Medical Myths

“Fire, water and government know nothing of mercy.”
- unknown

I just started a new lecture series on CD titled, Medical Myths, Lies, and Half Truths: What We Think We Know May Be Hurting Us. So far I've enjoyed the first disc. Much better than the prior series on the Dead Sea Scrolls which used a lot of words to say very little.

Amusingly the first topic on the Medical Myths was hiccups which I discussed two days ago in this blog. Dr. Novella dismisses all the folk remidies and says medical research only endorses three drugs and direct neural stimulation or blocking for serious cases of hiccups which won't stop.

His second lecture covers hydration - do we really need to drink 8 cups of water a day? No. An old government guideline recommended 64-80 oz of water a day. But 20% of this will come from the food you eat. This leaves 6 1/2 cups which most people will drink normally.

Does coffee and caffinated sodas count as water? Many say no, but the professor says yes. The caffine will cause more peeing but not enough to cancel out all the water in the beverage. So perhaps it can count as 80% of a cup?

Another tidbit. The higher the elevation, the drier the air. At 6000 ft you exhale twice as much moisture as normal. At 10,000 ft, three times as much. This explains why people who fly experience thirst and why dehyration is serious for hikers and climbers in the mountains.

Bottom Line

For more information see my earlier blog:
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-much-water-is-enough.html

Falling asleep at the wheel

"Sleep is like the unicorn - it is rumored to exist, but I doubt I will see any"

The Consumerist sites a AAA study of 2,000 U.S. residents that 41% of drivers admit to having fallen asleep at the wheel, and drowsy driving accounts for about 17% of all crashes, and 2% of vehicular fatalities.

One in 10 said they did so in the past year and 27 percent of those surveyed said they were so tired behind the wheel that they had a hard time keeping their eyes open.

Drowsy driving was attributed to 730 deaths in 2009--about 2 percent of all vehicular fatalities, but an analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash data reveals that one in six or 16 percent of deadly crashes involve a driver who is sleepy and one in eight result in hospitalization. These statistics are higher than previous estimates and suggest that drowsy driving is a more prevalent factor in crashes, deaths, and injuries.

Bottom Line

The Consumer Reports recommends, "Drinking a good quantity of water helps as it prevents dehydration that can cause drowsiness. It also requires you to pull over regularly and stretch your legs for a bathroom break."

Pull over (preferably at a rest stop) and take a nap. My wife and I once did Tai Chi next to the car to wake up. Throw a Frisbee. Do jumping jacks. Take turns driving.

Caffeine may be good for a short burst but watch out for the "crash" afterwards as the body swings to exhaustion.

Caffeine

Way too much coffee. But if it weren't for the coffee, I'd have no identifiable personality whatsoever. ~David Letterman

How much caffeine do you consume a day? It may be more than you think. Some sweets and over-the-counter medications have caffeine (note Excedrin at the top of the chart below.) Sunkist Orange soda has more caffeine than Pepsi or Coke.

The MayoClinc says most people can handle 200-300 milligrams a day although there are individuals that are affected by as little as one cup of coffee, 100 mg. At levels of 500-600 mg/day you may see the following side effects:

· Headaches
· Irritability
· Anxiety
· Nervousness
· Restlessness
· Insomnia
· Nausea or other gastrointestinal problems
· Muscle tremors
· Fast or irregular heartbeat

Caffeine can be addictive. As the brain gets used to the drug, it takes ever more caffeine for the same energy “boost”. Caffeine withdrawal results once a person stops consuming caffeine. Withdrawal symptoms are consistent with other drugs, but without the life-threatening severity of alcohol or Valium withdrawal. Caffeine withdrawal typically begins within 24 hours and can last for a week or more with these symptoms:

· Headaches
· Irritability
· Anxiety
· Fatigue

Ironic huh – the top three symptoms can result from too much caffeine or too little.

Product	Size in Oz.	Total Caffeine in mg
Excedrin, Extra Str,	2 tablets	130
Mountain Dew Game Fuel	20	120
Brewed coffee	8	60-120
Double espresso	2	45-100
Snapple Elements	18	108
Ben & Jerry's Coffee Fudge Frozen Yogurt	8	85
Red Bull	8.5	80
Instant coffee	8	70
Tea - black	8	45-60
Mountain Dew	12	55
Lipton Iced Teas	20	50
TaB	12	47
Diet Coca Cola	12	45
RC Cola	12	43
Sunkist Orange Soda	12	41-42
Dr. Pepper	12	41
Pepsi	12	38
Coke Classic	12	35
Dark Chocolate bar	1.45	31
A&W Cream Soda	12	29
Barq's Root Beer	12	22
Tea - green	8	20
Tea - white	8	15
Chocolate Bar	1.55	9
Chocolate milk	8	5
Hot Chocolate	8	5
Decaf coffee	8	1-5
Herbal Tea	8	0
7-up, Fanta, Fresca, Sprite	12	0
Yoo-Hoo Chocolate	8	0

Bottom Line

Use the chart above get a perspective on the caffeine strength of common items. Suppose you want to set a limit of 100mg per day. That would mean a limit of 1 coffee, 3 Cokes, 4 Root Beers, 11 Milk Chocolate bars or 20 glasses of chocolate milk.

Resources

http://coffeetea.about.com/library/blcaffeine.htm
http://www.energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-database
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/AN01211
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/NU00600
http://www.myaddiction.com/education/articles/caffeine_addiction.html