Scientists Shed Light On Festive Medical Myths

by Douglas Kamerow

 

Douglas Kamerow is a family physician and a former assistant surgeon general.

Indiana University doctors Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll have debunked a group of health-related myths in an article in the medical journal BMJ. As we approach the end of the year and its attendant celebrations, bear in mind these scientific findings.

First of all, if you have kids or pets, you don't have to worry anymore about having poinsettias around your house. Despite long-standing beliefs to the contrary, poinsettia leaves and flowers are not poisonous. Toxicity studies in rats and reviews of Poison Control Center data about human ingestion have failed to find any toxic level of poinsettia.

Here's one that will make your kids happy: Eating sugar and sweets does not make children hyperactive. Although countless parents will swear it's not true, at least a dozen carefully controlled studies have failed to find any effect of dietary sugar on children's behavior. And some of these studies were even done on so-called hyperactive kids who were thought to be at greater risk for this reaction.

It turns out that at least part of the problem is parental expectations. This was confirmed by a study that had parents score their children's behavior after they consumed what the parents thought was a sugary drink. Even when the drink contained no sugar, the parents rated their kids' behavior as hyperactive. So, bring on the sugarplums.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98453682