I drink blood.........really?

 Twilight is a movie~ not real life people!

As promised I will attempt to dig deeper into those 10 teen health dangers and try to understand them better.
I was hoping that number 1 would not be so true, but I was wrong, kids are biting and sucking each others blood. Good grief what a crazy phase, kids are actually biting and sucking the blood from another person. What are they thinking, infections, serious injuries, hepatitis, Hiv, death are the possible consequences of such a stupid game.

via The Parent Dish and MSNBC, I found some info here:
Inspired by the "Twilight" series and heartthrob vampire Edward Cullen's chilly charms, teens are taking their love nips a little too far, MSNBC reports, biting each other -- hard -- and then licking the blood.

Bizarre teen behavior has horrified parents for generations, but health officials and other experts are warning this vampire-inspired Count Dracula fad could have serious consequences.

"These are kids who think they are real vampires," Dr. Orly Avitzur, the medical advisor to Consumers Union, the agency that publishes Consumer Reports magazine, tells MSNBC.

And many teens are getting their blood-sucking fix on the Internet, Avitzur says, noting that sessions spent trolling vampire-related teen websites are on the rise. Groups such as "I drink blood," a category at experienceproject.com, and "I want to be a vampire" at the site 43things.com, are filled with apparent posts from young people with a yearning for hemoglobin.

"Having that thick, warm copper-tasting blood in my mouth is the best thing I can think of!" writes a teenager identified as "GothicGirl10" on MSNBC. "Sometimes my boyfriend lets me feed off him. I let him feed off me as well."

Such talk alarms medical experts, who warn about the dangers of blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis and HIV, as well as the risk of nasty infections. Typically, 10-15 percent of human bite wounds become infected, MSNBC reports.

"If you break the skin, your mouth is pretty dirty," Dr. Thomas Abshire, a pediatric blood and cancer specialist and spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, tells MSNBC. "The human mouth flora is dirtier than a dog or cat's."

Also concerning is the fact that this biting is often done to brand another person, experts say.

"If you think about it, there is such glamorization in those teen vampire movies, they make it seem so sexy and appealing and intriguing," Avitzur says. "It's all mixed up with passion."

Focusing on teen health dangers

Over the next few weeks we are going to focus on some of the teen health dangers
that are prevalent now and maybe a few more totally absurd ones you might never think about.
If you search the internet you will find many articles on different webpages that list these dangers, make sure you are reading credible information.
This list of 10 trends comes from the social media doctor at KevinMD.com a great site for health information that you can use, one of my favorite sites.

Here’s a roundup of 10 troublesome trends, some old and some new, that your teen may be exposed to this summer and school year :

1. Biting and cutting and sucking blood. Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds, there’s a vampire movement afoot thanks to the glamorous portrayal of teen vampires on the Twilight series and The Vampire Diaries and the popularity of HBO’s True Blood. Besides the serious bacterial dangers of human bites, it can be a mode of HIV transmission that’s not covered in most sex ed classes.
2. Circle lenses/decorative contact lenses. A look made popular by Lady Gaga and YouTube, circle lenses create a big doe-eyed appearance and have become popular among teenage girls. Illegal to sell without a prescription, but easily bought online, doctors are concerned about risks of blinding infections and damage to the cornea.
3. ADHD prescription drug abuse. The same drugs being used to treat attention deficit disorder are being freely shared by some teens on college campuses and high schools to give them an edge at preparing for exams. Not only is the stigma gone, but kids who have the prescriptions are the go-to favorites during finals. If your child uses ADHD drugs, warn him or her against sharing. If your child doesn’t, make it clear that these are serious medications with side effects, not study aids.
4. Tobacco escalation products. Many teens are convinced that, unlike cigarettes, smoking a hookah or using chewing tobacco is not harmful. In fact, hookahs do use tobacco (referred to as Massel) which comes in a wide variety of flavors—including apple, strawberry, and coconut—intended to create a “graduation strategy” so that kids get hooked by starting them with milder tasting, more flavored substances. This trick is also used with a product called “Snus”, a non-chew, no-spit oral tobacco that’s also available in variety of sweet and fruity flavors. Also increasingly popular with teens, using Snus lets them stay under the radar at school and still get their nicotine fix, because it’s stuffed between the lip and the gum. Make sure your teens know that these products have their own dangers, as well as leading to nicotine addiction.
5. Tanorexia/Tanning salons. Even though exposure to tanning beds before the age of 30 increases a person’s risk of developing melanoma by 75 percent, this real danger is dampened by television shows that depict it as trendy and fashionable. One study of university students found that more than 90 percent of tanning-bed users know about the risks of premature aging and skin cancer but continue to tan because they think it looks good.
6. Tattoos. Tattoos have become extremely popular among teens. Although most states have laws prohibiting minors from getting them, they are poorly enforced. Recent data suggest that more than one-third of adults in the U.S. under the age of 35 now sport at least one tattoo. Outbreaks of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) skin infections among tattoo recipients have been related to sloppy infection control practices. And tattoos are estimated to account for more than twice as many hepatitis C infections as injection drug use. Other infections, including HIV, can also be contracted through tattooing. If your kids insist on tattoos, make sure that they go to a licensed practitioner.
7. Piercings. Besides traditional ear piercings which carry the standards risks of infection, allergic reactions to nickel, and scar formation, kids are piercing other parts of their bodies, including their nose, naval region, lips, eyebrows and tongues, as well as areas hidden from parents, such as the nipples and genitals. Bacterial infections are not uncommon as are risks of hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV and tetanus. Deformity and scarring can be permanent. Make sure your kids are aware that needles wielded by anyone but a health professional or certified technician can be lethal weapons.
8. Tech use at night. Do you know what your kids are doing in their bedrooms at night? It’s likely they’re texting their friends, chatting on Facebook, or playing video games. The high-tech bedrooms of many teenagers, are anything but dark and quiet. They often go to sleep listening to their iPods, and exchange text messages late into the night. In fact, this seems to be typical teenage behavior. No wonder they’re tired in school. Encourage your child to make it a habit to completely unplug well before bedtime.
9. Texting while driving. There have been reports of teens getting into serious car accidents texting while driving because they keep their hands and eyes on their cell phone keys, rather than the steering wheel. The practice is widespread and getting worse. According to a 2010 survey by AAA and Seventeen Magazine, 86 percent of drivers, age 16-19 admit to risky driving habits, up 25% from a 2008 survey. And those who texted, sent, on average, 23 text messages while driving in the past month. Sixty percent of teens say they drive while talking on their cell phones, up nine percent from a 2008 survey. Make sure your teen drivers have headsets in the car so they can take needed calls and keep their hands on the wheel.
10. Noise exposure. According to published research, about 12.5 percent of American children between the age of 6 and 19 have measurable noise induced hearing loss in one or both ears. Exposure to harmful sounds can injure the delicate hair cells in the inner ear. We have a fixed number of cochlear hair cells and they don’t regenerate, so it’s important to prevent damage in the first place to reduce the need for a hearing aid later in life. To protect their hearing, they should turn down the volume from headsets, televisions and car radios, and set the top volume level on their MP3 player to a safe level.
Orly Avitzur is medical adviser at Consumer Reports and blogs at the Consumer Reports Health Blog.

Stay tuned for our next post about "blood sucking" "cutting" 
JKYP2R994FFY

Part 2: Drinking Hand Sanitizer? Seriously Serious!

Part 2
Today we look into the nasty dangerous game of drinking hand sanitizer to get high!
Yes, kids and teens are actually doing this, and landing their butts in the ER and ICU's intoxicated and barely breathing.
Alcohol is a drug or specifically the drug/chemical ethanol is a central nervous system depressant, thus slowing down the respiratory drive of the drinker, to much and you can stop breathing.
The following article from CBS News shows incidents and possible solutions.

(CBS News) Would you drink hand sanitizer? The idea may sound repulsive to most people, but California doctors are warning parents of what may be a fast-growing dangerous trend after six local teenagers were hospitalized in separate incidents with alcohol poisoning from drinking the soapy stuff.
Popular "cinnamon challenge" has potential to be deadly
Dangerous "games" that may harm kids and teens
The Los Angeles Times reported some of the teenagers used salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer using instructions found online. If a liquid hand sanitizer contains 62 percent ethyl alcohol, that means a "drink" can be as high as 120 proof, whereas a shot of hard liquor such as whiskey or vodka is typically 80 proof.

"All it takes is just a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager," Dr. Cyrus Rangan, director of the toxicology bureau for the county public health department and a medical toxicology consultant for Children's Hospital Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times. "There is no question that it is dangerous."
Teens who presented to the emergency room had symptoms such as slurred speech and a burning sensation in the stomach. Some teens were so drunk they needed to be monitored in the emergency room.
Rangan said although there have been only a handful of cases, the practice could become a nationwide problem since hand sanitizers are cheap and easily available, and teens can easily look up how to extract alcohol from a bottle. KTLA in Los Angeles reports there were no such cases last year, and the recent spate of cases in recent weeks is surprising.
"It is kind of scary that they go to that extent to get a shot of essentially hard liquor," Rangan said.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Department of Health told HealthPop there was no official city-wide warning or statement at this time.
Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency medicine physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said he has taken care of some teens out who had ingested hand sanitizers at school as a "dare," only to come to the ER drunk with dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
"They denied drinking any 'alcohol', had no smell of alcohol on their breath, but when their blood alcohol was quite elevated, they later admitted to drinking the hand sanitizer," Glatter told HealthPop.
Glatter said it's essential that warning labels be placed on hand sanitizers to educate parents and the public of potential risks.
"Officials in institutions where these products are available - including hospitals, schools, offices, heath clubs, and day care centers - have a duty to inform people about the alcohol content in these products, and subsequent dangers if ingested," he told HealthPop.
Doctors told the L.A. Times that parents should purchase foam hand sanitizers since they're harder to extract alcohol from compared with gel-based products, and they should monitor hand sanitizer bottles around the house as if they are liquor or medicine bottles.
"Over the years, they have ingested all sorts of things," Helen Arbogast, injury prevention coordinator in the trauma program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, told the Times. "Cough syrup had reached a very sexy point where young people were using it.... We want to be sure this doesn't take on the same trend."
The industry trade organization, the American Cleaning Institute, responded to the recent reports.
"One case of product misuse - intentional or otherwise - is always one too many," Nancy Bock, vice president of education at the American Cleaning Institute said in an emailed statement. "But let's not lose sight of the fact that millions of people are not abusing these products and do responsibly use them as needed."

Video shows kids laughing about this crazy trend and posting YouTube videos

What next? I am sure there is something out there just as bad, I will find it to share next :) Leslie

Hand Sanitizer Dangers Part 1

They are everywhere, on the wall, in the bathroom, in the diaper bag, at the grocery store. Hand sanitizers have become common place in our society today. Would you ever think about drinking them? WHAT! Drinking it! Yuck that has got to be nasty, right?
Kids are drinking hand sanitizer to get high, since the alcohol content is at least 67%, some higher, and it is very readily accessible to them.
Hand sanitizers, once only found among true germophobes and in hospitals, have become ubiquitous. They’re present at the supermarket, the gym, in daycare centers, and you probably have at least one bottle rolling around in your car or in the bottom of your purse or backpack.
During the flu epidemic scare of 2010/2011, hand sanitizer use jumped dramatically as healthcare professionals warned us that the only way to keep from getting deathly ill was to strip our hands of the viral microbes that constantly hitch rides on them. When scientists told us potentially deadly bacteria are all over virtually everything we touch, we became paranoid about germs. Hand sanitizers seem like an easy way to mitigate the risk of…well…being a resident of Earth.
But hand sanitizers, like most things in life, have a dark side. Yes, it’s important to practice good hygiene, especially on the hands, if you want to stay healthy. But a hand sanitizer isn’t always the best way to do so, especially if you aren’t using it right. Here are 5 reasons why you might want to consider using it less.
1. Your skin needs its oils
Most hand sanitizers contain a high concentration of alcohol, which removes the layer of natural oils from your skin. However, the skin on your hands is relatively thin and delicate, and needs those oils to stay healthy. The more you use hand sanitizer, the more moisture you strip from your skin, leaving it red, raw, chapped, and eventually bleeding. And, without proper moisture, your hands—one of the first areas to show aging—will also look much older, much sooner.
2. Your immune system needs its exercise
Like body builders who maintain their muscled physiques by working them at the gym every day, our immune systems stay strong by constantly doing battle against unfamiliar microbes. When we remove bacteria and other microbes from our lives, it can weaken our immune systems. This is especially true for babies and young children. Our worry that exposure will hurt them actually deprives them of developing a hearty immune system, which could make them sicker down the road. We don’t suggest that you should purposely expose your children to harmful bacteria, but too much caution the other way can backfire.
3. They don’t replace soap and water
The Food and Drug Administration recommends that hand sanitizers not be used in place of soap and water, but as a backup. Dirt, grime, blood, and other body fluids present on the hands can block the effective ingredient in hand sanitizers. When the hands are visibly dirty, soap and water must be used to wash them first. Plus, studies indicate that, in real life on actual human hands (as opposed to controlled surfaces used by manufacturers to test their 99.9 percent kill claims), washing with soap and water does a better job of cleaning the hands.
In fact, one researcher at Perdue University claims that, by stripping the oils from our hands that prevent bacteria present in the body from coming to the surface, using hand sanitizer can actually increase the presence of bacteria on the hands in a way that soap and water washing doesn’t.
4. False sense of security
Manufacturer’s claims that hand sanitizers kill 99.9% of bacteria combined with not using them properly can lead us into a false sense of security about our exposure to harmful substances. Alcohol-based sanitizers, for example, have been shown to be ineffective against rabies and norovirus. Hand sanitizers containing less than 60% alcohol—and they are out there—are just plain ineffective. And if you don’t use enough to cover your entire hands and stay wet for at least 15 seconds, you might as well have not used it at all.
5. Toxins in your system
Many hand sanitizers claim to be antibacterial, which means they contain a chemical called triclosan, a hormone disrupter. In a 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, three-quarters of participants had concentrations of triclosan in their urine. While not all sanitizers contain triclosan, most do contain parabens, propylene glycol, and synthetic fragrances, all substances known to affect the systems and organs in the body. Those chemicals aren’t particularly good to add to the ecosystem, either.
Despite its dark side, hand sanitizer can be an important and useful tool in fighting disease. Used properly, and only when absolutely necessary when lacking hand-washing facilities, it can help you stay healthy. But if you are a too frequent user, you may be doing yourself and your family more harm than good.

info credit : Naked health online

Stay tuned tomorrow for  part 2  (Drinking hand sanitizer sends teens to hospitals)

Be ExtraOrdinary!

Make a difference in the life of someone this week

Be that extraordinary person that

is inside you!

You are the Change the world wants so desperately to see!

Please help our friends at The Mommies Network spread their wings

Help support one of our favorite non-profit groups "The Mommies Network"! Our own Injury Prevention Specialist Leslie works closely with this non-profit group also and asks that you take the time to vote for this worthy charity that also supports our endeavors to help put an end to youth risk behaviors and "The Choking Game".
 
The Mommies Network is a finalist non-profit in Eleventy Group's 4Good contest. With a simple click to vote and another to share, you can help boost TMN's fundraising power.
Better fundraising means technology upgrades, an expanding network, and more time for our volunteers to focus on what they do best: make mom-to-mom connections everyday.

Join us and vote here https://www.facebook.com/questions/280273618735527/

Share this event with ALL your facebook friends and on your chapters, please spread the word that will help us spread our wings. Voting costs nothing but a minute of your time.

Help us Soar Higher and do more 4Good for you! Vote now! and tell every you know!

From everyone at The Mommies Network, thanks for your support.


Join this event if you have not already via The Mommies Network fb page
https://www.facebook.com/events/310674799010659/

 Thank you from all of us at Ed4Ed4all.com

What is a Space Monkey? or Space Junkie?

Just what on this earth or up in space is a "space monkey"? Not a Tv show cartoon character, or a cute little monkey that plays games so harmlessly.

Definitions via The Urban Dictionary : 

  Space Monkey is a game that teens play where a person either chokes his/herself or has someone else do it until they almost pass out. It can cause brain damage due to lack of oxygen to the brain.

 A game played by boys and girls ages 10-20 who can't manage to get their hands on any weed. Choking yourself causes lack of oxygen to the brain and can cause oneself to lose consciousness or die. Kids think that it makes them feel high, while really it just destroys their brain.

Accurate definitions? pretty much 

Not just in the United States, this problem is a global problem! 

An article from the UK based "Sky News" reports 

Roddy Mansfield, Sky News Online

Children are 'strangling' themselves to get high then sharing the videos on the internet, campaign groups have warned.  

Nicknamed "Space Monkey", the practice involves squeezing the carotid arteries in the neck to restrict the flow of blood to the head.

Releasing the pressure leads to a sudden rush of oxygen to the brain, giving a feeling of euphoria. But it can lead to brain damage, un-consciousness and death.

The craze is well known in the US and France and parents and campaign groups fear it is now catching on in the UK.
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention claims in the last ten years 86 children may have died in the UK playing 'the choking game'.
There are no official figures for Britain, although the Department for Children, Schools and Families claims it is aware of the problem.
You-tube videos seen by Sky News show youths taking it in turns to squeeze each others necks before appearing to lose consciousness.
In one British video a teenager is seen hyperventilating before having his arteries crushed before passing out.

The practice can cause unconsciousness by restricting blood and oxygen to the brain

A YouTube spokesman told Sky News: "YouTube is a community site used by millions of people in very positive ways. Sadly as with any form of communication, there is a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules.
"If content breaks our terms then we remove it and if a user repeatedly breaks the rules we disable their account."
Teenagers are also sharing instructional videos to show others how it's done and using scarves and ropes to choke themselves. Others are posting Space Monkey reports online.
On a Yahoo forum, Baay, writes: "Just as I passed out I said 'it's so scary'.
"Then I fainted and I started like having a fit or something like shaking, was it a fit? And my eyes were open and rolling back.
"Now everyone is doing it at school, and apparently if I was doing all this I could of died, is that true?"
Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, told Sky News: "First you get asphyxia anoxia which is a lack of oxygen to the brain, then you get a sudden rush of oxygen to the brain.
"Children are copying what they see in the videos and think they'll get a similar high to taking drugs.
"It is a significant problem which hasn't yet been picked up by parents and teachers.
"Not only is it difficult to prove how many people have died, we don't know how many near misses there have been."

 The practice can cause unconsciousness by restricting blood and oxygen to the brain

 Children are filming themselves choking each other and sharing the videos online

Space Monkey?

or

Space Junkie?

 or 

Dead

you choose

 make the right choice, choose life!