CHICAGO (AP) - Are
poinsettias really poisonous? Are snowflakes really pure as the driven snow?
Does feasting really put on the pounds? Sure as sugarplums, myths and
misconceptions pop up every holiday season. Here’s what science says about
some of them:
FLOWER POWER
Poinsettias, those
showy holiday plants with red and green foliage, are not nearly as harmful
as a persistent myth says. Mild rashes from touching the plants or nausea
from chewing or eating the leaves may occur but they aren’t deadly, for
humans or their pets. Poinsettias belong to the same botanical family as
rubber plants that produce latex, so some skin rashes occur in people
allergic to latex. According to a Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
research review, the plants’ toxic reputation “stems from a single
unconfirmed death of a 2-year-old in Hawaii in 1919.”
Dr. Rachel Vreeman,
an Indiana University pediatrician who has researched holiday myths, cited a
study on more than 20,000 poison control center reports involving contact
with poinsettias.
“In none of those
cases were there deaths or serious injury. In fact, more than 95 percent of
them required zero medical care,” she said.
THE WHITE STUFF
To form snowflakes,
moisture high in the atmosphere is frozen by clinging to particles that may
include dust specks or soot. Add germs to that list. University of Florida
microbiologist Brent Christner has found that bacteria commonly found on
plants are surprisingly abundant ice “nucleators” present in snow from
populated areas, barren mountain peaks and even Antarctica.
So is catching
snowflakes on your tongue a bad idea?
He said the number
of bacteria in snow would probably be about 100-fold less than in the same
amount of bottled water.
“There are a lot
more things to be worried about in making you sick than ingesting
snowflakes,” he said.
MOODY BLUES
The same things
that can make holidays merry - great expectations and family time - can also
be stressful. Holiday blues are a real thing for many people grieving loss
or absence of a loved one, and wintertime can trigger true but transient
depression in some people, a condition sometimes called seasonal affective
disorder. It’s linked with lack of sunlight in winter and some scientists
think affected people overproduce the sleep-regulating hormone melatonin.
Research suggests it affects about 6 percent of the U.S. population and
rates are higher in Scandinavia. But contrary to popular belief, suicides
peak in springtime, not winter. No one has figured out why.
HAIR OF THE DOG
Forget that bloody
mary. If extra shots of bourbon in your eggnog have you feeling lousy the
next day, drinking more alcohol - hair of the dog - won’t cure you.
Here’s what George
Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,
has to say about that:
“You are in a sense
self-medicating a mild withdrawal syndrome by drinking more. The problem is
that’s going to wear off and you’re going to have an even worse hangover.”
Alcohol is
dehydrating so replenishing with lots of water or other non-alcoholic drinks
can help relieve the symptoms. But experts emphasize that prevention is the
healthiest cure.
Says Koob: “It all
boils down to, don’t drink too much.”
DOUGHN’T EAT IT
Bakers beware:
sampling holiday cookie dough, or any raw dough, can make you sick. And
recent research says it’s not just because dough often contains raw eggs,
which may harbor salmonella bacteria. Flour is another culprit. A study
published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine details a 2016
E. coli outbreak that hit dozens of people in 24 states that was linked with
flour. Some patients had eaten or handled raw dough made with flour
contaminated with that bacteria. Authorities recalled 10 million pounds of
flour, some of which had been sold to restaurants that allow children to
play with raw dough while waiting for their meals. Baking generally kills
any bacteria.
A headline on a
Food and Drug Administration consumer update sums up the agency’s advice:
“Raw dough’s a raw deal.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
The truth about
holiday weight gain depends on whether your Champagne glass is half empty or
half full. One often-cited study says it’s commonly assumed that the average
American gains 5 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. But the
study authors found the average was a little less than 1 pound. Other
studies have found it’s closer to 2 pounds, still barely enough to make your
pants feel tight. An extra piece of pie or one gigantic holiday feast won’t
doom you, says Indiana University’s Vreeman. The problem, she says, is that
the extra pound or two at holiday time becomes a pattern year after year and
adds up.