January 2014 Health Bulletins

Ask The Doc
Ask The Sexual Health Educator
Ask The Counselor
Ask The Nutritionist
Discover the Power Nap
Health and Wellness Events

	Ask the Doc Dr. Davis Smith is an internist practicing in Connecticut and at Trinity College in Hartford. He specializes in the care of adolescents and GLBTQ patients.

Q: What should I do for oozing scrapes? I’ve been letting them air-dry as much as possible. Should I be doing something else?

-Joyce, University of Alaska

A: Joyce,
Oozing scrapes, aka abrasions, have become more of a concern in the era of widespread, community-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Taking immediate, proper care of an abrasion or other skin injury will diminish the risk of infection, scarring, and other complications, and luckily it’s quite easy.

Small abrasions will do just fine with air-drying, but larger lesions or ones that are slow to heal may do better by staying moist. Here are the basic steps for taking care of abrasions:

Clean the area thoroughly. This usually involves gently rinsing with cool to lukewarm water.
Clean the wound edges using a washcloth and mild soap.
Do not use “antibiotic” agents. Hydrogen peroxide, iodine, or similar things will just traumatize the injured skin further and delay healing.
Remove contaminants. Abrasions usually expose areas that used to be below the protective epithelium, the outer layer of skin. You may need to use a pair of tweezers (cleaned with rubbing alcohol first) to pick out bits of grime.
Once the wound is clean, pat it dry. Use a clean surface such as a soft paper towel.
If the abrasion is bleeding, apply pressure. Hold a soft, clean dressing on the area for 5-10 minutes without checking. Then take a look, and if it’s still oozing, hold pressure for another 15 minutes.

The pressure applied should be firm enough to deform the muscle slightly, but don’t use a death grip! Most day-to-day scrapes and cuts will stop bleeding in a fairly short amount of time. Deeper cuts may require medical attention and stitches, staples, or medical-grade glue.
Protect the area. Especially if the injury was dirty or the wound large, I recommend you apply a thin coating of antibiotic ointment and a bandage.

Wounds usually do better when covered with a bandage or non-adherent gauze, plus tape, especially during the day when they might be in contact with clothes or at risk for getting dirty. Change the dressing at least twice a day, gently washing the area as you do so. Always change the dressing as soon as possible if it becomes wet or soiled.
Keep the area slightly moist, especially when larger areas are affected. This provides the best environment for your white blood cells to fight infection and other healing cells to rebuild your skin.

Don’t make the dressing so tight that too much moisture is trapped. If this is happening, the edges of the scrape will become thickened and white.
Watch the red halo. There is always redness around healing wounds, indicating that extra blood flow is delivering infection-fighting and wound-healing cells. This halo typically extends about half the width of the wound around the actual abrasion.

Certain abrasions can be complicated, like if you’ve had a bicycle accident on a gravelly road surface. The skin can be tugged, and foreign bodies such as stones or dirt can get deposited under the skin. Very messy falls may require formal medical attention so that the wound can be thoroughly cleaned. Some surfaces, such as turf fields, can cause really big abrasions. Medical attention may be needed to help clean and dress these.

A cleaned, dressed wound has a low risk for infection with MRSA or other bacteria. Here are some signs of infection:

Heavy production of pus
Most abrasions ooze clear fluid, sometimes quite prolifically. This can dry to a thick scab, or a white film can develop over the base of the wound. All of these are distinct from pus, which is a creamy white to greenish-yellow liquid composed primarily of white blood cells.
Expanding redness
If the redness around the wound is expanding outward, and especially if there’s streakiness leading centrally from the wound, you may need to get it checked out.
Worsened pain, especially tenderness of the wound
Healing wounds are typically sensitive and later itchy. If the pain has been modest for a few days and then gets much worse without a known trigger, this may be of concern.
Fever or other signs of illness
Fever, nausea, or vague wooziness may be signs of infection, though these signs of more profound infection are rare in healthy young people with ordinary injuries.

More information about first-aid for cuts and scrapes.

	Ask the Sexual Health Educator Joleen M. Nevers, MAEd., CHES, AASECT, is a certified sexuality educator and the health education coordinator at the University of Connecticut.

Q: Can I get an STI/STD by having unprotected sex with someone who doesn’t have one?

-Mary, University of South Florida

A: Mary,
Students, and people in general, are often confused about what causes a person to become infected with a pathogen (a virus, bacteria, fungi, or parasite). This might go back to popular beliefs, such as, “If you go outside with wet hair, you’ll get sick,” or “People get sick because of the change of seasons.”

For most illnesses, including sexually transmitted infections or diseases (STIs/STDs), a person has to be currently infected with a pathogen in order to transmit it to another person. If I don’t have an STI/STD and my sexual partner doesn’t have an STI/STD, we cannot create a pathogen through any sexual act.

What can be difficult to gauge is whether or not a person has an STI/STD. If someone engages in sexual activity-including skin-to-skin genital contact, oral sex, anal sex, or vaginal sex-that person can contract an STI/STD if his or her partner is infected.

Most people who have an STI/STD don’t have physical symptoms; nor can you tell whether they are infected or not just by looking. This is one of the reasons why public health professionals and sexuality educators encourage people to use condoms, dental dams, female condoms, and other safer-sex practices: to decrease the risk of contracting STIs/STDs. The only way for a person to know if he or she is infected with an STI/STD is to get tested.

More information about STI/STD testing.

	Ask the Counselor Peter Welch, M.A., is a wellness educator and counselor at the University of New Hampshire.

Q: How can I stay positive when I’ve had a lot of failures?

-Debra, Bethel University

A: Debra,
Thomas Edison once said with regard to his attempts to build a light bulb, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Each time you try something new in your life, there is the possibility that you may not succeed at it in the ways you’d initially expected. We tend to perceive something as a “failure” when the end result of our actions doesn’t meet the expectations that we (or someone else) had. But even if the outcome isn’t what we may have aimed for, it doesn’t mean the effort was a waste or that we’re failures.

Trying many new endeavors is an important element of life, and doing so takes courage and patience.

It might help you to reconsider how you define success.

One definition I like is, “The ability to embrace failure.” I encourage you to see every aspect of your college experience as an opportunity to learn something new about yourself and the world around you. This means being able and willing to see that having missteps or making mistakes is essential to your growth as a person. A failure is an opportunity-the teacher, if you will-to discover something new and extraordinary about yourself.

Mistakes are also good for helping you learn how to do things differently, as well as what you really enjoy.

Like Edison, here’s another way to think about them: “Negative results are just as valuable as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.”

Here are some ideas to help you keep mistakes in perspective:

Spend time with family and friends who embrace their mistakes.
Stay engaged in projects that you enjoy, even if they’re challenging.
Think about people you admire who’ve come back strong after missteps.
Celebrate your imperfect humanness.
Devote some time to helping someone else.
Think about what you’ve learned as a result of setbacks.
Take a deep breath and begin anew.

You might like to read the following book:
Arnott, A. (2013). Positive Failure. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Cambridge, England.

	Ask the Nutritionist Jenna Volpe, P.D., is a registered dietitian and eating disorders specialist in Massachusetts.

Q: Why is eating one meal a day unhealthy?

-Diego, Binghamton University, The State University of New York

A: Diego,
That’s a great question that I actually hear all the time. The answer is related to survival mechanisms that humans developed thousands of years ago, when food was scarce.

Over time, our bodies have become hardwired to go into “starvation mode” if we go too long without food. When in starvation mode, your metabolism slows down in order to burn as few calories as possible and make its energy reserves last longer.

If you skip a meal, the next time you eat you’re more likely to store calories from that meal as fat tissue in your body. That’s because from your metabolism’s perspective, who knows when you’ll eat again?

Skipping meals can also cause you to feel ravenous, leading to overindulging the next time you eat. You’re more likely to consume more calories than you need in this situation.

There are other health-related benefits of eating regularly throughout the day. A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that consuming a controlled amount of calories divided into three meals per day, versus banking all calories into one meal per day, was associated with lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and an increased sense of fullness and satisfaction after a meal.

My general recommendation is to eat every two to four hours when awake. Eating three balanced meals and one to three snacks-each made up of whole grains, lean proteins, and plenty of fruits and vegetables-will keep your body and mind energized.

More about skipping meals.

Discover the Power Nap

By Janine Mascari

The Benefits
Insufficient sleep can affect your academics and health, including your decision-making, memory, and immune function. Although a nap can’t replace a good night’s sleep, one that’s well-timed can improve your mood and performance. Studies have shown an increase in alertness directly following a nap, which may last the day.

The Downsides
If you nap for longer than 20-30 minutes you can enter the REM (rapid eye movement) phase of sleep, and disrupting a REM cycle can lead to a more tired, zombie-like feeling.

Also, if you already have sleep problems, like difficulty staying asleep due to stress or a diagnosed sleep disorder, naps can contribute to inconsistent sleep habits.

Napping Tips

Nap between 1:00-4:00 p.m. to avoid interfering with nighttime sleep.
Keep your nap to 20-30 minutes.
Limit disruptions from external stimuli by using earplugs or an eye mask.
Assess your sleep habits to decrease the need for a routine nap.

Did You Know?
The National Sleep Foundation has identified three different categories of naps:

Planned napping (also known as preparatory napping): Taking a nap preemptively, prior to feeling sleepy. This technique is best if you know you’ll be up late.

Emergency napping: When extreme tiredness sneaks up, this type of nap can be used to prevent risks, such as driving while drowsy.

Habitual napping: Taking a nap at the same time each day, such as for young children or the siesta in some cultures.

More about napping.