Suing Mom

The television commercial will start off with a black screen and silence.  That alone will draw people to look up from their phones to see what happened to the mindless stream of noise that was previously coming from the digital sewer, sorry, television.  

“Has your immune system caused you unnecessary illnesses?” the deep voice similar to James Earl Jones will say as the string music in a minor key begins to waft in.  

“Well, maybe,” the viewer will say silently.    

Deep Voice:  “Have you noticed you seem to be more sensitive to things in your environment?”

“Well, now that I think about it.”

Deep Voice:  “Did you have to see a doctor, allergist, or be taken to the hospital for a reaction to something common around you?” the ad will continue.

“Hummmm, well, I do recall……”

Deep Voice:  “Did your MOTHER ever tell you to stop sucking your thumb or biting your nails?  Did she forcibly remove your thumb or other fingers from your mouth?  Did she embarrass you publicly in front of friends and family because of thumb sucking or nail biting?”

The phone has now been put down.  The viewer is all in.  

“Yeah! Yes, she did.  I still remember it in the middle of Big K in 1973.  Right in front of the other mothers she was talking to and my friends.  I was so embarrassed.  You know, she even put Bengay and tabasco sauce on my fingers to make me stop it!”

Deep Voice:  “You may be due compensation for your pain, suffering, public humiliation and emotional scarring from the actions of your mother.  Recent medical studies suggest that thumb sucking and nail biting may be potentially beneficial to your immune system. Yes, suing your mother may appear to be personal and harsh, but she can sue the pediatric societies for bad advice.  Tell her it’s nothing personal.  Call the law offices of Knott, Rich, Enuff and Associates at 1 (800) BAD-MOMS and speak to one of our client representatives to see if you qualify.  We make suing mom - easy.”

Is it really a stretch to think some law office will help people sue their mothers over child rearing?  Hardly, but neither is the thought that sucking the thumb and biting nails may actually be of benefit to the immune system.  

A study of over 1,000 children from New Zealand (Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study) now in its fifth decade recently released information suggesting that sucking the thumb and biting the nails as a child may actually help by teaching the immune system to not be as sensitive to naturally occurring things in their environment.

Detailed questions about the participants were asked throughout the years and specifically included thumb sucking and nail biting questions at ages 5, 7, 9, and 11.  Skin testing for allergic responses was performed at ages 13 and 32.  The skin test looked for reactions to 40 substances.  

The results showed that children who either were thumb suckers or nail biters had 38 percent rate of reaction versus 49 percent for children without the habits.  

Furthermore, if the child was a thumb sucker and nail biter, the rate of reaction was even lower at 31 percent.  

So, should mothers now add another reason for feeling guilty about the failures of their life as a mother?  Mothers always worry about whether they raised their children well.  Telling them thumb sucking actually is good and battling with the child to stop it is bad - well, that might just cause some motherly consternation.  

Not quite.  A good rule of thumb (no pun intended) is to never jump all in for any new study.  If something is true, it will be so again and again.  That’s what truth does.  

Furthermore, positive allergy skin testing for these participants did not translate to definite hay fever, asthma or eczema which are commonly associated with allergies. In other words, just because the skin test was positive, did not mean their lives were impacted negatively as they matured. It was simply an observation of a test result.

It is another lovely example of everything measured isn’t everything real.  

Is it interesting?  Very much so.  We have begun seeing vast studies and research concerning the role of bacteria in our digestive system.  Everything from the risk of heart disease, depression, fatigue, muscle pain, and dementia are becoming a focus of study on the role of bacteria in our guts and how our diets, exposure, habits and antibiotic usage impacts it.  

So the bacteria under the nails and on the fingers isn’t bad?  Who knows?  There is a clear difference in the data, but what about the environment the child, and eventually adult, lives in?  What about choices of food?  Stress?  Antibiotic usage?  Probiotic (yogurt included) usage? Sports?  Pets and Animals?

The lawyers, of course, would love to make a case on this, as they frequently do with early suggestive data.  But suing mom?  Good luck with that.  

It’ll be a nail-biter of a case.  

Eric J. Littleton, M.D. (@DrEricLittleton) is a musician and Family Physician in Sevierville, TN.  Topics covered are general in nature and should not be used to change medical treatments and/or plans without first discussing with your physician. Send questions to askdrlittleton@gmail.com

Acupuncture and Other Things That Get Under the Skin

“I just don’t want to go to church anymore.”

That was the comment a young professional married woman said to me as she was discussing the details of her life during an office visit.  It surprised me as I knew she was active in her church.  

“It hurts so much.  They don’t mean to hurt, but they do.  They are just trying to make conversation.”

She went on to elaborate how others who know her, but aren’t her friends, ask on Sundays when “she is going to start having a family.”  

“They have no idea the roller coaster of emotions we have been through with fertility treatments, hopeful moments followed by anguishing tears of disappointment, and how all that can flood back when someone asks about it.  It just hurts too much and I don’t want to face it on Sundays.”

Her comments are very similar to other’s words and quiet battles of emotions, hormones, time tracking and near paranoia of anything that might impact the chance of conceiving.  It is a very stressful time for any couple and an innocent inquiry in a public place can nearly be unbearable.  

A study posted on ClinicalTrials.gov (a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health) on June 30, 2016 reminded me of this conversation. Scientists and Physicians at Homerton University Hospital in the United Kingdom studied 127 women ages 23 to 43 on their initial or second round of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.

IVF typically is the hormonal stimulation of eggs on the ovaries, the removal of the eggs, fertilization and then implantation back into the mother. The hormonal variations of the process are challenging enough even without the emotional overtones of the anticipation and apprehension.

The British study, however, added an interesting intervention into the process - acupuncture. Acupuncture is the insertion of small needles into the skin in very specific sites determined by centuries of Chinese (Eastern) practitioners.  It is commonly used to relieve pain and a variety of other ailments.  

Western medicine has warmed to the practice of acupuncture, but still doesn’t understand how it works.  How do you argue with someone who says their pain is better?

The women were divided into two groups, one group receiving four sessions of acupuncture during the IVF procedures and the other group receiving none.  

Keep in mind that these are British researchers and not some Acupuncture-R’-Us University in some lesser known Chinese city where acupuncture needles are made. The British don’t believe onions can make one cry until they have studied it.  They were, after all, the ones who decided to find out if salt was really as bad as we have believed for many years.  

The results were clearly interesting.  Of  the group treated with acupuncture there was a 46.2 percent success versus 21.7 percent for the untreated group.  Nevertheless, this must be viewed in its context.  

The researchers in critiquing their own work noted the study size is small and limited by the fact there is no placebo portion of the study.  How exactly to give a placebo acupuncture treatment isn’t clear.  

They also stated that “the additional attention paid to the acupuncture group as opposed to controls may have had a positive psychological influence.”  Translation - being able to spend time with the patient and show empathy and concern may have been the reason this group did better.  

Fascinating, isn’t it?  Two groups of women who desire to become pregnant undergo the same IVF treatments, but the group that is given more time and treatment with acupuncture has twice the success rate.  

Is this now a recommendation?  No, far from it.  The researchers suggested that acupuncture could be considered by treating physicians during IVF but that precautions of infection and bruising should be noted. “More studies are needed.”  Uh-huh.  Standard research closing line.  

Is it possible that the time spent listening to the hopeful mother enabled her to express things to a medical professional in a safe environment and not be worried about who would find out all her fears and worries?  Does our network of social media which wraps around us like a spider web in the yard cause some people going through deeply personal trials to feel even more lonely?  

Has the tap of simple "friending" reduced the sincere touch of friendship?  Do we have the ability to express our anxieties to each other without worrying if it will be digitally deployed an hour later?

Having a baby is terrifying enough.  I remember knowing a lot about pediatrics but had no clue about kids when my son was born (How do you wash this kid?).  Having anxiety about whether or not you can have a child, then the terror of how to feed, clothe, educate and discipline that child, is a great strain.  (That goes down significantly after the third child from what I have observed - “Where is that kid?”)

Maybe the acupuncture physically did something that is very challenging to measure by Western medicine machinery.  Fine - can’t argue with success.  But maybe it also hints at something deeper.  

Emotions.  Fears.  Thoughts.  Words.  Words we say to ourselves and words said to us.  They are powerful, powerful things and, yes, they impact us in ways we cannot measure on reported labs, but know in the real life.

We all fail at some point in this, but we all can try to remember to be kind tomorrow.  Every word kinder.  Everyday new.  

Eric J. Littleton, M.D. (@DrEricLittleton) is a musician and Family Physician in Sevierville, TN.  Topics covered are general in nature and should not be used to change medical treatments and/or plans without first discussing with your physician. Send questions to askdrlittleton@gmail.com