In case you have time for some extra reading over the holidays---
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has issued its annual Christmas issue. The issue annually features articles of vital interest to the masses. Some of the articles in this year's issue:
=Music: Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass
=Food and Drink: Coca-Cola douches and contraception
=Formative Years: Right-left discrimination among medical students: questionnaire and psychometric study
=Formative Years: The left handed surgical trainee =Professional Considerations: The cult of the conference bag
=Sport: Is golf bad for your hearing?
=Sport: Rugby (the religion of Wales) and its influence on the Catholic church: should Pope Benedict XVI be worried?
=Professional Considerations: Back to the future: emergency departments and ancient Greek warfare <http://www.bmj.com/cgi/pastseven?rangedays=7&hits=200>
Also in the Christmas issue of BMJ is an article by Dr. Rachel C. Vreeman and Dr. Aaron E. Carroll of the Indiana University School of Medicine puncturing six popular assumptions that come into play over the holidays:
1. Think sugar makes kids hyperactive? Think again. According to a dozen clinical trials, sugar's effect on the little ones is all in their parents' minds.
2. Suicides go up over the holidays, right? Wrong. Family conflict, loneliness, and depression may seem more likely to peak in the dark days of winter, but studies around the world show no uptick in people taking their own lives on holidays in particular or in winter in general.
3. Poinsettias are poison, yes? Nope. Nobody died from eating these plants (never mind why you would), not even lab rats.
4. Keeping your hat on keeps your heat in, doesn't it? We've all heard that almost half of our body heat escapes through our heads. Not so. The authors offer a thought experiment: If that were true, we'd feel just as cold hatless as we would without our trousers (this is a British journal).
5. Is noshing at night is a no-no? Nope. It's not the timing, it's the calories.
6. You can cure a hangover, can't you? Afraid not. Neither aspirin and bananas, nor Vegemite (Vegemite?) and water will do the trick. Can't be done, exhaustive studies say, before or after the alcohol is consumed.
<http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/dec17_2/a2769>
Ora A. Weisz, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine and
Cell Biology and Physiology
Vice Chair of Faculty Development
Department of Medicine
Renal-Electrolyte Division
University of Pittsburgh
978.1 Scaife Hall
3550 Terrace St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
phone: (412) 383-8891
fax: (412) 383-8956
email: weisz at pitt.edu
website: weisz2.dept-med.pitt.edu
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