News

During the holiday season, there's a good chance you'll hear someone utter one of these commonly held beliefs: Suicides spike during Christmas; poinsettias are extremely poisonous; sugary treats make kids hyperactive.

And, of course, almost everyone has their favourite cure for the New Year's Day hangover.

But Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll, researchers at Indiana University school of medicine, have done an extensive search of scientific literature and concluded that a lot of these popular holiday notions are no more supportable than the claim that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the myth-busting duo argue that it's critical to apply some scientific standards to conventional wisdom. After all, even doctors "sometimes believe things about our bodies that just are not true."

Here's what they found:

Sugar doesn't make kids hyperactive. At least 12 double-blind randomized controlled trials failed to detect any difference in the behaviour of children who had sugar and those who had not. Yet parents are so convinced about this myth that when they think their children have been given a sugary drink (which is actually sugar-free) they report that their kids are more hyperactive than normal. The difference in the kids' behaviour is apparently just in the minds of the parents.

Poinsettias are not toxic: A review of 22,793 cases reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers found that no one died from eating the plant. In fact, a study of rats failed to find a toxic level - even when the rodents were fed the equivalent of a person consuming 500 to 600 poinsettia leaves or a kilogram of the plant's sap.

Suicides are not more common around Christmas. Although this time of year might be emotionally difficult and stressful for some people, there is "no good scientific evidence to suggest a holiday peak in suicides." On the contrary, studies suggest "suicides peak in warmer months and are actually lowest in winter." Unless you live in the southern hemisphere, where it's now summer, there shouldn't be an added risk associated with Christmas.

Much of your body heat is not lost through your head. The myth that 40 to 45 per cent of your body heat escapes through your head probably originated from an old military study in which scientists put subjects in Arctic survival suits to measure heat loss in extremely cold weather. But the subjects weren't wearing hats, so naturally the heat escaped from the only place it could - their heads. A later experiment performed on subjects wearing only swimsuits found just 10 per cent of body heat is lost through the head.

And, sadly, there isn't a quick fix for hangovers. "A systemic review of randomized trials evaluating medical interventions for preventing or treating hangovers found no effective interventions in either traditional or complementary medicine," the researchers conclude. So if you want to avoid a hangover, "consume alcohol only in moderation or not at all."

Pelvic woes

There's bad news for men who suffer from chronic pelvic pain. A new study shows that a drug commonly used to treat the condition works no better than a placebo, or dummy pill.

The international study of the drug alfuzosin, marketed under the brand name of Uroxatral, was led by Curtis Nickel of Queen's University in Kingston.

The condition, known as chronic prostatitis, usually starts with a prostate gland infection that goes untreated or is not properly treated. The nerves in the area eventually become hypersensitive, so normal activities such as urination and sex become painful.

"It is almost as common as an enlarged prostate problem and prostate cancer, but afflicts men earlier in life," Dr. Nickel said. Many men are too embarrassed to talk about it and suffer in silence.

The results from the new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, mean alfuzosin by itself won't help. The condition needs to be treated with a combination of drugs including antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and medications that affect the nervous system.