Teen boys drinking: Maybe new risk will scare them straight!

In 2008, a viral video of Australian 16-year-old Corey Worthington showed the world what happened when he threw a party at his par...

Teen boys drinking: Maybe new risk will scare them straight!

In 2008, a viral video of Australian 16-year-old Corey Worthington showed the world what happened when he threw a party at his parents' house that attracted 500 teens - and the local cops' air wing and dog squad. When a newscaster covering the riotous event asked him what he would say to other kids thinking of hosting parties, he replied, "Get me to do it for you." Well, seven years later, in another interview, we were glad to see he was willing to admit that back then, he was a "little brat."

Now, if teens can just learn that there's more at stake than furious parents when they drink ... and drink and drink. Every year, an average of more than 4,300 kids in the United States under age 21 die from alcohol-related events. Those who indulge and survive, well, evidence shows that teen drinking can impair memory, decision making, executive function and emotional regulation. It also raises the risk of committing or being a victim of physical or sexual assault, suicide and later alcoholism and drug addiction.

Add to that the findings of a new study of 650 men: Those who had had an average of seven drinks a week between ages 15 and 19 were over three times more likely to develop high-grade prostate cancer. So talk to your teen boys about the dangers of alcohol - including prostate cancer. (For girls, the warnings include breast cancer.) While you're at it, make sure your teens know you're a safe person to talk to about peer pressure and other drinking-related concerns.

© 2018 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Spot the clot

Twenty-four-year-old Spanish skateboarding star Danny Leon got made up to look like a not-so-steady-on-his-feet 80-year-old man. His goal: To see if teens at a local skate park ...

Spot the clot

Twenty-four-year-old Spanish skateboarding star Danny Leon got made up to look like a not-so-steady-on-his-feet 80-year-old man. His goal: To see if teens at a local skate park would teach him the sport. They obliged, but when Danny started speeding down the half pipe and doing aerial spins, well, the kids were blown away.

Being a force of nature disguised as a harmless old guy - that's a pretty good metaphor for the way a blood clot can disguise itself as a simple bruise. Don't you fall for it.

Bruises can be painful and turn shades of black and blue, but generally they're not harmful. One caveat: Easy or spontaneous bruising can indicate underlying disease and a need to see your doc.

A blood clot, on the other hand, is a concentrated aggregation of blood. It forms from an external injury to blood vessels or internal injury to the lining of a blood vessel from plaque, or because of dysfunction in your blood's flow-and-clot chemistry. Clots can obstruct blood flow or dislodge and travel through your bloodstream, triggering heart attack, stroke, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). So if you spot a clot, see your doc. Some tips:

- Near your skin's surface, clots can appear bruise-like, but are generally redder and the underlying vein may be hard to the touch.

- A clot that's moved and is causing trouble may trigger swelling and pain in an extremity (DVT); slurred speech and vision problems (stroke); chest pain or upper body discomfort, shortness of breath and a rapid heart rate (PE or heart attack).

© 2018 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

The new cervical cancer screening guidelines

On an episode of the controversial show "Girls," Hannah finds out she's contracted HPV. When she tells her friend Shoshanna, Shoshanna, ...

The new cervical cancer screening guidelines

On an episode of the controversial show "Girls," Hannah finds out she's contracted HPV. When she tells her friend Shoshanna, Shoshanna, referring to another friend, says: "Jessa has HPV, like a couple different strands of it. She says all adventurous women do."

While it's true that infection with some strain of HPV is almost universal among folks who are sexually active - more than 79 million Americans are carrying a strain of the virus - testing for it hasn't been part of a regular gynecological exam until now.

Women have relied on a Pap smear every three years beginning at age 21 to check for cervical dysplasia (precancerous cell changes) and cervical cancer (usually caused by an HPV infection). But now, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says evidence confirms that women over 30 can get an HPV test, which looks for the virus itself, instead of a Pap smear, and then can safely wait five years between tests if they want to. Women 21 to 30 should still continue to get a Pap smear every three years - and skip the HPV testing.

The recommendations also say that women over 65 and those who have had a hysterectomy with removal of the cervix, who have had previous clear tests and aren't otherwise at high risk for cervical cancer, can stop getting tested altogether.

If you have HIV or a compromised immune system, or were previously treated for a high-grade precancerous lesion or cervical cancer, you're at a higher risk for cervical cancer and should talk to your doc about an individualized screening plan.

© 2018 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.