by tyler | Oct 31, 2023 | CNN, health
Micromanaging how your child eats candy this Halloween might be more of a trick than a treat, experts say.
Once you’re a grown-up raising kids, that bag full of candy might be the scariest part of Halloween — whether it’s concern about a potential sugar rush, worries of parenting perfectionism or diet culture anxiety.
“It makes sense to be scared, because we’ve been taught to be scared,” said Oona Hanson, a parent coach based in Los Angeles. “Sugar is sort of the boogeyman in our current cultural conversation.”
But micromanaging your child’s candy supply can backfire, leading to an overvaluing of sweets, binge behavior or unhealthy restriction in your child, said Natalie Mokari, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As stressful as it may be to see your child faced with more candy in one night than they would eat in an entire year, the best approach may be to lean into the joy, she added.
“They are only in that age where they want to trick or treat for just a small glimpse of time — it’s so short-lived,” Mokari said. “Let them enjoy that day.”
Experts aren’t suggesting kids have sugar all day every day. The American Heart Association and the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee — groups charged with providing science-based recommendations every five years — have recommended lower daily levels of sugar. Too much added sugar has been associated with cardiovascular disease and lack of essential nutrients.
But a healthy relationship with food has balance, and you can keep your kids’ diets full of nutrients while allowing them to eat sweets, Mokari said.
She and Hanson shared some tips on how to relieve candy-eating stress this Halloween.
Some stress over limiting children’s Halloween candy may reflect the adults’ relationship with food.
If you look at the candy in your child’s bag and worry that you will binge on it or get anxiety about weight, it may be a good idea to talk to a mental health professional or dietitian about reworking your own relationship with food, Mokari said.
It is especially important because what we say about food in front of children can make a big impact on the relationship they have with it and their bodies, Hanson said.
A passing comment of “I really need to work out after all that sugar” or “I can’t have that in the house — I’m going to get so fat” can have long-lasting impacts of overeating or under eating, she said.
Should you trade out the candy?
Many communities have their own traditions to encourage kids to give up their Halloween loot. Maybe it’s making a “donation” to dentists for a reward or switching candy with the Switch Witch for a toy instead.
There is a place for weeding out candy after Halloween for some children, Hanson said.
If your children just aren’t excited by the candy, they may ask to trade it for toys, Mokari said. Or if they have allergies or aversions to certain candies, they may welcome an opportunity to get rid of what they can’t or don’t want to eat, Hanson said.
But if your child looks at the full candy bag with glee, enforcing a reduction could turn the sweets even more valuable in their minds and heighten a fixation that may not have been there initially, Mokari said.
Should Halloween be a candy free-for-all? Maybe, Mokari said.
Just as adults find themselves craving whatever they have outlawed for themselves on a restrictive diet, kids who have their candy highly managed may start to value it more than they would have otherwise, she said.
“The forbidden Twix tastes the sweetest,” Hanson said.
Enjoying different foods on different occasions is part of a healthy relationship with food — so try to relax and lean into the holiday, Mokari said. And remember that though they may be breaking into a lot of candy on Halloween, that isn’t how they always eat, she added.
If you are worried about a candy binge in the days following, make a plan with your child to divvy up the treats in ways that are exciting, Mokari said. Maybe that means packing a few pieces up with lunch or adding them to an afternoon snack with a few more food groups, she added.
It can be difficult to relax around a pound of chocolate, however, when you are worried about the negative impact that candy might have on your child.
Maybe it’s a stomachache from eating too much. It isn’t the worst outcome, Hanson said. That upset stomach can be an important lesson in how to listen to what their body needs and know when they’ve had too much of something that tastes good, she added.
Maybe you worry about a sugar rush. Well, sugar affects everyone differently, and some kids might seem to get a boost, while others grow irritable, Mokari said. But both will likely end in a crash.
And either way, kids will likely be extra enthusiastic on Halloween, Hanson said. Even without all the sugar, she said to remember it’s exciting for them.
by tyler | Jul 6, 2023 | CNN, health
When she first learned about race correction, Naomi Nkinsi was one of five Black medical students in her class at the University of Washington.
Nkinsi remembers the professor talking about an equation doctors use to measure kidney function. The professor said eGFR equations adjust for several variables, including the patient’s age, sex and race. When it comes to race, doctors have only two options: Black or “Other.”
Nkinsi was dumbfounded.
“It was really shocking to me,” says Nkinsi, now a third-year medical and masters of public health student, “to come into school and see that not only is there interpersonal racism between patients and physicians … there’s actually racism built into the very algorithms that we use.”
At the heart of a controversy brewing in America’s hospitals is a simple belief, medical students say: Math shouldn’t be racist.
The argument over race correction has raised questions about the scientific data doctors rely on to treat people of color. It’s attracted the attention of Congress and led to a big lawsuit against the NFL.
What happens next could affect how millions of Americans are treated.
Carolyn Roberts, a historian of medicine and science at Yale University, says slavery and the American medical system were in a codependent relationship for much of the 19th century and well into the 20th.
“They relied on one another to thrive,” Roberts says.
It was common to test experimental treatments first on Black people so they could be given to White people once proven safe. But when the goal was justifying slavery, doctors published articles alleging substantive physical differences between White and Black bodies — like Dr. Samuel Cartwright’s claim in 1851 that Black people have weaker lungs, which is why grueling work in the fields was essential (his words) to their progress.
The effects of Cartwright’s falsehood, and others like it, linger today.
In 2016, researchers asked White medical students and residents about 15 alleged differences between Black and White bodies. Forty percent of first-year medical students and 25% of residents said they believed Black people have thicker skin, and 7% of all students and residents surveyed said Black people have less sensitive nerve endings. The doctors-in-training who believed these myths — and they are myths — were less likely to prescribe adequate pain medication to Black patients.
To fight this kind of bias, hospitals urge doctors to rely on objective measures of health. Scientific equations tell physicians everything from how well your kidneys are working to whether or not you should have a natural birth after a C-section. They predict your risk of dying during heart surgery, evaluate brain damage and measure your lung capacity.
But what if these equations are also racially biased?
Race correction is the use of a patient’s race in a scientific equation that can influence how they are treated. In other words, some diagnostic algorithms and risk predictor tools adjust or “correct” their results based on a person’s race.
The New England Journal of Medicine article “Hidden in Plain Sight” includes a partial list of 13 medical equations that use race correction. Take the Vaginal Birth After Cesarean calculator, for example. Doctors use this calculator to predict the likelihood of a successful vaginal delivery after a prior C-section. If you are Black or Hispanic, your score is adjusted to show a lower chance of success. That means your doctor is more likely to encourage another C-section, which could put you at risk for blood loss, infection and a longer recovery period.
Cartwright, the racist doctor from the 1800s, also developed his own version of a tool called the spirometer to measure lung capacity. Doctors still use spirometers today, and most include a race correction for Black patients to account for their supposedly shallower breaths.
Turns out, second-year medical student Carina Seah wryly told CNN, math is as racist as the people who make it.
The biggest problem with using race in medicine? Race isn’t a biological category. It’s a social one.
“It’s based on this idea that human beings are naturally divided into these big groups called races,” says Dorothy Roberts, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, who has made challenging race correction in medicine her life’s work. “But that’s not what race is. Race is a completely invented social category. The very idea that human beings are divided into races is a made-up idea.”
Ancestry is biological. Where we come from — or more accurately, who we come from — impacts our DNA. But a patient’s skin color isn’t always an accurate reflection of their ancestry.
Look at Tiger Woods, Roberts says. Woods coined the term “Cablinasian” to describe his mix of Caucasian, Black, American Indian and Asian ancestries. But to many Americans, he’s Black.
“You can be half Black and half White in this country and you are Black,” says Seah, who is getting her medical degree and a PhD in genetics and genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “You can be a quarter Black in this country — if you have dark skin, you are Black.”
So it can be misleading, Seah says, even dangerous, for doctors to judge a patient’s ancestry by glancing at their skin. A patient with a White mother and Black father could have a genetic mutation that typically presents in patients of European ancestry, Seah says, but a doctor may not think to test for it if they only see Black skin.
“You have to ask, how Black is Black enough?” Nkinsi asks. And there’s another problem, she says, with using a social construct like race in medicine. “It also puts the blame on the patient, and it puts the blame on the race itself. Like being Black is inherently the cause of these diseases.”
After she learned about the eGFR equation in 2018, Nkinsi began asking questions about race correction. She wasn’t alone — on social media she found other students struggling with the use of race in medicine. In the spring of 2020, following a first-year physiology lecture, Seah joined the conversation. But the medical profession is nothing if not hierarchical; Nkinsi and Seah say students are encouraged to defer to doctors who have been practicing for decades.
Then on May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis.
His death and the growing momentum around Black Lives Matter helped ignite what Dr. Darshali A. Vyas calls an “overdue reckoning” in the medical community around race and race correction. A few institutions had already taken steps to remove race from the eGFR equation. Students across the country demanded more, and hospitals began to listen.
Four days after Floyd’s death, the University of Washington announced it was removing race correction from the eGFR equation. In June, the Boston-based hospital system Mass General Brigham where Vyas is a second-year Internal Medicine resident followed suit. Seah and a fellow student at Mount Sinai, Paloma Orozco Scott, started an online petition and collected over 1600 signatures asking their hospital to do the same.
Studies show removing race from the eGFR equation will change how patients at those hospitals are treated. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Penn Medicine estimated up to one in every three Black patients with kidney disease would have been reclassified if the race multiplier wasn’t applied in earlier calculations, with a quarter going from stage 3 to stage 4 CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease).
That reclassification is good and bad, says Dr. Neil Powe, chief of medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Black patients newly diagnosed with kidney disease will be able to see specialists who can devise better treatment plans. And more patients will be placed on kidney transplant lists.
On the flip side, Powe says, more African Americans diagnosed with kidney disease means fewer who are eligible to donate kidneys, when there’s already a shortage. And a kidney disease diagnosis can change everything from a patient’s diabetes medication to their life insurance costs.
Powe worries simply eliminating race from these equations is a knee-jerk response — one that may exacerbate health disparities instead of solve them. For too long, Powe says, doctors had to fight for diversity in medical studies.
The most recent eGFR equation, known as the CKD-EPI equation, was developed using data pooled from 26 studies, which included almost 3,000 patients who self-identified as Black. Researchers found the equation they were developing was more accurate for Black patients when it was adjusted by a factor of about 1.2. They didn’t determine exactly what was causing the difference in Black patients, but their conclusion is supported by other research that links Black race and African ancestry with higher levels of creatinine, a waste product filtered by the kidneys.
Put simply: In the eGFR equation, researchers used race as a substitute for an unknown factor because they think that factor is more common in people of African descent.
Last August, Vyas co-authored the “Hidden in Plain Sight” article about race correction. Vyas says most of the equations she wrote about were developed in a similar way to the eGFR formula: Researchers found Black people were more or less likely to have certain outcomes and decided race was worth including in the final equation, often without knowing the real cause of the link.
“When you go back to the original studies that validated (these equations), a lot of them did not provide any sort of rationale for why they include race, which I think is appalling.” That’s what’s most concerning, Vyas says – “how willing we are to believe that race is relevant in these ways.”
Vyas is clear she isn’t calling for race-blind medicine. Physicians cannot ignore structural racism, she says, and the impact it has on patients’ health.
Powe has been studying the racial disparities in kidney disease for more than 30 years. He can spout the statistics easily: Black people are three times more likely to suffer from kidney failure, and make up more than 35% of patients on dialysis in the US. The eGFR equation, he says, did not cause these disparities — they existed long before the formula.
“We want to cure disparities, let’s go after the things that really matter, some of which may be racist,” he says. “But to put all our stock and think that the equation is causing this is just wrong because it didn’t create those.”
In discussions about removing race correction, Powe likes to pose a question: Instead of normalizing to the “Other” group in the eGFR equation, as many of these hospitals are doing, why don’t we give everyone the value assigned to Black people? By ignoring the differences researchers saw, he says, “You’re taking the data on African Americans, and you’re throwing it in the trash.”
Powe is co-chair of a joint task force set up by the National Kidney Foundation and the American Society of Nephrology to look at the use of race in eGFR equations. The leaders of both organizations have publicly stated race should not be included in equations used to estimate kidney function. On April 9, the task force released an interim report that outlined the challenges in identifying and implementing a new equation that’s representative of all groups. The group is expected to issue its final recommendations for hospitals this summer.
Race correction is used to assess the kidneys and the lungs. What about the brain?
In 2013, the NFL settled a class-action lawsuit brought by thousands of former players and their families that accused the league of concealing what it knew about the dangers of concussions. The NFL agreed to pay $765 million, without admitting fault, to fund medical exams and compensate players for concussion-related health issues, among other things. Then in 2020, two retired players sued the NFL for allegedly discriminating against Black players who submitted claims in that settlement.
The players, Najeh Davenport and Kevin Henry, said the NFL race-corrected their neurological exams, which prevented them from being compensated.
According to court documents, former NFL players being evaluated for neurocognitive impairment were assumed to have started with worse cognitive function if they were Black. So if a Black player and a White player received the exact same scores on a battery of thinking and memory tests, the Black player would appear to have suffered less impairment. And therefore, the lawsuit stated, would be less likely to qualify for a payout.
Race correction is common in neuropsychology using something called Heaton norms, says Katherine Possin, an associate professor at the University of California San Francisco. Heaton norms are essentially benchmark average scores on cognitive tests.
Here’s how it works: To measure the impact of a concussion (or multiple concussions over time), doctors compare how well the patient’s brain works now to how well it worked before.
“The best way to get that baseline was to test you 10 years ago, but that’s not something we obviously have for many people,” Possin says. So doctors estimate your “before” abilities using an average score from a group of healthy individuals, and adjust that score for demographic factors known to affect brain function, like your age.
Heaton norms adjust for race, Possin says, because race has been linked in studies to lower cognitive scores. To be clear, that’s not because of any biological differences in Black and White brains, she says; it’s because of social factors like education and poverty that can impact cognitive development. And this is where the big problem lies.
In early March, a judge in Pennsylvania dismissed the players’ lawsuit and ordered a mediator to address concerns about how race correction was being used. In a statement to CNN, the NFL said there is no merit to the players’ claim of discrimination, but it is committed to helping find alternative testing techniques that do not employ race-based norms.
The NFL case, Possin wrote in JAMA, has “exposed a major weakness in the field of neuropsychology: the use of race-adjusted norms as a crude proxy for lifelong social experience.”
This happens in nearly every field of medicine. Race is not only used as a poor substitute for genetics and ancestry, it’s used as a substitute for access to health care, or lifestyle factors like diet and exercise, socioeconomic status and education. It’s no secret that racial disparities exist in all of these. But there’s a danger in using race to talk about them, Yale historian Carolyn Roberts says.
We know, for example, that Black Americans have been disproportionally affected by Covid-19. But it’s not because Black bodies respond differently to the virus. It’s because, as Dr. Anthony Fauci has noted, a disproportionate number of Black people have jobs that put them at higher risk and have less access to quality health care. “What are we making scientific and biological when it actually isn’t?” Roberts asks.
Vyas says using race as a proxy for these disparities in clinical algorithms can also create a vicious cycle.
“There’s a risk there, we argue, of simply building these into the system and almost accepting them as fact instead of focusing on really addressing the root causes,” Vyas says. “If we systematize these existing disparities … we risk ensuring that these trends will simply continue.”
Nearly everyone on both sides of the race correction controversy agrees that race isn’t an accurate, biological measure. Yet doctors and researchers continue to use it as a substitute. Math shouldn’t be racist, Nkinsi says, and it shouldn’t be lazy.
“We’re saying that we know that this race-based medicine is wrong, but we’re going to keep doing it because we simply don’t have the will or the imagination or the creativity to think of something better,” Nkinsi says. “That is a slap in the face.”
Shortly after Vyas’ article published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the House Ways and Means Committee sent letters to several professional medical societies requesting information on the misuse of race in clinical algorithms. In response to the lawmakers’ request, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is also gathering information on the use of race-based algorithms in medicine. Recently, a note appeared on the Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network’s website for the Vaginal Birth After Cesarean equation — a new calculator that doesn’t include race and ethnicity is being developed.
Dorothy Roberts is excited to see change on the horizon. But she’s also a bit frustrated. The harm caused by race correction is something she’s been trying to tell doctors about for years.
“I’ve taught so many audiences about the meaning of race and the history of racism in America and the audiences I get the most resistance from are doctors,” Roberts says. “They’re offended that there would be any suggestion that what they do is racist.”
Nkinsi and Seah both encountered opposition from colleagues in their fight to change the eGFR equation. Several doctors interviewed for this story argued the change in a race-corrected scores is so small, it wouldn’t change clinical decisions.
If that’s the case, Vyas wonders, why include race at all?
“It all comes from the desire for one to dominate another group and justify it,” says Roberts. “In the past, it was slavery, but the same kinds of justifications work today to explain away all the continued racial inequality that we see in America… It is mass incarceration. It’s huge gaps in health. It’s huge differences in income and wealth.”
It’s easier, she says, to believe these are innate biological differences than to address the structural racism that caused them.
by tyler | Jun 27, 2023 | CNN, health
With hot summer months ahead, taking a dip in the water can be a refreshing way to cool off.
Whether you’re diving into your family’s backyard pool or floating in the ocean, staying safe around water is crucial, said Dr. Sarah Denny, lead author for the Prevention of Drowning American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement.
People of all ages are at risk of drowning, but children are especially vulnerable, said Denny, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Drowning is the leading cause of death in children ages 1 to 4 in the United States, Denny said.
Knowing how to stay safe around water and what to do in case of an emergency can prevent people from drowning, said Stephanie Shook, senior aquatics manager for the American Red Cross.
Here are some ways to practice water safety while still having fun in the sun (and water).
One of the most important safety actions you can take is to prevent unsupervised access to any pools, Shook said.
Adults should surround pools and spas with barriers on all sides to prevent unsupervised access to water.
Most young children who died in home pools were not supposed to be in the water during nonswim time, were last seen in the home, and had been out of sight for less than five minutes, Shook said.
There should be equipment stored close to the pool so that it’s at the ready for someone to grab on to for safety if the person begins drowning, she said. Adults should also stock up on life jackets and have a first aid kit available.
A visit to a lake or river can be a great escape during the hot summer months, but it also comes with an advanced set of guidelines for staying safe.
It’s important to plan ahead and check for weather and water conditions such as currents and rapids before embarking on your trip, Shook said. Also plan on activities in areas designated for swimming that have lifeguards available.
Rivers can have wild and unpredictable currents. If you get caught in a river current, lie on your back with your feet in front of you so you can fend off rocks as you float downstream, Shook said.
Once it’s safe, swim to the shore as soon as possible, she added.
Do not stand up while trapped in the current because “one or both of your feet could become entrapped and pinned, even in just a few feet of water,” Shook said.
While on a boat, passengers should wear a US Coast Guard-approved life jacket in the event of an emergency, she added. That includes the most experienced swimmers.
The ultimate summer getaway is a beach vacation, but a larger body of water brings additional water challenges.
Just as you would at lakes and rivers, only swim in designated swimming areas with a lifeguard on duty, Shook said. Also be sure to check the water depth and enter the water with your feet for the first time to prevent injuries from diving in shallow water, she noted.
You may find yourself caught in a rip current — a strong, narrow area of fast-moving water that can be dangerous and even deadly, Shook said. If you find yourself caught in a rip current, swim parallel to the shore until you are out of the current and then swim back to shore.
Permanent rip currents can exist near piers and jetties, Shook said, so stay at least 100 feet (30.5 meters) away from them when swimming.
It only takes an inch of water to introduce risk for a drowning hazard, so it’s important to know what to do if you spot someone in distress in the water, Shook said. If you spot someone in need of help, here is what the American Red Cross recommends, in this order:
Children are especially vulnerable to drowning, but both adults and children should take swimming lessons to understand how to swim, Denny said.
“They do not need to have a beautifully, technically correct stroke, but they have to have the basic water skills to keep themselves safe around water,” she said.
If your child knows how to swim in a pool, do not assume those skills apply to open waters such as lakes and pools, Denny noted.
Swimming skills do not “drownproof” a child, she said, and children should still stay close to adults and be supervised in case of an emergency.
Aquatic facilities around the country have partnered with the American Red Cross to offer swimming and water safety courses for people of all ages. Check out this website for a list of classes or check with your local pool facilities.
It is also a smart idea to have at least one adult present who is trained in CPR/AED skills so he or she can help a drowning victim until professional help arrives. The American Red Cross has a list of online and in-person training classes.
Families can introduce water safety behaviors to children at a young age with the American Red Cross’ Water Safety for Kids activities and videos.
The organization also offers a free swim app so parents can track their children’s swimming skills and teach them water safety. Parents can take a free online training course to learn how to minimize drowning risk.
by tyler | Jun 26, 2023 | CNN, health
Whether you’re without power, enduring extreme heat or trying to save money, there are ways to feel comfortable without artificial cooling.
Heat can foster fun summer activities, but the body shouldn’t be too hot for too long, as too much heat can harm your brain and other organs, according to the US National Institutes of Health. Sweating is the body’s natural cooling system, but when that’s not enough, there’s increased risk for developing the heat-related illness hyperthermia — signs of which include heat cramps, heat edema and heat stroke. Heat combined with high humidity exacerbates this risk, since the air’s saturation level makes sweat accumulate on the skin, preventing the body from cooling naturally.
Staying cool can be done by using some basic supplies and knowing how to manipulate your home to control its temperatures. Here are 14 methods for doing so.
When you’re hot and flushed, hydrating yourself is the first and foremost step to cooling down, said Wendell Porter, a senior lecturer emeritus in agricultural and biological engineering at the University of Florida.
The temperature of the water doesn’t matter since your body will heat it, he added. If your body is suffering from the heat and needs to cool itself, it can’t do that without enough moisture, since the body cools itself by sweating.
Taking a cold shower or bath helps cool your body by lowering your core temperature, Porter said.
For an extra cool blast, try peppermint soap. The menthol in peppermint oil activates brain receptors that tell your body something you’re eating or feeling is cold.
Place a cold washrag or ice bags (packs) on your wrists or drape it around your neck to cool your body. These pulse points are areas where blood vessels are close to the skin, so you’ll cool down more quickly.
Place box fans facing out of the windows of rooms you’re spending time in to blow out hot air and replace it with cold air inside.
If the weather in your area tends to fall between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the mornings and evenings, opening the windows on both sides of the house during those times can facilitate a cross-flow ventilation system. If you do this, you can opt to use or not use the fans, but the fans would help cool the house faster, Porter said. The outdoors can pull the hot air from your home, leaving a cooler temperature or bringing in the breeze. Just be sure to close windows as the sun comes out, then open them when the weather is cool again.
Just resting near a fan would reduce your body temperature as well.
If you have windows that face the sun’s direction in the morning through afternoon, close the curtains or blinds over them to “keep the sun from coming directly into the house and heating up (the) inside,” Porter said.
You could also install blackout curtains to insulate the room and reduce temperature increases that would happen during the day.
If you do turn the air conditioning on, don’t set it below 70 degrees Fahrenheit in an effort to cool the house faster, said Samantha Hall, managing director of Spaces Alive, an Australia-based design research company helping to create healthy, sustainable buildings.
“It just runs for longer to reach that temp and will keep going until you start to feel a bit chilly and is then hard to balance,” she added. Instead, keep the unit temperature as high as possible while still comfortable.
Cotton is one of the most breathable materials, so cotton sheets or blankets could help keep you cool through the night.
The lower the thread count of the cotton, the more breathable it is, Porter said. That’s because higher thread counts have more weaving per square inch.
If you can’t sleep through the night because you’re too hot, try sleeping somewhere besides your bedroom, if that’s an option. Heat rises, so if you have a lower or basement level in your home, set up a temporary sleeping area there to experience cooler temperatures at night.
Common advice for staying cool without air conditioning includes refrigerating or freezing wet socks, blankets or clothing then ringing them out to wear while you sleep. But this isn’t a good idea, Porter said.
Because of “the amount of energy they can absorb from your body that night, they will be warm in just a matter of minutes,” he said. “And then you’d have damp stuff that would mold your mattress. So you definitely don’t want to do that.”
If no one’s using a room that doesn’t have vents or registers, close the door to that area to keep the cool air confined to only occupied areas of the house.
Flip the switch for the exhaust fan in your kitchen to pull hot air that rises after you cook or in your bathroom to draw out steam after you shower.
Incandescent light bulbs generate a higher temperature than LED light bulbs do. To make the switch, watch for sales on energy-efficient bulbs, then slowly replace the bulbs in your house, Porter said.
Switching light bulbs can save money but won’t reduce a lot of heat in the home, Hall said. However, if you focus on switching the bulbs in areas you’re sitting near, that would make a more noticeable difference, Porter said.
Oven heat can spread throughout your house. Keep the heat centralized in one area, such as a slow cooker. Or, cook outdoors on a grill to keep the heat outside.
Eating an ice pop or ice cream to cool down may help for a moment. But don’t go overboard on the sugar if you’re overheated or at risk of being overheated, Porter said.
“Sugar would run your metabolism up and you’d start feeling internally hot,” he said. “So the cool treat might be good, but the extra sugar might not.”
If you’ve tried everything and still can’t beat the heat at home, you could look online for any local programs that are offering ductless air conditioners.
Depending on your state, some cooling centers — air-conditioned public facilities where people might go for relief during extremely hot weather — may be open and taking precautions to ensure they’re as safe as possible. You could start by checking with your local utility offices, as they would know who is offering certain programs, Porter recommended.
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by tyler | Jun 22, 2023 | CNN, health
High temperatures are not just uncomfortable, they are bad for your health – and can even be deadly.
Of all the natural disasters, extreme heat is the No. 1 killer, studies show, killing more people than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.
“What is most problematic about heat is that this is a sneaky climate issue because it kills many people, but it is not impressive like a hurricane or something. It’s just happening all the time, so it is sneaky,” said environmental epidemiologist Tarik Benmarhnia of the University of California, San Diego.
There’s been a 74% increase in deaths related to heat since 1980, a 2021 study found. With the ongoing climate crisis, high temperatures are expected to get worse, and heat waves will last longer, affecting parts of the country that aren’t used to them.
Most heat-related deaths and health problems are avoidable. Three of the most common conditions to watch out for are dehydration, heatstroke and heat exhaustion.
Your body needs water and other fluids to function. When you lose more fluid than you take in, you get dehydrated.
Mild or moderate dehydration is manageable by drinking more fluids, but severe dehydration needs medical attention.
The problem is that your body doesn’t always let you know early enough that you need more water. By the time you feel thirsty, you’re behind on your fluid replacement. Older people often don’t feel thirsty until they are actually dehydrated.
Experts say that when you have to be out in the heat, it’s important to drink fluids even before you head out, or else you may not be able to catch up on what your body needs.
While you’re outside, particularly if working or exercising in the heat, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends drinking a cup of water (8 ounces) at least every 15 to 20 minutes. But don’t drink more than 48 ounces per hour, which can lower your sodium levels too much, causing confusion and other health problems.
You also want to stay hydrated after coming inside from the heat, drinking enough fluids to replace what you’ve lost through sweat.
Chronic dehydration can raise your risk for kidney stones and urinary tract infections, as well as longer-term problems.
The “most worrisome consequence” of high heat is heatstroke, said Dr. Scott Dresden, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University.
With heatstroke, the body can’t cool itself and regulate its temperature.
In normal temperatures, your body loses water through sweating, breathing and going to the bathroom. But when humidity rises above 75%, sweating becomes ineffective. Our bodies can let off heat only when the outside temperature is lower than our internal body temperature, usually around 98.6 degrees.
If the body’s temperature rises quickly, its natural cooling mechanism – sweat – fails. A person’s temperature can rise to a dangerous 106 degrees or higher within just 10 or 15 minutes. This can lead to disability or even death.
Older adults, people taking certain medications like beta blockers and antidepressants, and kids can all have a harder time with heat regulation. Alcohol can also make it hard for the body to regulate its temperature, as can being dehydrated or being overdressed for the heat.
If you notice that someone is confused, has a flush to their skin, seems to be breathing quickly or complains of a headache, move to the shade or into air-conditioning. Cool them with cool water, icepacks or wet towels around their neck, head, armpits and groin. And get medical help as soon as possible.
A person who has heatstroke may sweat profusely or not at all. They can become confused or pass out, and they could have a seizure. Left untreated, heatstroke can quickly damage the brain. It can cause the heart to beat dangerously fast and the body to shut down.
You can lower your chance of heatstroke by wearing loose-fitting, lightweight clothing. Wear sunscreen, too: People who are sunburned have less of an ability to regulate their body temperature. Drink lots of water. Try to avoid working outside or exercising during the hottest parts of the day. Let yourself acclimate to high temperatures before you start running marathons or doing any other extreme outdoor exercise.
Heat exhaustion happens when the body loses too much water or salt through excessive sweating. Typically, this can happen when you’re exposed to high temperatures combined with high humidity or if you are involved in strenuous physical activity, like running or playing football.
Heat-related illness is the leading cause of death and disability among US high school athletes, according to the CDC. But it can be a problem for anyone taking part in everyday activities like mowing the lawn or going for a walk.
Signs of heat exhaustion can include cool or moist skin with goosebumps, heavy sweating, feeling faint or tired, an unusual heart rate, muscle cramps, a headache or nausea.
If you think you or someone else has heat exhaustion, get some rest in the shade or in the air-conditioning. Drink cool water. If symptoms don’t improve, get medical attention.
At that point, the treatment isn’t all that pleasant. “We typically use ice baths in our emergency room,” Dresden said. “We’ll do cold-water immersion.”
If that isn’t available, a hospital may try wet sheets and a large fan.
Extreme high temperatures can be linked to at least 17 causes of death, most of them related to heart and breathing issues but also including suicide, drowning and homicide.
Studies have shown that exposure to extreme heat can contribute to mental health issues, problems for pregnant women and poor birth outcomes.
Even if you aren’t working or exercising outdoors, be careful in extreme temperatures.
Dr. Stephanie Lareau, an emergency room physician in Rocky Mount, Virginia, said it’s important to keep an eye not just on the temperature but on the heat index. That takes into account humidity, and that can matter more for heat-related illness.
When planning activities, try to keep them out of the heat, especially if you’ve got young kids or the elderly in your social circle, since they don’t handle the heat as well.
“Make sure everyone is drinking plenty of fluids,” Lareau said. “You don’t have to take in copious amounts of water, but drink a little bit before you’re thirsty – and especially when you are thirsty. Those things are really important. Heat illnesses are totally avoidable with the right approach.”
by tyler | Jun 20, 2023 | CNN, health
Like brushing your teeth or washing your face, putting deodorant on every day might seem like one of those rituals crucial for basic hygiene.
But your decision is most likely based more on personal and cultural preferences than any potential medical necessity, dermatology experts say.
“People have strong preferences and sensitivities to smell. People, from the beginning of time, have used perfumes (or) colognes to mask odor,” said Dr. Nina Botto, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco. “But it’s not like flossing your teeth, where there’s data that you’re actually going to live longer if you floss your teeth regularly.”
“We live in a society where body odor is not universally accepted, making deodorant a part of your daily hygiene routine,” said Dr. Joshua Zeichner, an associate professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, via email. “There’s also a stigma surrounding wetness of the clothes because of sweat, which has pushed antiperspirants into daily skincare routines.”
Deodorants neutralize body odor, while antiperspirants reduce wetness on the skin, Zeichner added. Both are often offered in one product.
Despite the commonly accepted reasons why people wear deodorant, natural body odor isn’t necessarily considered unpleasant by everyone.
Ahead of his return from a military campaign, Napoleon is said to have written to his wife, Joséphine Bonaparte, that he would be home in three days and that she shouldn’t wash herself before then, said Tristram Wyatt, a senior research fellow in the department of biology at the University of Oxford, in “Smelling Your Way to Love,” an episode of the CNN podcast “Chasing Life With Dr. Sanjay Gupta.”
Like many people today, Wyatt added, Napoleon was an “enthusiast” of smells — both colognes and natural scents, or at least his wife’s.
One reason why someone might find a certain person’s natural scent more attractive than those of others is due to differing immune systems, Wyatt said, since we tend to be more attracted to people who are immunologically different.
There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to your personal preferences, and what — if any — products you might use to mask body odor. With those preferences and other personal factors in mind, CNN asked dermatologists to address common reasons behind people’s choices and how to manage in either scenario.
Sweat has a purpose.
“We sweat to help control our body temperature,” Zeichner said. “However, in some cases we sweat beyond what is necessary. This is known as pathologic sweating, or hyperhidrosis. Sweat itself is odorless. However, bacteria on the skin break down the sweat, creating a foul smell.”
If you choose to use antiperspirant products for this reason, apply them in the evening, Zeichner said. “Since we make less sweat at night, they can more effectively form a plug within the sweat gland if you apply them before bed.”
But if you don’t sweat excessively, blocking sweat production with antiperspirant “is probably not a good idea,” said Dr. Julie Russak, a board-certified dermatologist and founder of Russak Dermatology Clinic in New York City. “(By) blocking it completely, you are risking paradoxical increase of sweat production in other areas.”
Some people prefer wearing deodorant to have a more pleasant smell or if they deal with certain skin issues, such as irritation under breasts or between abdominal skin folds, Russak said via email.
The odor of your sweat can be influenced by diet, too, Zeichner said. The sweat of people who eat large amounts of cruciferous vegetables — broccoli, kale and cauliflower, for example — can have a distinct, sulfurous smell.
“Gut health, health of the skin and health of the microbiome of the skin can all influence our body odor,” said Russak via email. “Some metabolic disorders produce a very particular odor in general (for example, ketoacidosis or uremia from diabetes). Healthy skin and a healthy body should not have malodor.”
If you’re considering forgoing deodorants or antiperspirants because of concerns about potentially harmful ingredients or rumors that wearing such products causes cancer, know that those claims haven’t been scientifically proven, these experts told CNN. Research on whether there’s a causal relationship between cancer and use of talcum powder products that don’t contain asbestos has also been inconclusive.
“Usage of inorganic ingredients like aluminum salts in cosmetics and personal care products has been a concern for producers and consumers,” said Dr. Amanda Doyle, a board-certified dermatologist who works with Russak at the Russak Dermatology Clinic. “Although aluminum is used to treat hyperhidrosis some worries have been raised about aluminum’s role in breast cancer, breast cysts and Alzheimer’s disease. The absorption of aluminum by the skin is not fully understood yet, but the carcinogenicity of aluminum has not been proved.”
Not wearing deodorant or antiperspirant products can have pros and cons depending on how you and others feel about your natural body odor.
“If you stop wearing deodorant or antiperspirant, you can develop a stronger odor over time,” Doyle said. “When you stop using (such products) and sweat more, this creates a breeding ground for bacterial and fungal overgrowth, which can cause odor to become stronger.”
Thoroughly bathing every day, however, is the most important way to avoid bad body odor, experts said. You should focus on bathing the face, under arm and genital areas — these tend to have more sweat than other parts of the body, which can facilitate overgrowth of microorganisms such as yeast and bacteria, Zeichner noted.
Having unusually bad body odor could indicate that you’re not cleansing your skin as you should, he added.
Other ways to reduce odor risk by preventing sweat and bacterial overgrowth include wearing loose-fitting, breathable, cotton clothing and using topical antibacterial washes such as benzoyl peroxide or prescription topical antibiotics such as clindamycin, Doyle said.
