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OCTOBER 5, 2018
AIKEN-AUGUSTAʼS MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED IN 2006
Dr.busbee’s CELEBRATED ELIXER TRUE Health
DECIPHERING HEALTH MYTHS, SNAKE OIL CURES AND OLD WIVES TALES NEW MONTHLY FEATURE BY TRACEY BUSBEE, MLIS, AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY
Along with everything pumpkin spice and spooky, colds season kicks up in October. It is also when I start hearing that I am going to catch my death of cold because I am always without a coat. As someone who has Northern European blood running through my veins, I eschew coats. I brave the cold without the nuisance of a bulky garment unless I am going to be in the elements for a prolonged period. A coat is just one more item to keep up with. As a side note, I rarely get sick. We can get colds any time of the year. October, the quintessential fall month, usually brings cooler weather. It is also when the CDC reports an upswing in the transmission of the flu (caused by a virus). We’ve known since the 1950s that colds are caused by viruses. But where does the belief originate that colds are caused by the cold? How much truth is there to this belief? And is it a direct causal relationship or simply a correlation between many factors? Colder months tend to drive people indoors. They are closer in proximity and one of the factors in contributing to illness is proximity between potential hosts. In the broader context of the human experience, domestication of plants and animals led to the perfect climate for the rise of diseases. The sedentary nature of civilization lent itself to passing the bugs to each other as well as the appearance of crossover diseasefrom animals to humans1. Being cooped up in the winter adds the variable of proximity in the spread of colds. The agents of disease — bacteria and viruses — have been evolving alongside humans and animals. A virus contains either DNA or RNA encapsulated in protein or lipids. They replicate in the living cells of their hosts. Each generation has adapted and survived as products of natural selection. The Mayo Clinic reports that over 100 viruses can cause the Please see TRUE HEALTH page 2
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GET OUT! S
to think they’re lurking around every corner, ummer is unoffically over, despite and will sometimes call police if they spot a what thermometers still tells us. By child alone in a park or walking down a quiet now, kids have already been back in neighborhood street. school for weeks. Do you remember We have come a long way since those days the summer vacations of your childhood? when nearly every child spent most of every Many of us couldn’t wait to get outside day outdoors. to play after breakfact, and other than An article by James Campbell in the Los lunch and supper, this went on until dark. Angeles Times not long ago cited a study Every day. We played in the woods, rode our bikes everywhere, got up impromptu showing that many children today “spend baseball and football games, pretended to be less than 30 minutes per week playing cowboys and Indians or soldiers in battle or outside,” but average as much as seven hours astronauts. We built forts in the woods and a day glued to TV screens, tablets, smart in backyards, tried to dig our way to China, phones and video games. picked hot apples from trees in neighbors’ We adults, meanwhile, the same people yards, explored empty houses (whether new who used to play outside until we were construction or vacant and “haunted”), and dragged indoors, spend 93 percent of our when the sun went down we played hide-and- lives inside buildings or vehicles, said a seek, caught lightning bugs and study cited by Campbell. sometimes camped out all night Granted, we have had in our own backyards — but the “it’s too hot” excuse for always got scared and were months, but seven or eight inside, snug in our beds long straight months of pleasant before midnight. weather are looming on the We did all of this without horizon. This is a great time to much parental supervision. establish some heathful active Kidnappers were as rare as habits that don’t involve a they are today, but parents then screen, a recliner, or a remote. knew that. Parents today seem Kids playing outside in 2018. Let’s get out! And stay out! +
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