Another reason I mistrust the medical profession:*

[capri0mni]

*Usual disclaimer: individual professionals may be pure of heart, and noble of intention, but the system in which they've learned their craft and practice their art, pits them against ... Well, everything that is not the system.

Yesterday, in a radio segment on summer health, I heard the dermatologist who was being interviewed on the dangers of skin cancer and avoiding skin burn say that the best and healthiest clothing you should wear, when you go out into the sun is:

** ** **Drum Roll** ** **

Heavy, dense fabric of a dark color -- such as a nice, heavy weight denim, that lets no light leak through the weave.

ahem.

I joke you not.

She never even gave the hint of awareness that this runs absolutely counter to every other piece of medical advice we're given for surviving in the hot weather.

(though she did kind of admit that not everyone would want to do that... you know, be comfortable with that choice).

Save yourself from skin cancer! Kill yourself with heat stroke!

No wonder our health "care" "system" is such a mess.

Comments

[pebblerocker]

When I hear advice like that, I interpret it as: Wearing heavy clothes over your whole body is a perfectly OK way to dress in really hot weather because when you're dying, what's a little discomfort one way or another?

It was frosty at my place this morning, really icy. A beautiful sunny day once the fog lifted, but not warm... and this evening, once the sun was just about to set and the cold was descending again, a child rode past my house wearing a T-shirt and very short shorts. I don't think other people experience temperature the same way I do -- or at all.

[capri0mni]

I have only the vaguest memories of being a child, except that a) I could fall asleep anywhere, or any time -- even in a strange bed, or on the floor in a room crowded with loud-talking adults -- and that I was far more comfortable in a wide range of temperatures than I am now.

I think it's because our metabolism shifts as we get older, or something.