Orange County Register

Think you know how the holiday season can affect your health? Think again.

The British medical journal BMJ this month published six medical myths that people — and even doctors — commonly believe about the holiday season.

“In the pursuit of scientific truth, even widely held medical beliefs require examination or re-examination,” authors of the study wrote. “Both physicians and non-physicians sometimes believe things about our bodies that just are not true.”

Here are the myths highlighted in the study:

1. Sugar causes hyperactivity in children

The authors reviewed 12 studies about how children react to diets containing different levels of sugar. None of the studies, not even the ones looking at children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, could detect differences in the behavior of the kids who had sweets and those who didn’t. The studies included both natural sugar, and sugar from sweets and chocolate and also considered kids who were “sensitive to sugar.”

They also looked at how parents react to the belief that sugar causes hyperactivity. When parents think their children have been given a sugary drink (even if it’s really sugar-free), they rate the child’s behavior as more hyperactive, the report says.

“The differences in the children’s behavior were all in the parents minds.”

2. Suicide increases over the holidays.

There’s no good scientific evidence that shows suicides increase during the holidays. A study in the U.S. looked at suicides over a 35-year period and found no increase before, during or after the holiday season. The rate of psychiatric visits actually decreases before Christmas in the U.S. (and increases again afterward).

The authors also found that people are not more likely to commit suicide during dark winter months. Suicides peak around the world in warmer months and are actually lower in the winter.

3. Poinsettias are poisonous.

In 849,575 instances of plant exposure reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, not one listed exposure to a poinsettia as the cause. There are no reports of people dying from exposure or ingestion of the holiday plant, and in 96 percent of cases, people did not require treatment.

Another study into poinsettia ingestion by rats couldn’t find a toxic amount of poinsettia, even at high levels.

4. You lose most of your body heat through your head.

Researchers believe this myth originated in an old military study in which scientists put subjects in arctic survival suits and measured their heat loss in cold temperatures. They were not wearing hats, and because this was the only part of their bodies exposed to the cold, they were therefore losing most of their heat through their heads.

But a similar experiment performed with subjects wearing only swimsuits found they would not have lost more than 10 percent of their body heat through the head.

“Any uncovered part of the body loses heat and will reduce the core body temperature proportionally,” the authors write. “So, if it is cold outside, you should protect your body. But whether you want to keep your head covered or not is up to you.”

5. Eating at night makes you fat.

While some studies show an association between nighttime eating and obesity, it does not mean that one causes the other, the researchers found. People gain weight because they take in more calories than they burn, regardless of when they eat.

Other studies found no link at all between eating at night and weight gain.

Studies have connected skipping breakfast with gaining more weight, but this is not because breakfast skippers eat more at night, but because their calorie intake is more evenly distributed over the day and less likely to overeat at one meal.

6. There are cures for a hangover

Sorry, eggnog lovers. You’re out of luck. After a systematic review of trials evaluating medical interventions for preventing and treating hangovers, researchers found “no effective interventions in either traditional or complementary medicine.”

Their advice: Drink in moderation.

My advice: Enjoy the holidays!

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