Author: Mark Kosin

Don't Butter Your Burns (And 7 Other Medical Misconceptions)

Post author By Mark Kosin
Post date September 1, 2019

In the practice of bloodletting, doctors drained patients’ blood in hopes that it would help them stave off illness. It was a dubious practice that was used to treat everyone from medieval peasants to George Washington, and suffice it to say, usually did little to help affected patients.
Thankfully, bloodletting has gone out of style, and most doctors and citizens are as well-informed about proper medical care as they’ve been at any point in history.
However, a number of misconceptions about what to do in medical emergencies or first aid situations still swirl around in the American consciousness. Put grease on a burn? Peroxide on an open cut? If someone has a seizure, should you be reaching for your wallet?
HealthyWay spoke to some experts who specialize in training professionals and average citizens in first aid and emergency medical services (EMS). They offered up some advice on what to do, what not to do, and a few hard and fast rules about facing medical emergencies.

1. Butter is for bread. Toothpaste is for teeth. Neither are for burns.

Robb Rehberg is the director of first aid training and program development at the National Safety Council (NSC), an organization that eliminates preventable death through education and advocacy. He meets with a wide range of Americans to train them about proper emergency medical procedures and is very familiar with the inaccurate treatments that are still rattling around out there.

Rehberg asserts that one of the most common misconceptions he’s encountered involve treatment of burns. Over time, some folks have believed that a bit of butter can help sooth a burn, but that’s just not true. Explains Rehberg on treating burned skin with some Land O’ Lakes: “We’re not trying to cook people. Not quite sure where butter came from, but I’ve heard it before. We certainly don’t want to put butter on a burn.”
The truth is this: Not only is butter not an effective burn treatment, but it can actually make the situation worse.
The first thing that must happen after a burn is cooling of the skin, but Rehberg says butter—or other home treatments—will not be helpful: “The skin has been burned and it needs to cool itself. Butter or any ointment is clogging up pores where heat dissipation occurs. We are hindering the body’s ability to cool itself.”
[pullquote align=”center”]“Most minor burns will heal on their own and can [be] treated by running cool water over them.”
—Andrew Berger[/pullquote]
First aid expert Andrew Berger, who is the owner and training site coordinator at Healthline First Aid, also warns against butter or other believed fixes for a burn, saying that it “can actually make the burn worse by slowing the release of heat from the skin.” Indeed, if butter is a no-go, why do some think that burns need to be treated like a piece of toast?
Berger calls butter an “old folk remedy.” An Australian medical report makes mention of an 18th century document from the Prussian Surgeon General that reads more like a recipe than an emergency procedure, saying that burns should be “painted over with grease or butter, or powdered with flour, starch or powdered charcoal to alleviate the pain.”
Rehberg also says that toothpaste is a common household burn remedy, mostly because it usually feels cool to the skin, but that the “cooling” is just a chemical reaction that is actually irritating the skin, the last thing you want to do to a sensitive burn area.
The best burn fix? A simple running of cool water for about 20 minutes. Berger explains: “Keeping in mind that there are several types of burns and several degrees of burns. Most minor burns will heal on their own and can [be] treated by running cool water over them.”

According to Rehberg, you could also treat the affected area with a burn-specific ointment or aloe vera gel. These substances will actually help cool the burn rather than gunk it up like a stack of pancakes at IHOP.

2. If you’re cleaning a wound, keep the peroxide away.

Another common misconception Rehberg hears from students he teaches at the NSC is the use of peroxide on a wound.

“Every medicine cabinet has peroxide. It’s not the best thing for an open wound,” states Rehberg about the all-too-familiar brown bottle of searing pain. While it may help sterilize a cut, the age-old favorite of teachers and moms could do plenty of damage as well. “You might be killing bacteria, but you’re also killing healthy skin cells,” explains Rehberg. Such an act could hamper the wound’s ability to heal or leave a more noticeable scar.
The best remedy for cuts and wounds of a manageable size is a simple one: soap and water. Berger claims you don’t need to get too complicated when treating a wound: “People always think you need ointments … for cuts and scrapes. Just wash it with antibacterial soap, it’s the best thing to clean a wound.” A deliberate wash in the sink followed by an appropriately-sized bandage will be more than enough medical attention to allow your body to do what it does best: heal itself.

This is all assuming, of course, that the cut is of a manageable size and won’t need stitches. In every true medical emergency, you should dial 911 for assistance. Or, if your injury isn’t quite so perilous, call your primary care physician for tips on how to handle a less severe medical situation

3. Don’t tip your head back for a bloody nose.

Nosebleeds are one of the most common minor injuries. Sometimes, they are a side effect of another injury, and other times, they just spontaneously show up. Because they happen frequently, nearly everyone seems to know the treatment. However, as you will see in the video below, the traditional nosebleed remedy is also one of the most common medical misconceptions.

4. The truth about frostbite and hot water.

There’s a belief that if any skin or limbs fall victim to frostbite, the affected area should be heated up as quickly as possible with hot water. However, this isn’t exactly what medical professionals recommend.
[pullquote align=”center”]“You may actually be causing more damage.”
—Robb Rehberg[/pullquote]
First of all, cold limbs don’t necessarily mean frostbite. Berger reveals that the term “is often used too broadly for skin exposed to cold. The first stage of frostbite is frostnip, which doesn’t cause permanent skin damage and should not be treated with hot water.”
There’s no need to get the tea kettle whistling for a case of frostnip. Instead, says Berger, “it can be treated by gently rewarming the area with mild to warm water.”

When it comes to true frostbite, Rehberg says there is no better treatment than contacting the professionals: “If we’re in a situation where we have frostbite and we are close to medical help, we just want to make sure we activate the EMS system.” In certain frostbite cases, a form of reheating the body will include the use of very warm water—“about 110 degrees”—but that this practice is reserved for those with proper training to avoid further injury.
One of the dangers of treating frostbite on your own in the wild is the risk of the affected parts refreezing if subjected to the elements again: “You may actually be causing more damage,” warns Rehberg. For emergencies, there is a practice called wet-rapid rewarming that Rehberg states is “reserved for controlled environments like in a medical facility or advanced courses like wilderness first aid.”

5. Don’t heat up that sprained ankle.

Sprains and small fractures can run the gamut from inconvenience to serious hinderance. How they are treated can have a major influence on how quickly they heal.

One misconception is to add heat to a sprained area. That’s the wrong move, according to Rehberg, who gives an easy rhyme for sprain treatment: “Ice is nice, hot is not.”
Also, patients should follow the proper protocol when it comes to icing: just about 10 minutes at a time. Rehberg advises that people with a sprain should “not ice continuously,” adding that folks should avoid the inclination to “go big or go home.” When it comes to ice on a sprain, more is not always better.

RICE—rest, ice, compression, elevation—is usually the go-to guideline for muscle soreness and injury. However, the doctor that coined RICE, Gabe Mirkin, actually rescinded this acronym, writing that after years of recommendation by coaches, “now it appears that both Ice and complete Rest may delay healing, instead of helping.”
Mirkin, as well as a few studies, realized that while ice does keep inflammation down and numbs a bit of the pain, it also prevents that inflammation from fulfilling its original intent: healing. Long-term icing can be detrimental to the healing process by limiting the amount of muscle repairing cells that can access the site of the injury. Mirkin recommends something similar to Rehberg’s suggestion: It’s okay to ice an injury for 10 minutes once or twice with a waiting period between applications. However, icing should be avoided after this. Mirkin points out that there’s no benefit to applying ice six hours after the injury occurs.

6. If you witness someone faint or have a seizure, don’t worry about their tongue.

There’s an old belief that someone could “swallow their tongue” while passed out. Even Rehberg is familiar with this unique concern, saying he remembers being a kid and hearing rumors of someone passing away because they swallowed their tongue.

“That’s not what happens” asserts Rehberg, “what happens is that the soft tissue in our airway can close off if we’re not responsive.” In the event of an unresponsive individual, Rehberg says the first thing he teaches his students is “how to open the airway very easily by tilting their head and lifting their chin.” By positioning the head in this way, you can prevent the threat of suffocation.
Similarly, it was a long-held belief that someone experiencing a seizure could bite their tongue off, so people were advised to give those in a seizure state a wooden spoon or even a wallet to bite down on.

You might see where this is going: Rehberg advice is to “never put anything in the mouth of someone having a seizure.” The best protocol is to let the seizure pass, then assist with any injuries—putting your hands near the mouth of a seizure victim could be harmful to them, or as Berger says, “it’s a really good way to lose a finger.”

7. Don’t throw up poison until you’ve talked to the pros.

The swallowing of poison is an absolute emergency situation. And though many think that inducing vomiting will expunge the poison from the body, there are certain situations where that might not be the right move.

Bergen states: “Inducing vomiting is not recommended for certain substances which can cause more damage on the way back up. The most important steps to take are call 911 and contact the Poison Control Center.”
Rehberg points out that poison control—which is a hotline that can be reached 24/7 at 1-800-222-1222—may advise you to take other action depending on what kind of substance was swallowed. In the case of acidic toxins, explains Rehberg, “it may better to ingest something like milk to absorb some of it,” though he mentions that isn’t the only remedy that Poison Control recommends. Contacting Poison Control is critical in these situations because every substance could involve dramatically different symptoms and treatments.

8. “Grandpa’s Cough Medicine” has little application in emergency situations.

Over the course of human history, there have been a number of remedies or medical treatments that include drinking beverages that today are only found behind the bar.
A Johnson’s First Aid Manual from 1909 suggests that a sip of brandy could help “encourage circulation” in the case of a victim who has recently recovered from artificial respiration. It was long believed that such substances were stimulants, and, as a result, were recommended for a variety of medical professionals for use in certain situations.

Such usage has declined significantly over time.
Berger says he’s heard of stories of a little brandy to ease various pains, but in general it’s “not something I could recommend to anyone.” He says many people have the image of a dashing doctor taking a bottle of hooch from the bar to clean a wound, but dismisses such things as “very Hollywood.”

The biggest takeaway is that when it comes to any medical situation, you should first and foremost defer to the professionals.

That means, say, your primary care doctor or poison control—and 911 in emergency situations.
It is also extremely useful to get trained by professionals: CPR and first aid training classes are available in big cities and small towns from coast to coast. Large organizations like the NSC will often offer classes; you can find classes at local offices like Healthline First Aid, too. Berger stresses that while knowing what do with burns and sprains is beneficial, “learning proper CPR and how to use an AED [automated external defibrillator] is even more important, considering most cardiac emergencies happen at home.”

Tags 11/1/17, 50036771, care, hemingway, Publishupdate

Wellbeing

Genetic Traits You Can Blame Your Parents For

Post author By Mark Kosin
Post date December 21, 2017

Aside from baseball and competitive singing TV shows, there is likely no better American pastime than blaming things on your parents. Whether it’s that distinctive voice you use when you get mad or an impossible-to-kick barbecue ribs habit, everyone likely has something that they want to blame on the people that birthed and raised them. And there’s nothing that connects us more to our parents than our genes.

Indeed, The Simpsons once dedicated a whole episode to Lisa’s fear that she’d inherit Homer’s trademark stupidity due to an intelligence-decreasing “Simpson gene.” But what qualities do we truly inherit from our parents, and what characteristics do we develop over time from how we’re raised and develop? Eye and hair color are one thing, but can a child really inherit their parents’ wit (or lack thereof)? Is three-point shooting ability passed down?

There are a few genetic features that are expected, namely physical ones; there are also some traits that we get from our folks that may not immediately come to mind. And with other traits, science continues to debate the age-old query as to whether all that makes us “us” comes from the environment we are raised in or our own genetic makeup.

A key question: “Nature” or “Nurture”?

It’s a question hotly debated around both kitchen tables and scientific circles: Are we born with our best attributes entwined in our DNA? Or do we develop them over time from our environment?

It’s all based on the genetic blueprint.

A reminder from this Stated Cleary video tells us that DNA is the molecular blueprint that makes proteins, which in turn make cells, which form and eventually make a living thing, like a plant, a person, or a dinosaur. DNA is passed down in tightly-wound coils known as chromosomes. When people talk about genes being passed down, they’re talking about the genes within a person’s set of chromosomes that come from their mother and father.

Mark Payson, MD, is the practice director for the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine of Northern Virginia, and he states that there are many things that are “hardwired” into us from birth: “Certain traits, physical traits, are very clearly genetic. Our eye color, our hair color, our skin color. Our height. It’s all based on the genetic blueprint.”

These physical characteristics are often the most obvious features we inherit. The old, “He has his mother’s eyes!” of it all.

However, less identifiable traits, like parts of a person’s personality or someone’s interests, fall into a more debatable category. Did that love of tennis come from deep within your DNA, or was it because you were playing doubles with mom since the day you could pick up a racket?

Answering such questions with certainty can be nearly impossible. Genetics are at the very core of what makes us unique, thus making any attempt to study them fraught with variables. But there is one way scientists can gain a better understanding of how the genetic lottery can play out: twins. Specifically, twins with identical DNA.

Payson describes the useful findings of some of these studies: “People have done twin studies where they look at twins and they see how similar or different they are. The best studies are when they looked at identical twins that were separated at birth, and then 20, 30 years later, they meet each other.” Such revealing studies are a genetic bonanza for interested experts. “It’s amazing as to how similar they are sometimes,” Payson says.

There is no doubt upbringing and the nurturing, or lack of nurturing, of a talent or attribute can have an effect. Todd Graham, a biotechnology consultant at Delevan Street Biosciences, points out that some traits can be more like tendencies and require a certain amount of environmental support to flourish. “If someone has a trait to be tall, but is malnourished, it won’t come out as strongly,” explains Graham.

Despite the debate, there are plenty of traits that have clear or highly likely genetic ties, at least enough so that you can definitely throw them into your parents’ face when you’re feeling rebellious.

Blame genetics for never getting your shot in the NBA.

It may be all too obvious that something like height is passed down from your parents, so if both your folks are under 5’5″, your hoop dreams may be pipe dreams. But there are many signs that athletic ability itself can also be deeply hardwired into your genes.

Payson says that athleticism is unquestionably a mix of both genetics and upbringing, though there’s no doubting the clear physical gifts and abilities that some athletes inherit—it’s usually when you hear the phrase “natural athlete” get tossed around. Payson explains that there are “certain physical traits in terms of strength and how quickly your muscles respond and endurance that certainly you can be genetically predisposed to have.”

ACTN3 is a high-level muscle protein that is often associated with elite athletes. The muscle composition is just one of many factors that separates some Olympic athletes from the rest of us weekend joggers.

Graham discusses the variances in what effect genetics have on an athlete’s abilities: “There are a number of facts involved
in such skills, and it’s not clear how well they are linked yet. We know that slow-twitch muscle versus fast-twitch muscle is important. Slow-twitch muscle is useful in sports that require explosive power, like track and field, baseball and football, while fast-twitch muscle is more useful in endurance sports like distance running.”

Genes go a long way, but if junior was raised since the age of 6 to eat, sleep, and breathe hoops, that certainly has an impact as well. Payson points out that becoming a pro athlete requires “years and years and years of high-level training. If your parent is an athlete and you grow up in that environment and you start doing that from a very young age, that is an enormous advantage.”

Just how much influence genetics has in sports versus development and practice remains a source of constant debate. Sports Illustrated’s David Epstein wrote a whole book seeking to explain “the Sports Gene,” and his takeaway mirrors that of other experts: that neither one factor on its own ensures athletic glory.

So just because neither one of your parents ever played in the big leagues doesn’t mean you won’t have a chance. Like the old adage that you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take, you also won’t be a superior athlete in 100 percent of the sports you don’t play.

Sneezing into the sun is a thing. And it’s hereditary.

Looking at the many odd things that children can inherit from their parents, perhaps no other shines as bright as one especially peculiar trait. There are certain people who will sneeze as a reflex just from catching sight of the sun or from entering a room with an abundance of light. It is called Autosomal-Dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst syndrome, and the honest-to-goodness acronym for this particular condition is the ACHOO syndrome.

Are you a sun-sneezer? If so, it’s more than likely you’ll be able to blame this nose nuisance on your parents. Graham talks about the genetic nature of the ACHOO syndrome: “The European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology published research last March about how ACHOO syndrome was observed in 57 percent of a patient population in a hospital in Germany. ”

According to the study, a “familial disposition” to the syndrome was observed, meaning that the sun sneezing could be traced back on the family tree.

So if you greet your mornings with a smattering of mucus, feel free to blame the mess on your genes.

Blame your parents if you’ve got the taste palate of a picky five-year-old.

Most everyone has at least one favorite dish that is “just like mom made,” but what if this “mom” of yours is responsible for limiting the full potential of your tastebuds?

If you’re a supertaster, you are born with a different anatomy.

Payson says that there is a genetically gifted group of taste gods that walk among us: “There’s a phenomenon called ‘supertasters,‘ which are these people that seem to have an ability to taste a wider variety of taste than us poor average people, which certainly is thought to be genetic.”

If you were supertaster, you’d most likely already know it: Some vegetables would be unbearably bitter, most sugar would be too sweet to savor, and spicy peppers could send you running for the hills. One of the early forerunners of research on the super-taster front is Linda Bartoshuk, PhD, who revealed some of the biology behind this phenomenon in a feature for Yale Medicine.

“If you’re a supertaster, you are born with a different anatomy. [Everyone has] fungiform papillae, which are the little structures that hold taste buds. You have many, many more of them if you are a supertaster,” Bartoshuk said. “It is like reaching up and feeling something with 500 fingers as opposed to 50.”

Supertasting is not that uncommon, with roughly one-in-four Caucasians have the genetic makeup of a super-taster.

Is this another clear instance of genetics playing a role in how we perceive taste and smell? Payson says those tricky X and Y chromosomes may have something to do with it: “There are gender differences where women in general have a better sense of smell than men, there are certain smells that women in general are a little more aware of.”

The big takeaway is that the next time you find yourself in a fight at the dinner table with your folks, you can always blindside them with the old “It’s your fault I don’t have a super tasting abilities!”

DNA can sometimes be a grab bag of diseases.

Ultimately, one of the most significant reasons for knowing your genes and your genetic history is less about home runs and taste buds and more about knowing what kind of health issues you may face one day.

There is a s
ignificant list of diseases that are passed down genetically, such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, sickle cell anemia, and Marfan syndrome.

Sometimes a syndrome can occur if not all the genes are passed down. Payson points to conditions like Angleman and Prader-Willi syndromes, which develop because part of the genetic code in the chromosomes has been inexplicably deactivated. This is otherwise known as genetic imprinting: an unfortunate genetic circumstance that leads to the syndromes listed above, which are known for affecting the nervous system and can cause seizures, developmental disabilities, and speech deficits.

Marfan syndrome is another genetic disease that Graham calls “particularly notable.” This disease has had effects around the sports world recently because of it is commonly seen in tall, thin people…the very kind of people who seek to become NBA players.

A post shared by @isaiahaustin on Jun 17, 2017 at 11:35am PDT

“It is a condition related to problems with producing connective tissue, which can also result in heart issues such as mitral valve prolapse and aortic aneurysm,” explains Graham. He says that the syndrome has been found in some sought-after basketball prospects, forcing the league to start to pay special attention to the genetics of its all-star athletes.

Forget about your genetic past: The future is now!

Interest in preventing diseases and plain old scientific curiosity has propelled the science of genetics forward with blistering speed in the past decades.

Our genetics influence nearly everything about who we are and how we perceive the world.

According to Payson, the rate at which we are learning new things about our genes is stunning: “Our understanding of genetics has increased tremendously in the last 5 or 10 years.” He says that because of our ability to map out an entire human genome, “we are going to find so many things about people, and also susceptibility to various diseases.”

So there is some good news concerning heredity diseases: Scientists may be able to treat or plan for some of these syndromes that wait like ticking time bombs in our genetic blueprints. “From a medicinal standpoint,” Payson says, “we can determine what medicine will work best for you depending on how your body will process the medicine.”

Payson sums up the importance of our genes pretty succinctly: “Our genetics influence nearly everything about who we are and how we perceive the world.”

It is amazing to think that the most simple connection, parent to child, contains such a complex and incredibly detailed blueprint for every single human being. It can influence so much of who we are and who we’ll become.

So even though you can heap some blame on your folks for your less-than-noteworthy fastball or regular ol’ tastebuds, you can also be grateful for your best attributes because those have been passed down to you as well.

Tags 50037451, hemingway, mind

Motherhood

5 Things Medieval Moms Did Differently (And How They're Not So Different After All)

Post author By Mark Kosin
Post date November 9, 2017

For anyone who has ever plopped their rambunctious child in front of a Disney movie or used their smartphone to quell a mini-revolt at a restaurant, it’s inconceivable to consider what being a mom was like just a generation or two ago. Parenting without handheld smartphone games or a plethora of mommy blogs to lean on? Yikes.

If you think being a mom in the age of rotary phones and frozen TV dinners might have been difficult, imagine raising your children roughly a millennium ago in the Middle Ages. Medieval moms had a vastly different world to bring children into and, as a result, employed a variety of distinctive [linkbuilder id=”6694″ text=”parenting practices”]. Here, we’ll give you the most shocking examples.
And while there are certainly plenty of contrasts with how we raise our kids today, you might be surprised to see just how many of the basic tenets of motherhood have remained.

Before that, though, let’s make some things clear.

Many of the traditions of this era were, perhaps unsurprisingly, dictated by precisely when and where a mother lived…and also what class they were.
Lezlie S. Knox, an associate professor of history and director of the medieval studies program at Marquette University, likes to advise against painting the people of this time period with too broad of a brush. She explains that “The ‘Middle Ages,’ broadly speaking, refers to the period from the 2nd century up through the 17th—i.e. at least a millennium—encompassing a geographical area that stretched at least from Scotland to Syria.” As a result, Knox says, “generalizations are problematic.” In short, not all mothers followed the exact same traditions.

1. Some moms would have other women breastfeed for them.

One tradition that was not uncommon for some moms in this era was to employ “wet nurses”—women who would breastfeed other people’s children.

Mothers of different backgrounds would have a wet nurse for different reasons. Jonathan R. Lyon, an associate professor of history at the University of Chicago, explains why wet nurses were part of life for many upper class mothers: the likelihood of disease and death in this era necessitated that a noble family produced many offspring so that some could survive into adulthood and become an heir.
“For royal families and for noble families … it was essential to have heirs, preferably quite a few,” says Lyon. “Extended time nursing babies of course made it harder for women to conceive again, so giving babies to wet nurses was a way to make queens and noblewomen ready to have more children more quickly.”

The fertility advantages of having a wet nurse are echoed by Knox—“Breastfeeding sometimes appears to have had a contraceptive effect which meant lower status women might give birth to fewer children than higher status ones.” That said, Knox is quick to point out, breastfeeding was not a definitive obstacle to having multiple children: “We also have evidence of lower status families with quite a few children, suggesting a limited effect.”
Mothers of lesser means would occasionally use wet nurses for a different reason: they had to go back to work after having a child. Lyon elaborates on the economics of the time: “Women needed to work in the Middle Ages. On a peasant farm or in a family-run business in a medieval town, wives and older children worked.” The survival of the family rested on the shoulders of every single able-bodied family member.
Lyon stresses that the ‘stay-at-home-mom’ is a somewhat modern concept. As a result of this reality, families in the middle or lower classes “frequently paid for a wet nurse or asked a relative to be a wet nurse to multiple children” so that “mothers could get back to work more quickly.”

For mothers of means, discernment reigned when choosing a wet nurse, in a way perhaps not too dissimilar from today’s parents finding a surrogate. Knox shares that “choosing a wet nurse was a critical choice.” The beliefs of the day, states Knox, “conveyed the idea that various characteristics were transferred to the child through breast milk—you wanted someone of upright character.” Pick a good wet nurse, get a good kid.
While folks today might not expect intelligence and values to be transferred through breast milk, nearly all parents still give strong consideration to anyone who spends a significant amount of time with their children.

2. Medieval moms had to grapple with a very high mortality rate.

While tragic circumstances still affect families today, those in the medieval era were often faced with a constant stream of pestilence, infection, and loss. The act of childbirth was an especially dangerous undertaking in those days. This was a stark fact of life for mothers across all social and political classes.
[pullquote align=”center”]“The majority of parents in the Middle Ages would have buried at least one child, and quite possibly several during their lifetimes.”
—Jonathan R. Lyon[/pullquote]
“The odds of mother and child both surviving childbirth were not very good,” declares Lyon, “After that, there were so many more deadly childhood diseases than today, without any modern medicine of course, that the odds of children surviving to the age of 5 or so were also very low.”
The high mortality rate was a very difficult set of circumstances for mothers and communities to deal with, especially when involving children.

The constant specter of loss did not mean families lived in a constant state of sorrow, but it did necessitate different approaches to building a family, such as having multiple children knowing that some just may not live past a certain age. Lyon relays how losing a child was just a part of life for any medieval mother: “The majority of parents in the Middle Ages would have buried at least one child, and quite possibly several, during their lifetimes.”

3. Childbirth could involve the use of smells, sneezing, and a variety of other practices.

With such danger associated with the necessary act of procreation, it is no wonder that parents and midwives in the Middle Ages would try to use all known and passed down knowledge to have a healthy and successful birth.
One of the most remarkable documents to emerge from this period in time is a medical text from the 12th century known as the Trotula, an extensive collection of knowledge about women’s health in that era.
There were many directives for ensuring a successful birth in the Trotula. One instruction was to induce sneezing, which was thought to help direct energy to pushing out the infant. The Trotula (translated from Latin) states: “When the time of birth arrives, let the woman prepare herself as is customary, and likewise the midwife should do the same with great care.” Logical enough.

“And let sneezing be induced with the nose and mouth constricted, so that the greatest part of her strength and spirit tends toward the womb,” it continued. Indeed, the inducement of sneezing during labor is mentioned multiple times in the paragraphs of the Trotula.
Another item of interest is the belief that the womb reacted differently to different kinds of smells. Specifically, that that the womb would push toward sweet smells and away from unpleasant one. The Trotula text declares: “the womb follows sweet-smelling substances and flees foul-smelling ones. For this, odoriferous spices are good, such as musk, ambergris, aloewood, and similar things, and also odoriferous herbs, such as mint, fennel, oregano, and similar things.” This certainly led to some mothers in labor having to endure a smorgasbord of unpleasant orders being waved in their face while trying to push. Though, perhaps that was also motivating?
Additionally, women might have worn or clutched trinkets or religious artifacts while giving birth. Knox says there are medieval sources that “indicate that women might have an amulet or similar with them as comfort against the very real pains of childbirth.”

Rather than seeing these as nothing but bizarre superstitions, Knox contends that modern mothers can be just as quick to lean on items or practices that put them at ease: “There are plenty of practices women today use that could be characterized similarly—take the fetishization of a birthing plan, candles, music, or even the concept and marketing of a ‘push prize’”… So, while some may find it odd that the Trotula advocates hanging a piece of coral around the neck of an expectant mother, you have to admit it’s not much stranger than demanding that your husband blast some Enya to calm you down during your sixth hour in labor.

4. Honey was used as a way to encourage speech in children.

In addition to advice on giving birth, the Trotula provides a number of directives for new mothers regarding how to care for a newborn baby.
One specific tip for mothers is keep their baby’s nose clean and to use honey as a way to make sure the child will be able to speak later in life. Reads the document: “And so that it might talk all the more quickly, anoint the palate with honey and the nose with warm water, and let it always be cleaned with unctions, and let the mucous secretions always be wiped off and cleaned.” While the use of honey to encourage speech may have fallen out of style (honey poses a botulism risk and, according to the Mayo Clinic, should not be fed to any child under a year old), mothers still have to wipe clean “mucous secretions” today and, in all likelihood, will be doing so for the next thousand years.

Though the anointment with honey was done as soon as a child was born, the honey emerges again when the child has grown more and is close to speaking age—“After the hour of speech has approached, let the child’s nurse anoint its tongue frequently with honey and butter, and this ought to be done especially when speech is delayed.”
They didn’t just count on honey to get kids to speak though. Parents then, as now, were encouraged to speak often in front of their children so that they could learn to talk sooner.

States the Trotula: “One ought to talk in the child’s presence frequently and easy words ought to be said.” In this way, the Trotula was in lock-step with modern parenting, which strongly advises parents to speak frequently in the presence of their children.

5. Kids were put to work much earlier.

In the Middle Ages, young children were faced with the harsh realities of work or intense schooling and apprenticeship, drawing a stark contrast to today, where some argue that childhood can last right up until someone’s mid-twenties.

Children were loved by their families, but were also expected to start pulling their weight as soon as they were able. Explains Lyon: “From the age of 7 … kids were definitely seen as able to contribute to the family. This is utilitarian in the sense … that every able-bodied person was needed in a peasant family or the family of an urban craftsman.” Children in the Middle Ages, says Lyon, were put to work around the same age that most children today would only be in second or third grade.
Lyon explains that despite the hard work expected of children, “That doesn’t mean … that parents only saw their children as little workers. We know from some of our sources that parents genuinely loved their children and had strong emotional attachments to them.”

Overall, despite the need for children to work, or the sad regularity of illness and loss, or the sometimes harsh discipline tactics employed, parents still loved and cherished their children as much as parents of today, despite some texts or scholars that may suggest otherwise.
Knox points to historical evidence that gives vast insight into the loving bond between mothers and their children: “We have surviving objects or manuscripts paintings of toys, cribs, walkers, etcetera, that reflect how medieval parents cared for and engaged [with] their children in ways we do.”
Toys from this time period were, at their core, very similar to toys of today, often shaped to look like people or animals. Such items help bridge the gap between today’s smartphone-carrying moms and the less technologically-aided mothers of the Medieval Age.

It’s all a reminder that though sneezing isn’t an integral part of giving birth and honey isn’t a prescription for speaking sooner, the feelings of love and protection that parents had over their children a thousand years ago were as strong then as they are today.

Tags 50036841, Commerce, hemingway, parenting

Lifestyle

How To Convince Others To Minimize Their Carbon Footprint (Without Sounding Snooty)

Post author By Mark Kosin
Post date November 6, 2017

There’s growing concern over the catastrophic effects of a global increase in carbon dioxide: these include more droughts, stronger hurricanes, melting Arctic ice, and rising sea levels. For any who may not be aware, NASA has led the charge in educating the American people about the science and harmful results of climate change.
Certainly there’s a latent desire in mostly everyone to curb this historic warming trend and create a better world for ourselves and future generations. But, unlike other epic historical challenges, fighting climate change doesn’t have the immediate gratification of an American flag on the moon or kicking the Reich out of Paris.

Plus, even if you do your part, there’s still a significant segment of the population out there that seems to not care one iota. But the truth is that the seriousness of the situation is too stark to ignore.
Maybe you’ve decided you want to make a positive change by taking steps yourself—and, of course, getting some friends on board. But how can you get your best buds to battle this global threat without coming off like some rainwater-sipping hermit with impossible carbon standards?

Luckily, there are simple and easy ways to lessen personal carbon usage that you can pass on to all your friends, family, and strangers in a Jiffy Lube waiting room.

The first step: actually getting folks to care.

While it may seem like reminding friends of the horrible effects of climate change and putting them on the spot could successfully “guilt” or “shame” them into making some adjustments, a report from the University of California-San Diego suggests that is not the most effective way.
Research from Nick Obradovich, PhD, and Scott M. Guenther, PhD, shows that focusing on “the collective” efforts to reduce climate change can be more effective than focusing on an individual’s efforts. The report suggests that including friends in a discussion about a group, or collective, effort to combat climate change was the most likely method to enact change: “The collective responsibility treatment outperforms the control and personal responsibility treatments across multiple studies in altering both actual behavior and intentions about future behavior.”

What does this mean? Essentially, the study suggests that any discussion about climate change should start with “What can we do?” instead of “What can you do?” A good way to kick things off could be by initiating a carpool at work or planning a “Bike/Bus to the office” day once a week. Involving friends and coworkers in a collective effort will not only increase chances for others’ participation, but it will allow you to come off as more social and less snooty.

Simple Carbon Fixes Around the Home

Once you’ve got friends who are amenable to actually taking some action, you can start suggesting other ways for them to reduce their carbon footprint—while taking the same steps to bring your own carbon footprint down a size or two.
Brian McFarland, project director from the not-for-profit CarbonFund.org, says that there are a number of ways to enact personal carbon reduction that will be beneficial for yourself and your friends.

“It is important to emphasize that by reducing one’s energy usage and fuel consumption—both at home and at the office— … one can reduce their hard-earned money that is spent on energy and gasoline, while also simultaneously having a positive impact on the health of our shared environment,” McFarland says.
One very easy way to lower your energy consumption at home is to keep certain electronics off and unplugged when not in use. Honestly, how often are you printing things off your Epson? Or using that window AC unit in January? Keep those appliances unplugged until you need to have them on. This stops electronics from sucking “vampire power” from your outlets.

There are also a number of ways you can lessen the amount of energy needed to keep your home cool or warm. McFarland suggests using a programmable thermostat; using quality insulation to help your home retain heat or cold can also go a long way.

Getting Around With Less Carbon

It’s no surprise that cars can dump a significant amount of CO2 into the atmosphere—in fact, getting around in general has a major impact on climate change. CarbonFund reports that the transportation sector is the second largest source of the U.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions. Mitigating how often you or your friends drive can have a major impact on reducing one’s personal carbon footprint.

The best way to do reduce usage is to search for and utilize car alternatives whenever possible. Walk or ride a bike to work on a nice day. For regional transportation, try looking into taking a train instead of driving for hours or hopping on a short flight. Not only are trains more fuel efficient than airplanes, they’re also a more enriching way to travel and allow you to avoid the hassle of getting through the ordeal of an airport.

Plus, if you’re planning a raucous weekend somewhere, a friendly reminder that many trains have beverage cars that can keep the party going.
“If possible and when necessary, purchase more fuel efficient automobiles,” McFarland adds. The EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide provides a thorough look at cars that use less fuel, which is of course better for the environment and anyone’s personal finances.

Eating Better to Save the Earth

Many may not be aware that it’s not just home electric use and car exhaust that adds to global carbon levels: cattle is a massive contributor of carbon into the atmosphere. According to CarbonFund, vegetarians save at least 3,000 pounds of CO2 by not eating meat.
If going full meat-abstinent is a bridge too far, simply switching out one or two meat meals for vegetarian or seafood options a week can make a big difference. “Meatless Wednesdays” can be a great office tradition to encourage a collective effort to reduce carbon levels—and finally try that Tibetan place down the block.

Additionally, subbing poultry for meals instead of red meat is better for carbon reduction because raising poultry is a lesser contributor to greenhouse gases than cattle. And, for anyone interested in going a step further, McFarland suggests “starting a home vegetable or herb garden.” Growing your own veggies can lessen the amount of food being trucked around from far away farms. Plus, you and your friends will get the freshest food available next time you cook.

Big Picture Steps

All of these actions are great ways for you and others to reduce your carbon footprint without having to turn your life upside down. But what if reducing your carbon footprint, like munching on Cheez-Its, becomes a habit that’s difficult to stop?
The monumental nature of the task at hand can be overwhelming—corporations spend millions each year making sure they do as little as possible to reduce their carbon footprint, and whole populations either don’t know or don’t care—but there are a number of ways to fight the good carbon fight without becoming a full-time carbon warrior.
Carbon offsets
Are there certain things in your life that you simply cannot change to reduce your carbon footprint? Frequent air travel for work or a 45 minute freeway drive every day? Consider a carbon offset, then.

Carbon offsets are independently verified ways that individuals can contribute to specific projects that will offset their own personal carbon usage. “If your truck, for instance,” explains McFarland, “produces 3 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year, you could chose to annually offset your truck’s emissions by purchasing 3 carbon offsets (i.e., one offset is equivalent to one metric tonne of CO2) from a reforestation project in Minnesota, a wind project in Oklahoma, and/or a small-scale hydroelectric project in Brazil.”

Carbon offsets are a key component to reducing CO2 output. There are two types of carbon offsets: compliance offsets and voluntary offsets. According to McFarland, compliance offsets are “utilized by companies that have a legal requirement to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions” while voluntary offsets are “supported by millions of people around the world” as well as “leading companies such as Amtrak, jetBlue, and Virgin America.”
CarbonFund.org makes it easy for individuals to purchase carbon offsets via their website.
Donating
Finally, if you’ve unplugged, starting biking, gone veggie, and bought some carbon offsets for that girls trip to Cabo, you can continue to make an impact by helping organizations that all have their own approaches to carbon reduction. Each organization will usually have a mission statement and stated plan to try to change the tide on climate change.

Greenpeace focuses on pressuring large corporate polluters, while 350.org is attempting to build a global grassroots climate movement. Check out some of these impactful organizations and read through their “About Us” to see if they aligns with you and your friends’ hopes and goals.

Nearly all these companies make it easy to set up recurring payments, so someone can donate just the cost of a night out each month and make a significant contribution to these organizations that are working tirelessly each day so that you don’t have to.

When it comes to reducing your carbon footprint, some steps are simple acts that will take just a few minutes; others are more significant changes that could take more time but will have a larger effect on your carbon footprint—while providing health or lifestyle improvements. And, best of all, none of these steps are so outlandish that anyone can accuse you of being snooty, smug, or overbearing.

Tags 50036641, hemingway, nature

Lifestyle

Things Couples Therapists Want People In Relationships To Know

Post author By Mark Kosin
Post date September 27, 2017

A study on marital satisfaction says that 93 percent of Americans list having a happy marriage as a meaningful purpose to pursue in life. From low-key nights making dinner and watching Netflix to major milestones and difficult challenges, relationships with a significant other have immense effects on people’s lives. But how often do folks think about regular maintenance of those relationships with a couples therapist?
Most wouldn’t think twice about taking a car driven for over 100,000 miles to a mechanic, yet many people in relationships are likely to have an easier time taking their Hyundai in than asking their other half to join them in a couples therapy session.

“The amount that we can heal ourselves is extraordinary.”

If you find yourself knowing very little about the world of couples therapy beyond a few Hollywood-heightened examples in movies and on TV: fear not. HealthyWay spoke with some couples therapy pros who shared what they really want people in relationships to know about what they do.

The Number One Thing About Couples Counseling

There is one point that our couples therapy experts—and likely all couples therapists—have to say to people curious about couples therapy: Please do not wait to go.

Promptness is the initial message from Colleen Cira, Psy.D., founder and executive director of the Cira Center for Behavioral Health, for anyone in a relationship. Cira says that “If you’ve ever had a fleeting thought about ‘Maybe we should go’ … Go! Don’t wait.” According to Cira, time is critical for any couple who feels that things aren’t quite as they should be: “The work is so much less painful and difficult when you get in there sooner rather than later. That’s really important.” By getting in sooner, it’s possible less emotional damage will be done and, as a result, the healing process can seem less daunting.
This is echoed by Jessica Miro, LMFT, therapist at Pinnacle Counseling, who stresses the importance of speaking with a couples therapist before too much resentment or anger can build up. Miro states that often times “the most effective work is done with couples who are coming in to improve their communication before problems arise, or who are coming in at the start of a struggle before they are both unhappy.”

In many ways—and this point is no exception—mental health is a lot like bodily health. The sooner you get a “problem” checked out, the quicker and hopefully easier it will be to treat. Like a primary care physician who praises a patient for coming in when they did, so do couples therapists encourage those with relationship struggles to see them sooner rather than later (but later still works, too).

Top Misconceptions About Couples Counseling

There are plenty of misconceptions about what happens during couples counseling. One, perhaps brought on by conflict-loving screenwriters in movies and television, is that therapy is some kind of no-holds-barred argument hour. “People think that you go in there and scream at each other,” says Cira.

In short, anyone heading into couples therapy is better served leaving their overwrought insults and debate prep notebook at home. “The therapist is not a moderator,” Cira continues. “Honesty is important in couples therapy, but it is not an excuse to be cruel.”
Another misconception is people misunderstanding the “couples” portion and expecting a focus on only their partner’s perceived dysfunction. Cira says that it is regrettable “when people go in hoping that a therapist will ‘fix’ their partner. In these cases, someone is not ready or able to focus on how they are relating to their partner.”

“I am amazed at the resilience of people.”

Relationships are a two-way street, and so it shouldn’t be surprising that couples counseling is as well. Treatment is unlikely to work if both parties aren’t willing to put the work in: “People need to come in ready and open to change themselves and not just engage in finger pointing and blame.” Any measure of success will likely be proportional to how willing each partner is to engage in their shared issues.

That said, it is also true that therapists will not just stand by like neutral arbiters, acting like some uninvolved Switzerland while a relationship goes to war with itself. Cira says she would look dubiously upon any therapist claiming “absolute neutrality.” She explains that “a good therapist should know when to take sides and see the other partner’s perspective.” It is critical that all parties involved, including therapists, possess empathy and understanding in each session.

Not Always Happily Ever After

Couples may be let down if they think that the very act of going to couples therapy will magically fix everything, as if the Relationship Fairy Godmother will sing “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” and you and your partner can go off happily ever after in a tricked-out pumpkin.

“It’s not going to automatically fix something.”

Cira says that expectations “are everything.” Don’t plan on never having to worry about your relationship again: “If you go in thinking that you’re going to come out and everything is going to be butterflies and rainbows—that’s a setup for failure and to be disappointed.”

The key for couples is determining what they’re looking for from therapy. And that is something that therapists can help with.
Miro frames success as a couple that feels “connected and safe with one another.” This does not mean that arguments are a thing of the past, but rather that “they aren’t intimidated by future fights and aren’t afraid that having conflict will disrupt their commitment to one another.” It’s not about stopping a couple from fighting; that’s an impossible task. The key is for that couple to be better to each other in an argument and not let it jeopardize the whole relationship.

And, of course, not all couples that go in to therapy will remain a couple. It is entirely possible that the therapy is there to assist a couple in a decision to break up. As Cira tells Healthyway, “You can go in to work on your relationship and end up pursuing a conscious uncoupling. It’s not going to automatically fix something.”

How to Think About Couples Therapy

While the greater public can have a variety of descriptions for what couples therapists are—antagonists, referees, miracle workers—the therapists themselves are unsurprisingly clinical about the work they do.
They are mental health professionals, with an emphasis on the professional. “If someone is opposed to seeing a therapist,” begins Miro, “I would challenge them to examine how they would treat a physical illness—if you broke your leg, would you be opposed to getting a cast and getting physical therapy?” Miro asks that people make a determination about the role that emotional health plays in their lives.

Similarly, Cira talks of understanding therapy as the routine maintenance that any relationship would have to undergo at some point. She says, “We talk about it in terms of oil changes. Or how you go to your primary care physician for a check up. The same can be said about couples therapy… and all therapy.”
Such framing is a reminder that mental health is ultimately about just that—health.

The Good News

When Healthyway sought to discover the biggest surprises therapists experienced in their work, the answers were resoundingly positive experiences regarding the strength of people and their relationships.

For all the negativity, heartbreak, and resentment that can come from couples who enter into therapy, Miro says that she remains “inspired by people’s ability to change.” Surprises for Miro come from couples who come in “with extreme egos and defenses” and individuals unwilling to “let their partner into the fortress they have built around themselves” only to “several months later to be willing to be vulnerable and open with this person in the spirit of deeper connection.”
Understand therapy as the routine maintenance that any relationship would have to undergo at some point.
Being open to change is one remarkable way couples can surprise therapists. Emotional strength is another. The durability of relationships can still stun a seasoned professional like Cira, who explains that “People can experience devastating things—miscarriage, losing a child, cheating—and they can work through them.”

In a profession that requires a fair amount of experience with pain and heartache, the buoyancy of the human spirit no doubt keeps these experts afloat. “The cool thing about working with couples is just how resilient people are,” Cira states, “I am amazed at the resilience of people.”

What to Do

If you are in a relationship and like the idea of improving how you and your partner communicate, there are a few bits of advice in order to make sure your treatment goes as smoothly as possible. As mentioned, the first tip is to move on those instincts right away: don’t let it become another item that lingers on your to-do list for weeks.
Secondly, Cira highly recommends doing a fair amount of homework to find the right therapy provider—someone with “good training and good reviews.” It is really important that both partners know they are in smart and capable hands.

If the research process seems overwhelming, you can brush up a bit on the different kinds of couples therapy approaches and then look for providers who specialize in the one that sounds best to you. There are a variety of different techniques that range from the Gottman Method, which has been in use for over 30 years, to the shorter-term approach of Emotionally Focused Therapy, to the more psychodynamic method of Exploring Unconscious Problem Roots.
Ultimately, experts say that the key is to be proactive about improving your relationship and mental health. And also to not distress, even if there is significant hostility. “Anger can be activating” says Cira, who notes that she has “a lot to work with” when there is anger in the room. Being mad is “a heck of a lot better than stuffing emotions down.”
The truth is that anyone in a relationship who wants to communicate better with their partner has tremendous resources before them in the form of couples therapists. The greatest surprise is that, in the end, the most valuable tools to interact with one another better come from within. “The amount that we can heal ourselves,” says Cira, “is extraordinary.”
[related article_ids=1003374]

Tags 50035201, care, hemingway