Dr. Christina Johns: Hi, I am Dr. Christina Johns. I am an emergency medicine physician and
today we are going to talk about some of the most common holiday health
hazards that we see this time of the year. I love this season. It is so much
fun with good friends, good food, and lots of parties. It's fantastic for
everyone but it does put us at some increased risk for some serious holiday
injuries. So lets talk about it so we can help you have a better holiday
season. So here we are at the Christmas tree, the center piece of
everybody's holiday decoration. There are beautiful ornaments on this tree
in fact so beautiful that a toddler would like to come around, pull it off,
potentially the glass cutting him or herself or even worse pulling over the
entire tree on to them, potentially causing a serious injury. So keep your
glass ornaments way up high and out of reach and remember to watch
your toddler whenever you are at a party. Another thing that comes to my
mind when I think about Christmas trees are allergies. There are fair
number of people who are allergic to different types of Christmas trees
and if you are one of those people make sure that you call ahead when we
are going to a party the last thing you want to do is wind up in the
emergency room when you really want to be having fun at the party. .
Don't you love Mistletoe? I love all of the holiday plants like Holly and
poinsettias. They are gorgeous. But you know they can potentially be
toxic. Holly Berries and Mistletoe while they are tempting for kids and
pets, keep them totally out of reach because they can be highly toxic. One
of the myths that I want to debunk is that poinsettias are potentially very
toxic. They are not poisonous plants. They can be very irritating to the
stomach if they are consumed in large quantities. Who is going to do that?
You never know. So what I always say is keep all of the holiday plants out
of reach of kids and pets.
And while we are talking about keeping things out of reach, now that I am
here by the cozy fire, I see these beautiful holders for stockings and you
know they can potentially be really hazardous. It is so tempting to come
and pull a stocking down, And these are quite heavy and can cause either a
head injury or in fact could give somebody a cut. So be really careful, how
you secure your stockings? It's some much fun to decorate around the
holidays. Lots of people decorate their whole house both inside and out.
One other tip I like give for folks who are decorating their houses is that if
couldn't plan to do major house lightings why can't your roof or
somewhere in the exterior of your home, be really aware that you might
want to have that done by a professional. Faulty wires or one quick slip
and fall, could result in a holiday disaster. Lit candles and hot wax
dripping say form a manora can really be potentially very dangerous. So
make sure that you keep those away from the wall, out of reach of children
so that nobody or nothing winds up getting burnt. Every year around this
time I see an increase in number of patients who come to the emergency
room with cuts and burns. When you carving a holiday turkey sometimes
you get your fingers too, if you are not exactly paying attention, especially
when there is a huge number of people gathering in a kitchen for holiday
fun. It is easy to burn yourself on the oven or even on a candle. So you
have got to use your common sense and be really careful. Pay attention to
what you are doing and if you add alcohol to the mix, boy you have really
got trouble. So be careful pay attention and don't get hurt.
I don't know about you but I love a holiday buffet. I have little bit of
absolutely everything. There is nothing like a big spread of food to get the
holiday party started. One thing I do need to talk about though is the
importance of keeping your hot food hot and cold foods cold. You want
anything to be left up for too long because you run the risk of getting food
poisoning. If you wind up with food poisoning which is characterized by
nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea, know that there is no
magic medicine to fix it. It just takes time to go away. But what you can
do is make sure that you are hydrating yourself really well. Drink lots of
water or electrolyte replacement fluid and you will feel a lot better.
Speaking of the hydration I think that we need to bring up how to handle
over indulging in alcohol. It is a common thing around the holiday season
and one thing that I would recommend is to try to make sure that you stay
hydrated, constantly throughout a party as well as afterwards. You don't
want to wake up the next morning to be dealing with it. So here is what to
do. For every one drink of alcohol that you have, have a full glass of water
in between, you will feel more full, you will stay hydrated and you will be
less likely to be regretting in the morning. And the final thing drink in
moderation, don't drink too much. You will have much more fun. I hope
that what we have talked about today is going to be helpful for you in
preventing some very common holiday injuries and health hazards. Have a
wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year.
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