Professor Peter Kelly, a director of public health in Britain, is making the claim and connection that the rise of the sexually transmitted disease (STD) syphilis in several towns in his area.  He claims that the rise of syphilis has increased fourfold.

He believes this is taking place due to the increased popularity and easiness of people meeting on Facebook and other social networking sites for casual sex and hookups.

He said: “Syphilis is a devastating disease. Anyone who has unprotected sex with casual partners is at high risk.

“There has been a fourfold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected with more young women being affected.

“I don’t get the names of people affected, just figures, and I saw that several of the people had met sexual partners through these sites.

“Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex.”

Facebook has of course firmly denied the accusation.  A Facebook spokesperson released a statement that said basically that Facebook is a place for “Our website is not a place for people to meet for casual sex – it’s a place for friends, family, and co-workers to connect and share.”

Facebook can deny it all they want. They can pretend Facebook is used only for noble and high-arching purposes, but Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites are often a red light district for socially challenged sextroverts.

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John Schnatter, founder of Papa John’s pizza chain, told a British interviewer yesterday that customers shouldn’t eat more than a couple of slices of pizza if they are concerned about their health.

He was responding to a question from presenter Adam Shaw about whether he was concerned about the impact of the British government’s anti-obesity drive on pizza sales.

“No. Pizza’s actually healthy for you if you don’t eat too much of it,” Schnatter replied, adding, “You can’t eat five or six slices but if you eat one or two slices it’s very nutritious.”

Not exactly breaking health news but very interesting coming from the founder of Papa John’s.  Schnatter is over in the United Kingdom trying to get more small business owners to open a Papa John’s franchise.

More and more men are opting for plastic surgery. Just ask Kenny Rogers. He now has to shave behind his ears because his face has been pulled back so many times.

The most popular requests are eye bag removal, wrinkle fillers and baldness treatments.

Male executives in their thirties are among those having facial injections of Botox relaxants and collagen to smooth out the tell-tale signs of ageing.

In a cut-throat working environment, where any sign of weakness is seized on by rivals, bankers and office high-fliers are spending thousands of pounds a visit.

Also aimed at men is a new facial de-wrinkler being developed by Intercytex Group. The treatment involves minute injections of healthy living skin cells to stimulate growth which the firm hopes will compete with collagen.

There appears to be a quick fix cure injection to fix baldness in the works as well.  I guess it is just a matter of time before we are all barbie dolls in a barbie world.

A new study shows that circumcision may stop millions of HIV deaths.

They analyzed data from trials that showed men who had been circumcised had a significantly lower risk of infection with the AIDS virus, and calculated that if all men were circumcised over the next 10 years, some two million new infections and around 300,000 deaths could be avoided.

Researchers believe circumcision helps cut infection risk because the foreskin is covered in cells the virus seems able to easily infect. The virus may also survive better in a warm, wet environment like that found beneath a foreskin.

So if men were circumcised, fewer would become infected and thus could not infect their female partners.

The human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, which causes AIDS, now infects close to 40 million people and has killed another 25 million. It mostly affects sub-Saharan Africa and the main mode of transmission is sex between a man and a woman.