If you are sexually active, stay out of the sun.

[ringmastery]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040330/D81KU69G0.html

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The long sunny days of summer may increase the risk of catching a common sexually transmitted infection. And it's not just because people have more sex when the weather is nice.

Researchers using data from Holland found that detection of papilloma virus infection during routine cancer screening peaks during August. Their theory: Sunlight suppresses women's immune system defenses.

Experts have long suspected that sunlight has powerful - and perhaps conflicting - effects on the body's tendency to develop a variety of diseases, including cancer. The best example is the risk of too much sun triggering skin cancer.

However, many suspect sunshine can have less obvious influences, and can even affect susceptibility to a variety of everyday viruses like papilloma. These viruses are spread through sexual contact, and they are the most common cause of cervical cancer, a disease that kills about 4,000 U.S. women annually. Although the virus can cause genital warts, most infected people have no outward symptoms.

"The sun is a kind of drug, a drug that influences whether a papilloma infection takes hold or not," said Dr. William Hrushesky, an authority on how disease patterns fluctuate over time.

[Cursive_Knives512]

1. That just plain sucks.

But it's good to know, I guess.

[Nobody]

2. Burkhas anyone?

After all, if you're shrouded in cloth and nothing is showing, that dastardly sun can't get you.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Interesting. Lupus is a disease that's known to react

to sunlight; lupus patients, most of whom are women, are told to avoid sunlight because it can cause the disease to "flare."

Lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus -- there are two other kinds of lupus, one drug-induced) is an autoimmune disease but it causes the immune system to attack the patient's own DNA, rather than suppressing immune responses. Still, it's a case of sunlight affecting the immune system with negative results for the female patient.

[dpibel]

4. One of your slighter efforts, really

But not to worry, next one you'll for sure have 'em jumping over men and horses hoops and garters, lastly through a hogshead of real fire.

He cracks his whip! The lion lets forth a mighty roar!!