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First, don't get me wrong.  Food does affect behavior (e.g. "post-lunch coma"). Sugar will rot your kids teeth.  But I don't think that's what's causing them to bounce off the walls.

The following is a quote from a review article for WebMD written by Michael Regalado, M.D.

In the past 10 years, several studies have examined the effects of sugar on children's behavior. Here are the aspects of the studies that make them credible:

Known quantities of sugar in the diets were studied.

The studies compared the effects of sugar with those of a placebo (a substance without any active ingredients).

The children, parents and researchers involved in the studies never knew which children were given which diets (this is known as a "double-blind" study and helps to prevent unconscious biases from affecting the results).

An analysis of the results of all these studies was published in the November 22, 1995, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers' conclusions? Sugar in the diet did not affect the children's behavior. The authors did point out, though, that the studies didn't rule out completely that sugar might be having a slight effect on a small number of children.

For those interested-- a little bit about why we cling to medical mythology.  The link below also has a book recommendation as well, though it seems to address more common medical myths outside of the medical profession: e.g. the proported autism/vaccination link.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/199679

Headache is a common complication following lumbar puncture.  The headaches are described as being worse when the patient is upright and better when laying flat.  We're not quite sure why it happens-- maybe small CSF leak wtih decrease in CSF pressure, or cerebral vasodilatation.  Recommended treatments and preventative strategies exist for LP headache-- however there is no evidence supporting use of increased fluids for prevention.  Similarly, there is no evidence that being supine is particularly helpful in headache prevention either.  Caffeine after the fact hasn't shown to be particularly effective either.

Things that HAVE been shown to help post-LP headache include needle size, bevel orientation, and replacement of the stylet before withdrawing the needle. Epidural blood patching, through which 10 to 20 mL of the patient's blood is slowly injected into the epidural space at the same interspace as the previous LP, has been shown to help when a post-LP headache occurs.

Carbaat PA, van Crevel H. Lumbar puncture headache: controlled study onthe preventitive effect of 24 hours bed rest.  Lancet 1981; 2: 1133-1135

Holy cow, it's been a long time since I typed on this board.  Good point on this, though-- obviously need to read things a little closer. 

This doesn't really fall under the category of "medical dogma," so it doesn't entirely belong on this board, but it certainly falls under the category of "popular media dogma and medical risk," so I'm posting it here for your perusal.  This is a nice review article of the evidence for increased risk of cancer based on cell phone use, proximity to cell phone base towers and proximity to electrical power lines/transmission stations.

How dangerous are mobile phones, transmission masts, and electricity pylons?
Arch. Dis. Child. 2006;91;361-366
Wood AW

Bottom line: Risks are probably pretty minimal, but studies are conflicting.

Addendum: This article takes a little more critical view of powerlines and cell phones (some of the positive studies linking exposure to cancers were from these authors), and actually outlines a whole slew of other environmental exposures linked to carcinogenesis:

The multitude and diversity of environmental carcinogens.
2007 Nov;105(3):414-29. Epub 2007 Aug 9
Belpomme D, Irigaray P, Hardell L, Clapp R, Montagnier L, Epstein S, Sasco AJ

Bottom line: friggin' EVERYTHING causes cancer.

-- David

Transmission of lung sounds through light clothing.
Respiration. 2008;75(1):85-8. Epub 2007 Jan 5
Kraman SS.

Conclusion: Yes, clothing muffles the sound.  Press harder.  :-)

-- David

This study specifically excluded people with pre-existing diverticular disease (if known).  Nobody has been recommending exclusion of such foods from all diets.  The authors of this study have attempted to say that since eating these things didn't cause diverticular disease, that it's okay with people with diverticular disease to eat these foods.  They have drawn conclusions which their study was not designed to evaluate.

It is entirely possible, for example, that the reason that they saw an inverse relationship was that those foods might reflect a healthy, fiber-rich diet and hence might contribute to healthy colonic motility, thus preventing the development of diverticula in the first place.  Those who developed diverticulOSIS for some other reason might have developed diverticulITIS by getting a nut, seed or bit of corn lodged in a diverticulum.  They did not comment on the contents of the diverticula that got inflamed.

A much more appropriate study, in my mind, would be the same evaluation on a series of patients who DO have a history of diverticulosis, because the question is not whether or not such foods cause diverticula, it's whether or not they irritate/erode/perforate diverticula when they get stuck.

Just my $0.02, of course.

-- David

A common medical myth, propagated not verbally but more by implication, is that those little alcohol toilettes found all over the hospital do a good job at helping  prevent infection-- this may be so, but not so much on your hands.  According to the following, the amount of alcohol in those little swabs is no more effective than soap and water in removing skin microbes.  Which doesn't initially sound so bad... scrubbing with soap and water does remove unattached organisms.  However, resident microorganisms remain, e.g. staph epidermidis.  In other words, if you want to decontaminate the skin, an antimicrobial agent such as alcohols, iodophors, or chlorhexidine is better.  Or gloves.  Or my personal favorite, those handy little quick drying hand gels now found at the door of every patient room.  That said, the little towels may still be handy in cleaning things like a stethoscope. 

I guess it's also possible that the towels have improved since 2002-- I've just not heard anything along those lines.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Guidelines for hand hygiene in health-care settings: recommendations of the Healthcare INfection Control Practices Advisory committee and the HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA Hand Hygiene Task Force.  MMWR 2002;51 (No. RR-16): 1-45.

PDF at www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/RR/RR5116.pdf

Knittle MA, Eitzman DV, Baer H. Role of hand contamination of
personnel in the epidemiology of gram-negative nosocomial infections.
J Pediatr 1975;86:433–7.

Jones MV, Rowe GB, Jackson B, Pritchard NJ. The use of alcoholic
paper wipes for routine hand cleasing: results of trials in two hospitals.
J Hosp Infect 1986;8:268–74.

Butz AM, Laughon BE, Gullette DL, Larson EL. Alcohol-impregnated
wipes as an alternative in hand hygiene. Am J Infect Control
1990;18:70–6.

'Tis the season for candied nuts, which I enjoyed last night without fear of diverticulitis thanks to an August JournalWatch article. Apparently, there's no good science behind the instructions commonly given to patients with diverticulosis to reduce the amount of nuts, popcorn, and seeds they eat in order to prevent colonic trauma or blockages of diverticular outpouchings.  A prospective cohort study of thousands of patients without diverticular disease showed no correlation between nut eating and diverticular disease.  If anything, there was a slight negative correlation.

Lisa L. Strate, MD, MPH; Yan L. Liu, MS; Sapna Syngal, MD, MPH; Walid H. Aldoori, MD, MPA, ScD; Edward L. Giovannucci, MD, ScD. Nut, Corn, and Popcorn Consumption and the Incidence of Diverticular Disease JAMA. 2008;300(:907-914.

I just did a quick accessmedicine search to see what the textbooks said.
Tintinalli's Emergency medicine states that traditionally Epi is left out although there is no research that supports this stance.

Robert Baran Derm text isn't as specific and basically states the benifits of epi are debate and recommends leaving it out. It does this in a the local anesthetic section, even about digital block subtitle so I feel they maybe a little off.

I'm pretty impressed Tintinalli's was with you on this considering texts are slow to change