Why STIs Are On The Rise In Older Adults

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) increasingly affect older people more than younger ones, for a variety of reasons

  • Today’s main feature looks at why this, and how it doesn’t have to be that way

• As we age, our collagen levels tend to get depleted more easily. Collagen is important not just for youthful good looks, but also for the health of bones and joints

  • Today’s sponsor NativePath are offering high-quality collagen without additives or harmful impurities

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

🤫 A WORD TO THE WISE

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

The Best Bodyweight Exercise That Everyone Hates

Cori at Redefining Strength (their motto: “strong at every age”) shows why people of all ages should be doing burpees:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

• 0:44 | Why burpees are underrated

• 2:00 | Burpee benefits

• 5:05 | Modifying the burpee

• 5:48 | Burpee core strength

• 6:40 | Mind-body connection

• 7:40 | Burpees and injuries

Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…

• What Most People Don’t Know About HIV

• The Seven-Day Sleep Prescription (book)

❓ MYSTERY ITEM

A Hands-Down Winner

Hint: today’s mystery item will put good health right in your hands

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…

• Hypertension: Factors Far More Relevant Than Salt

• Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)

💏 MAIN FEATURE

Three Little Words

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are often thought of as something that predominantly plagues younger people… The truth, however, is different:

Read more: Managing The Rise In STIs Among Older Adults

That said, there is a gender gap when it comes to the increased risk, for example:

Source: CDC: | Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance

Is abstinence the best preventative, then?

It is inarguably the most effective, but not necessarily the best for everyone.

This is because for most adults, a healthy sex life is an important part of overall wellbeing.

See also: Mythbusting The Big O

Even in this case there is a gender gap in:

• the level of importance placed on frequency of sexual interactions

• what act(s) of sexuality are held to be most important:

Source: Sexual Activity is Associated with Greater Enjoyment of Life in Older Adults

If you have the time to go into it much more deeply, this paper from the Journal of Gerontology is much more comprehensive, looking also at related lifestyle factors, religious/political backgrounds, views on monogamy or non-monogamy (of various kinds), hormonal considerations, the impact of dementia or other long-term disabilities that may affect things, widowhood, and many other elements:

The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project: An Introduction

What’s the best preventative, then?

Regular health screening for yourself and your partner(s) is an important key to preventative health when it comes to STIs.

You can Google search for a local STI clinic, and worry not, they are invariably discreet and are well-used to everybody coming in. They’re just glad you’re being responsible about things. It’s also not their job to judge your sexual activities, even if it’s something you might have reason to wish to be secretive about, try to be honest there.

Secondly, most of the usual advice about safe sex still goes, even when there’s no risk of pregnancy. For example, if there’s at least one penis involved, then condoms remain the #1 barrier to all manner of potential infections (we know, almost nobody likes condoms, but sometimes the truth isn’t what we want to hear).

Lastly, if there’s at least one vagina involved, then please for the love of all that is holey, do not put anything there that could cause a yeast infection.

What can cause a yeast infection? Pretty much anything with sugar, which includes but is not limited to:

• Most kinds of food that Cosmo-style “liven things up in the bedroom” advice columns might suggest using (including fruit, honey, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, etc)

• Hands that are not clean (watch out for bacteria too)

• A mouth that has recently been eating or drinking anything with sugar in it, and that includes many kinds of alcohol, as well as milk or hot drinks that had milk in

Yeast infections are not nearly so serious as the STIs the other measures are there to avoid, but they’re not fun either, so some sensible policies in that regard are always good!

On a related note, see also: How To Avoid UTIs

Recap on the single most important part of this article:

At all ages, it remains a good health practice—unless one is absolutely celibate—to regularly get oneself and one’s partner(s) checked for STIs.

Take care!

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…

• Why Curcumin (Turmeric) Is Worth Its Weight In Gold

• Uric Acid’s Extensive Health Impact (And How To Lower It)

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

NativePath Collagen

Pop quiz: What’s the body’s most abundant protein?

The answer: Collagen.

NativePath's Certified Grass-Fed Collagen Powder is made from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows and contains 18 grams of protein per suggested serving.

Start incorporating it daily to support skin elasticity, joint health, bone strength, and muscle growth and maintenance.

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

Browse By Category

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One-Dish Vegan Meals – by Gena Hamshaw

Superfoods are all well and good, but there are only so many ways one can reasonably include watercress before it starts becoming a chore.

Happily, Gena Hamshaw is here with a hundred single-dish vegan meals, that are not only nutritionally balanced as the subtitle promises, but also, as the title suggests, are nutritional powerhouses too.

In the category of criticism, some ingredients are not so universally available as others. For example, depending on where you live, your local supermarket might not have freekeh, gochujang, or pomegranate molasses.

However, most of the recipes have ingredients that are easy enough to source in any medium-sized supermarket, and for the ones that aren’t, we do recommend ordering the ingredient online and trying something you might not otherwise have experienced—that’s an important thing in life, after all!

Bottom line: if you’d like plant-based meals that are packed full of nutrients and are delicious too, this is a top-tier recipe book.

Click here to check out Power Plates, and enjoy a wide variety of plant-based cuisine!

Wishing you a pleasurable and wonderfully restorative weekend,

The 10almonds Team

📺️ ADVERTISEMENTS KEEP 10ALMONDS FREE