man and a women in the prior year. They gave each woman a cleaning product, one vibrator made of thermoplastic elastomer, and another made out of soft silicone. The participants were asked to swab the vibrations after vaginal use, immediately after cleaning, and 24 hours later.

The authors found that in 75 percent of vagina samples (9 out of 12), HPV was detected. In the nine vibrators from the HPV-positive women, 85 percent (8) of showed signs of the virus; after cleaning, 56 percent (5 of the 9) had traces of HPV. Twenty-four hours after cleaning the contaminated vibrators, 40 percent (2 out of the 5) of the swabs were still positive. They also found that silicone vibrators had a lower detection rate 24 hours after cleaning.

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This exciting new research is just the beginning knowledge about our virome (the virus community within us). Note that they only looked at viruses in a few areas of our bodies - the rest is still a mystery. But note that it is normal for healthy individuals to carry viruses, and that we have "distinct viral fingerprints". We don't know if the viruses are beneficial or not to us at this time. From Science Daily:

Healthy humans make nice homes for viruses

The same viruses that make us sick can take up residence in and on the human body without provoking a sneeze, cough or other troublesome symptom, according to new research. On average, healthy individuals carry about five types of viruses on their bodies, the researchers report. The study is the first comprehensive analysis to describe the diversity of viruses in healthy people.

The research was conducted as part of the Human Microbiome Project, a major initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that largely has focused on cataloging the body's bacterial ecosystems. ..."Lots of people have asked whether there is a viral counterpart, and we haven't had a clear answer. But now we know there is a normal viral flora, and it's rich and complex."

In 102 healthy young adults ages 18 to 40, the researchers sampled up to five body habitats: nose, skin, mouth, stool and vagina. The study's subjects were nearly evenly split by gender.

At least one virus was detected in 92 percent of the people sampled, and some individuals harbored 10 to 15 viruses...."We only sampled up to five body sites in each person and would expect to see many more viruses if we had sampled the entire body."

Scientists led by George Weinstock, PhD, at Washington University's Genome Institute, sequenced the DNA of the viruses recovered from the body, finding that each individual had a distinct viral fingerprint. (Weinstock is now at The Jackson Laboratory in Connecticut.) About half of people were sampled at two or three points in time, and the researchers noted that some of the viruses established stable, low-level infections.

The researchers don't know yet whether the viruses have a positive or negative effect on overall health but speculate that in some cases, they may keep the immune system primed to respond to dangerous pathogens while in others, lingering viruses increase the risk of disease.

Study volunteers were screened carefully to confirm they were healthy and did not have symptoms of acute infection. They also could not have been diagnosed in the past two years with human papillomavirus infection (HPV), which can cause cervical and throat cancer, or have an active genital herpes infection.

Analyzing the samples, the scientists found seven families of viruses, including strains of herpes viruses that are not sexually transmitted. For example, herpesvirus 6 or herpesvirus 7 was found in 98 percent of individuals sampled from the mouth. Certain strains of papillomaviruses were found in about 75 percent of skin samples and 50 percent of samples from the nose. Novel strains of the virus were found in both sites.

Not surprisingly, the vagina was dominated by papillomaviruses, with 38 percent of female subjects carrying such strains. Some of the women harbored certain high-risk strains that increase the risk of cervical cancer. These strains were more common in women with communities of vaginal bacteria that had lower levels of Lactobacillus and an increase in bacteria such as Gardnerella, which is associated with bacterial vaginosis.

Adenoviruses, the viruses that cause the common cold and pneumonia, also were common at many sites in the body.

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Most of us are infected with human papilloma viruses. But the really interesting part is that the researchers found that the various HPV strains tend to interact, coexist, and offset symptoms in a balancing act - a HPV viral biome. From Medical Xpress:

More than two-thirds of healthy Americans are infected with human papilloma viruses

In what is believed to be the largest and most detailed genetic analysis of its kind, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and elsewhere have concluded that 69 percent of healthy American adults are infected with one or more of 109 strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). Only four of the 103 men and women whose tissue DNA was publicly available through a government database had either of the two HPV types known to cause most cases of cervical cancer, some throat cancers, and genital warts.

Researchers say that while most of the viral strains so far appear to be harmless and can remain dormant for years, their overwhelming presence suggests a delicate balancing act for HPV infection in the body, in which many viral strains keep each other in check, preventing other strains from spreading out of control. Although infection is increasingly known to happen through skin-to-skin contact, HPV remains the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. 

"Our study offers initial and broad evidence of a seemingly 'normal' HPV viral biome in people that does not necessarily cause disease and that could very well mimic the highly varied bacterial environment in the body, or microbiome, which is key to maintaining good health," says senior study investigator and NYU Langone pathologist Zhiheng Pei, MD, PhD. 

Lead study investigator and NYU Langone research scientist Yingfei Ma, PhD, says "the HPV 'community' in healthy people is surprisingly more vast and complex than previously thought, and much further monitoring and research is needed to determine how the various non-cancer-causing HPV genotypes interact with the cancer-causing strains, such as genotypes 16 and 18, and what causes these strains to trigger cancer."

Among the study's other key findings: - Some 109 of 148 known HPV types were detected in study participants. - Most study participants had HPV infections in the skin (61 percent); then vagina (41 percent), mouth (30 percent), and gut (17 percent). - Skin samples contained the most varied HPV strains (80 types of HPV, including 40 that were found only in the skin). Vaginal tissue had the second most numerous strains (43 types of HPV, with 20  exclusive to the organ), followed by mouth tissue (33 types, of which five were exclusively oral in origin), and gut tissue (six types, all of which were found in other organs).