Daily Dose of Common Sense

When you stub your toe or knock your elbow, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t “gosh darn it,” or “barnacles” (unless you’re SpongeBob). No, when most of us are in pain, we usually think of a good old-fashioned curse word. It turns out this may be a good thing. According to a team scientists, swearing may actually help us brave through pain.

In the study, testers had to stick their hands in icy water. Those who cursed reported less pain and generally lasted longer than the non-cursers. This conclusion seems obvious for a few reasons. First, cursing is like exhaling. It’s a quick release of pent-up feeling and emotion. I always feel better after throwing around some of my favorite naughty words (even if there wasn’t exactly good cause). Second, yelling an expletive is like biting down on a knife. It’s a way of hunkering down and riding out the bad feelings. And, if I take the time to try and tone it down by coming up with a non-curse, I’m in more pain from delaying the reaction.

So, feel free to curse like a sailor the next time you get hurt. You’re doing your body a favor.

My daughter had a birthday yesterday, and I had several well-wishers ask if she was bouncing off the walls because of sugar. Well, no, actually she was no more hyper yesterday than any other day. Yes, she ate a cupcake, Cracker Jack, Nerds, and a bunch of other junk, but she’s a healthy kid. That, and there’s no such thing as a “sugar high.”

I know, it takes a second for it to sink in. We have been led to believe that sugar makes people (especially kids) hyper. But, it’s just not true. Our bodies do a really good job of regulating the sugar we intake. Many studies have been done on this topic and the conclusions are the same: the amount of sugar that a kid eats does not affect his or her level of activity.

Jessie from Rational Moms did a great in-depth debunking of the sugar high myth. I highly recommend giving it a read.

So, don’t worry about your kids being up all night after eating a bunch of sugar. They’re up late because they want to be up late. Duh.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: terren in Virginia.

One of the current fashion trends is skinny jeans. Yeah, that’s what we need right now–tighter clothing. As the country gets fatter, the fashion industry makes the clothing smaller and harder to get in to. This doesn’t make a lot of sense. Even still, you may be considering a purchase, or you may wear skinny jeans incessantly. If so, please consider the health risks that may accompany tight pants.

Yes, health risks. The Consumer Reports Medical Adviser discusses the dangers of too-tight pants. Not only can they potentially cause nerve damage, there are risks of yeast infections and blood clots, not to mention potential fertility issues for men.

This is one fad we’re anxious to see go away. Besides being unhealthy, there are very few people who can actually pull off tight pants. Yes, you have the right to wear whatever you want, regardless of your size. But, if your skinny jeans overfloweth, then perhaps you should buy a pair of pants that actually fit. Just because you can squeeze them on doesn’t mean you should.

Earlier this year, a brief story appeared in the Times Online (UK) revealing how the data was fixed in the MMR/Autism study that sparked the current vaccine controversy.

The Sunday Times, along with the General Medical Council (our AMA), investigated into the claims made by Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 study. In the original study, 8 of 12 families at one clinic blamed the MMR shot for their child’s autism. The Times reviewed medical documents and witnesses from the original study, and they discovered that Dr. Wakefield changed and manipulated the patients’ data. Again, both CHANGED and MANIPULATED patient data. In fact, in many cases, medical concerns regarding the child had been raised before the MMR shot was administered.

If this one little study doesn’t sound like a big deal, here is an alarming fact from the article:

Despite involving just a dozen children, the 1998 paper’s impact was extraordinary. After its publication, rates of inoculation fell from 92% to below 80%. Populations acquire “herd immunity” from measles when more than 95% of people have been vaccinated.

Last week official figures showed that 1,348 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales were reported last year, compared with 56 in 1998. Two children have died of the disease.

This was *the* major study that started all the anti-vaccination hysteria. Now that it’s been debunked, we can only hope the truth starts to get out. There is no scientific proof that vaccines cause autism. Here is a great video by the CDC that discusses some of the common vaccination fears.

We’re staying at a major beach resort that is very family oriented. We have two little kids, so we always get lots of swim diapers. These are diapers that hold any accidents inside, therefore protecting others in the pool from contamination. All the public pools I’ve been to require them for small kids.

Well, yesterday I saw a mother playing with her tiny NAKED daughter in the pool. So, not only did the child not have on a swim diaper, the infant was completely naked. Yep, not even a swim suit was there as a barrier between an accident and the pool water. This was not a potty-trained kid and the child wasn’t old enough to talk any more than coos and giggles. But, there she was–butt naked in a hotel pool.

I was surprised no one from the hotel staff said anything to the parents. Isn’t it a matter of public safety?

The effects of feces, vomitus or a dead animal in a public pool can be serious, if not life-threatening to pool users especially children, the elderly and people with suppressed immune systems. Feces and vomitus material can contain large numbers of pathogenic (harmful) microorganisms.

Swim diapers are sold everywhere, including within the resort. So there’s no question of their availability. I’m not sure whether these parents were clueless or just rude. Putting a diaper on your young child in the pool seems like a no brainer.

Even if you’re one of the parents who play by the rules, don’t swallow pool water. You never know what’s in there.

Many people consider bottled water, with its fancy packaging and names that recall clean and natural sources, to be purer than tap water. Only, don’t let the marketing fool you. While tap water doesn’t have a PR firm, it’s usually the better product of the two.

What, exactly, are tap water’s bragging rights? Cheaper and cleaner. Tap water comes out of your faucet and costs a fraction of the price of bottled. Sales for bottled water in 2008 were approximately $11.2 billion. At a recent hearing of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations:

“Americans are willing to pay top dollar for bottled water, which costs up to 1,900 times more than tap water and uses up to 2,000 times more energy to produce and deliver,” Michigan Representative Bart Stupak told the hearing.

Plus, with tap water, you know what you’re getting. The contents of bottled water aren’t regulated as heavily as tap water. The EPA oversees the quality of municipality water, and has stringent testing and safety regulations. The FDA oversees bottled water, and they don’t have the same standards of testing.

“Over the past several years, however, bottled water has been recalled due to contamination by arsenic, bromate, cleaning compounds, mold, and bacteria. In April, a dozen students at a California junior high school reportedly were sickened after drinking bottled water from a vending machine.”

If you believe the marketing hype that all bottled water comes from pure springs and crystal clear lakes, you’ll be interested to know where it really comes from. Between 25 and 40 percent of bottled water comes from U.S. municipality water supplies.

Lastly, we’d be remiss if we didn’t touch on the fact that plastic bottles are clogging up the landfills. And, most bottled water doesn’t contain fluoride, which helps to fight cavities.

So, do your wallet and your body a favor: turn to the tap next time you’re thirsty.

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We’re guilty of doing it once in a while, too. Eating the raw cookie dough (or brownie batter) before it goes into the oven is a well-known guilty pleasure. But, with the recent Nestlé recall fresh in our minds, what is the risk involved with eating raw cookie dough?

Recently, 69 people have become violently ill from E. coli poisoning after eating the raw Nestlé Toll House cookie dough. Some people have even been hospitalized. This is the latest in a rash of foods tainted with E. coli in the past few years: peanuts, tomatoes, ground beef, spinach. So, it’s not the cookie dough in particular that is the culprit–it’s the bacteria. And, this is made more troublesome by the fact that E. coli isn’t just in the raw dough; the bacteria could also possibly survive in under-cooked cookies or on hands. The investigation into how E. coli got into the cookie dough in the first place is another puzzle altogether, since the bacteria usually comes from cow feces.

Despite this recent example, store-bought cookie dough is usually safer than homemade cookie dough. Why? The type of eggs. For refrigerated dough to be sold in stores, they used pasteurized eggs. At home, you would use raw eggs, which may contain salmonella.

But, the risk of salmonella poisoning is low. According to the CDC:

Every year, approximately 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported in the United States. Because many milder cases are not diagnosed or reported, the actual number of infections may be thirty or more times greater. Salmonellosis is more common in the summer than winter.

Children are the most likely to get salmonellosis. The rate of diagnosed infections in children less than five years old is about five times higher than the rate in all other persons. Young children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised are the most likely to have severe infections. It is estimated that approximately 400 persons die each year with acute salmonellosis.

So, it’s best if children avoid raw cookie dough altogether, especially if it’s homemade.

As a healthy adult, odds are you can sneak some cookie dough every now and again and not get sick. (But wait on the Toll House refrigerated cookie dough until it’s deemed safe again.)

We recently learned that Americans are still getting fatter. Twenty-three states reported an increase of obese adults over one year ago. Not one state reported a decrease in its obesity rate.

According to body mass index (BMI) statistics, two-thirds of Americans are either obese or overweight. And, you know who you are. Yes, the BMI system isn’t perfect. In fact, many researchers believe a good old-fashioned tape measure around the middle section gives a better indication of health. Regardless, you know if you fall into the category of Americans who need to lose weight. It’s rarely a mystery if you’re heavier than you should be.

Just remember, it’s the calories that count. Some restaurant chains now list calories on their menus, which should go a long way to helping consumers make informed choices. Here’s a great quiz to learn about the calorie counts of some of our (well, my) favorite foods. Who knew raisins had so many calories?!

Do you know the health risks associated with being overweight? It’s a long, scary list. And, the obesity epidemic is one reason for our ballooning health care costs. As the weight problem worsens, so grows the number of people experiencing these side effects. And, our kids learn by example. Is that the lesson you want to pass down to the next generation?

The key to losing weight is being informed about food and being motivated to change your lifestyle. Start small, but start somewhere. Push away from the table and start walking, America.

In tough economic times, some people need to cut back on medical expenses that are not covered, or only partially covered, by insurance. For many, these can include dental visits. Luckily, there are some cheap ways to keep your teeth in good shape between trips to the dentist.

Some of the items on the list are no-brainers (like “brush longer”…duh), but others may surprise you. One of the best things you can do is to drink your local tap water. It contains fluoride, while many bottled waters do not. Fluoride helps to prevent cavities.

Here are a few highlights from the article:

• Do some dairy. Just two ounces of milk, cheese or yogurt each day can help reduce the risk of gum disease. Dairy products contain calcium and lactic acid to keep teeth strong and destroy harmful bacteria.
• Floss before you brush. By flossing first, you can use your brushing time to get rid of all the gunk you removed with the floss.
• While you’re at it, brush your tongue and mouth, too. Bacteria are all over your mouth, not just on your teeth.
• Don’t brush right after eating citrus. Citrus fruits or drinks containing those fruits also have citric acid. That acid can temporarily weaken tooth enamel and leave your teeth vulnerable to damage from your toothbrush. Thirty minutes should be enough time to make sure your teeth are ready to stand up to a good brushing.

So, don’t let your teeth down. You don’t want to be a Yuck Mouth, do you?

[Via Pat's Papers]

An AP story came out this week discussing how alternative medicine is more often sneaking into the mainstream. But, at what cost? The benefits of alternative medicine have yet to be proven, and some practices and supplements are flat-out harmful.

A few herbal supplements can directly threaten health. A surprising number do not supply what their labels claim, contain potentially harmful substances like lead, or are laced with hidden versions of prescription drugs.

“In testing, one out of four supplements has a problem,” said Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, an independent company that rates such products.

Some doctors interviewed said they include alternative methods in their treatment because it causes patients to relax and, at the same time, feel as though they are receiving better care. The doctors know it’s hoodoo, but are concerned more about what the patient perceives than the science. It’s almost a prescription of the placebo effect.

And it’s not just supplements, which may be just a waste of money. More dangerous are people with life-threatening diseases who miss a critical treatment window while off seeking unproven cures. Last week, a couple in Australia were found guilty of manslaughter after homeopathic treatments of their daughter’s eczema failed. The little girl died after the parents continued to reject conventional treatments for the condition.

Mainstream medicine and big pharmaceutical companies have had problems over the years, for sure. But, regulatory agencies, consumer watch-dog groups, and standard guidelines are in place to act as a system of checks and balances. So, the level of risk involved isn’t as high as that of alternative medicine.

The latest government survey shows the magnitude of risk: More than a third of Americans use unconventional therapies, including acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, and native or traditional healing methods. These practitioners are largely self-policing, with their own schools and accreditation groups. Some states license certain types, like acupuncturists; others do not.

The “natural” claim doesn’t mean it’s without risk. If a treatment promises something that is too good to be true, chances are it is a waste of time and money.