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Dr. Jones: Both sexting and Internet safety are increasing concerns for parents of adolescents. I'm Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones, a Family Physician at the University of Utah. We'll find out why, coming up next on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical News and Research, from the University Utah Physicians and Specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Dr. Jones: Every year, the CS Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor performs a poll of adults on the biggest concerns they have for children in the United States. The results of the survey this year showed that there are two topics that increased in rankings much more than any other: sexting and Internet safety. So what is sexting? This is basically sending any sexually explicit messages, which may or may not include sexually related photos, over text or over the Internet. So you can see how this adds a new element to the sexual experience for adolescents.

Now, there have been multiple studies that have looked at this. From a public health perspective, it's estimated from 7-31% of adolescents engage in sexting. But many of the studies have found multiple negatives from this. First of all, adolescents are more likely to engage in riskier sexual behaviors if they participate in sexting. This means more partners, more unprotected sex, which leads to more sexually transmitted infections and unwanted teen pregnancies. It also decreases the age at which they become sexually active, which can then worsen the other risky behaviors that we just mentioned.

Another negative about sexting is that it increases the likelihood of an adolescent using both legal and illegal substances, such as alcohol, drugs, etc. There is also the increased likelihood that adolescents will have low self-esteem and this contributes to emotional confusion in relationships, not only in the short term but can set them up for that for the rest of their lives. There's also the risk that any explicit pictures or messages can make it online in a public forum if a relationship goes poorly.

Now, sexting goes right along with Internet safety, which has many of the same concerns. So a lot of this concern over Internet safety has to do with inappropriate relationships, whether sexual or otherwise. Adolescents then spend too much time on other things on the computer, which can lead to poor socialization and even an increase in obesity.

A few things to watch for in your adolescent. Maybe lots of computer use in a private place, such as their bedroom and when you go to talk to them or check in on them, they might be trying to hide something. Another thing is poor social relationships with friends. So that they mainly have connections with Internet acquaintances they may be more willing to share personal info with. Another thing is obsessions with certain celebrities that may provide a poor example of sexuality and what is considered normal and so that is one thing to keep an eye on, on whom their role models are.

So in summary, sexting and Internet safety are increasing worries for parents and have many public health consequences. The best ways to get help and to get around this are to talk with your children about this so they understand your concerns and know that they can come to you when needed.

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Dr. Jones: The United States has an increasing rate of childhood obesity, so why can't we seem to improve on this problem? I'm Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones, family physician at the University of Utah. We'll talk about this next, coming up on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Dr. Jones: Childhood obesity has long been a significant concern in the United States. The rate of childhood obesity has increased three to four times in the last 30 years. Approximately one-third of kids are either overweight or obese.

So this impacts multiple areas of health, both short-term and long-term, for these children such as impacting their heart, their lungs, their joints, and the possibility of developing diseases such as diabetes. It impacts their mental health as well as many other things.

Now, over the last few years there has been shown to be some mild improvement in the rate of obesity among young children age two to five years, so there is some bright side coming with hope on the horizon. However, a recent evaluation shows that the United States has the fifth highest rate of childhood obesity in the world. Now, in markers like this we tend to be number one in the world. However, I think this really underscores the problem. If we are number five that means this is a really big issue across the world and it's not just us.

So why is our rate so high? There are multiple factors. We're going to touch just on three.

Number one, our culture. It's changed a lot in the last 30 years. Our kids and adolescents and us as adults participate in a lot of screen time; so television, computers, video games, phones. Many households have more screens than people. So spending so much time in front of a screen leads us to be more sedentary and leads our kids to be more sedentary and not getting the activity they need.

When you combine this with concerns about safety outdoors, as well as the availability and cost of healthy fresh food, this can be a very important thing that leads to obesity. Soda and junk food tend to be ubiquitous and extremely damaging to our health. They are all over.

Number two, and this can be a little more controversial, but advertising to children for junk food. Young children cannot tell the difference between an advertisement and a show, and small children are often unable to understand good food choices. Now, advertisers have been shown to very carefully study what are the most effective ways to target children to get them to take these products and that seems to be having a big impact on childhood obesity.

Number three, school lunches. This is something that we're getting improvements very slowly but are getting some improvements, big efforts by people such as Michelle Obama to continually improve the health of school lunches. Now, this can include many different forms such as eliminating vending machines, decreasing the amount of fatty food, increasing options that are healthy. But this is a big contributor to the problem of childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity continues to rise in the United States, making us one of the worst in the world in this marker. Our culture, certain advertising methods, and food exposures at school among many other factors all contribute to the problem. So let's hope we can make some changes as a society to improve the health of our children.

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Dr. Jones: About 10% of US adults experience mental illness such as depression or anxiety every year. How to overcome that stigma? This is Kyle Bradford Jones, family physician at University of Utah, coming up next on The Scope.

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Dr. Jones: So lots of people, particularly adults in the US, suffer from depression or anxiety but have difficulty overcoming the stigma of having that. A lot of people think, "Hey, am I crazy if I'm depressed? I can buck up. I can do this on my own." The culture in the United States tends to revolve around being the cowboy, "I am independent. I can do this on my own. I do not need your help," but depression and anxiety is more than that. This is something that is a real illness that you cannot simply overcome on your own.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind. This is more than just being sad. That's kind of the first thought that most people have. Depression can be an emotion, it can be a symptom of something else, or it can be a diagnosis. The emotion is feeling sad. It is having a bad hair day. It's going through something tough. That's completely normal. It can also be a symptom of something else, such as thyroid disease or something like that.

But the diagnosis of depression, you feel a little bit more sad, you feel guilt, you have trouble concentrating, you have less energy. You no longer take pleasure in things that are normally fun and entertaining for you, and it leads to decreased function. And so having that thought of, "Hey, I can overcome this on my own," is actually going to be detrimental if you have the diagnosis of clinical depression.

So what things can you do? First of all, go see your physician. This is something I can start with your primary care physician. Talk to them about what you are experiencing. They can give you some guidance on how severe it is, if it is the diagnosis versus if it's an emotion, a symptom, they can offer some different things for you.

A lot of people think that therapy is just talking to someone and that's it. But that's not the purpose of it. So certainly that helps a little bit, but there are therapeutic methods that have been proven to give you better coping skills, to help you better deal with the things that you're experiencing.

Now, the best way to deal with depression is a combination of therapy and medication. A lot of people are worried, "Hey, if I go on medication, I'm going to be on this for the rest of my life. It shows that I am crazy and I'm going to feel like a zombie. It's going to completely take away my ability to feel." It's actually the opposite on all those accounts.

The vast majority of people who are on medication for depression or anxiety take it for about 6 to 12 months, and then they're okay without it after that. It's actually not something that's going to make you feel like a zombie and keep you from feeling. It actually quiets the depression and anxiety so that you can get back to your normal self, to your normal feelings, your normal activities. Less than 50% of adult men get treatment for their depression or anxiety. Obviously, that's a big deal.

Now, how do we get rid of this stigma? The first step is understanding it, understanding that this is a medical condition. It's caused by a decrease of chemicals in your brain. This is not a moral weakness. Oftentimes this can be brought on by a stressful life event and it can just be a short-term thing. Like we said, you don't need to have treatment long-term for most people. Also, understanding that as a society we just need to talk about it more. It's okay.

There are actually a significant amount of people that struggle with this from time to time and that's okay. Treatment helps because if you don't get it treated, it actually worsens your relationships, it worsens other health problems that you have and overall can simply make things worse. So seeking treatment and seeking the appropriate diagnosis can really make a big difference.

In summary, if you feel like you may be suffering from depression or anxiety, you are not crazy. Seek therapy. Go see your physician. Don't be afraid of it, because denying it only further ruins everything else going on in your life.

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Announcer: Five things for better sleep that you're probably not doing. That's coming up next on The Scope. Medical news and research from University Utah specialists and physicians you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: We're in the studio today with Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones, family physician at the University of Utah. First of all, let's explain to the audience how important sleep is. We know that sleep is important because we all need it, but exactly how important is the amount of sleep that we get?

Dr. Jones: It's huge both from an issue of quantity as well as quality. Making sure that you're sleeping long enough but also making sure that you're doing the things that you get good quality sleep. So getting adequate sleep improves your thinking, it allows us to better handle stress. Getting too little or too much actually can cause us to die prematurely. It can cause heart disease, it can cause obesity, and if we're trying to lose weight, it keeps us from losing weight. It just kind of affects everything and when you think about little kids in school, if they get adequate sleep they're going to do much better. They're going to do better in school, they're going to be better behaved and they're going to be smarter overall.

Interviewer: So in a nutshell it's pretty important.

Dr. Jones: Exactly. And especially as a nation, we're basically all sleep deprived and so this becomes a huge issue to make sure we're doing the best we can to kind of optimize our body.

Interviewer: So five things to better sleep then, to increase that amount of people getting the right amount of sleep and the quality of it as well. So number one?

Dr. Jones: Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol four to six hours before sleep. So some people think that some of these things kind of calm them down and help them get to sleep, but it actually decreases the quality of your sleep. And so you're not getting as much rest and it actually can be detrimental for you.

Interviewer: So no coffee before bed?

Dr. Jones: Exactly.

Interviewer: All right. Number two?

Dr. Jones: Next one, set a comfortable environment. You want it to be dark; you want it to have a comfortable temperature and things like turning off the TV, turning off the radio. Those types of things can actually keep your mind working a little bit more then actually decreases the quality of your sleep.

Interviewer: But turn off the radio is a little bit surprising to me personally because I always sleep with my iPod on with music kind of low. Is that not good then?

Dr. Jones: Some people do better with a small amount of noise, whether it's typically . . . white noise can actually help a lot of people. Having the music or something that's constantly changing, your mind wants to focus on that and so it can actually kind of detract your mind from getting the quality of sleep you need.

Interviewer: That's probably why I'm not falling asleep as fast as I could be. All right. It makes sense.

Dr. Jones: Maybe.

Interviewer: Number three?

Dr. Jones: Turn off your screens. So cell phone, TV, computers, try to avoid using them for an hour before you go to bed. Now, I realize that's very difficult and this may be the most difficult thing for all of us.

Interviewer: I'm thinking in my head too. I'm failing at all of these but especially this one.

Dr. Jones: Exactly, most of us do. But again, it disrupts sleep quality. It makes it harder to fall asleep. It actually increases depression, decreases your attention span, lots of things that are attached with using these too much, especially right before bedtime.

Interviewer: Okay. Well, number four?

Dr. Jones: Number four is getting exercise during the day. So especially cardiovascular exercise.

Interviewer: Like walking and jogging?

Dr. Jones: Exactly.

Interviewer: Okay.

Dr. Jones: Making sure your body is moving, making sure you're increasing the blood flow, especially to your brain. That then helps your body to be able to get a better rest and fall asleep quicker, but also try to avoid exercise a couple of hours before bedtime because that can actually ramp up your body and make your sleep a little worse.

Interviewer: All right. Five things for better sleep. The last one, number five?

Dr. Jones: The last one is consistency. So making sure you're going to bed the same time each night, making sure you're waking up the same time each morning, and making sure you're having the same rituals before you go to bed, kind of doing things in the same order because that helps structure your mind and your body and prepare you to go to sleep.

Interviewer: Seems like I'm just failing at all five of these and they're so simple. I feel like a lot of Americans or people in the world in general, I want to say, don't really do these. And they're so simple and they're so easy and they lead to better health, but we're not doing them.

Dr. Jones: And that seems to be a lot of things that optimize our health. But you're right, we're all sleep deprived and doing some of these things with them being fairly simple can really improve our sleep. So again, focusing on these things even though they seem very simple, they're kind of hard for a lot of us to do. So make sure we're doing those to improve our sleep, which actually makes us happier as well as can make us more productive and improve our wellbeing.

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Interviewer: We all know STDs are extremely dangerous but, if you're under 25 years of age, you might be at higher risk for Chlamydia. That's coming up next on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical news and research from University Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: We're talking today with Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones, family physician at the University of Utah. Chlamydia, Dr. Jones, we all know it is extremely dangerous and from what I've learned on the internet from my few minutes of research, it is a bacterial disease that is transferred through sexual interactions.

Dr. Jones: Right.

Interviewer: Are there any symptoms that people might find in case they are at risk for it.

Dr. Jones: Unfortunately no, that's kind of the one of the big problems with it. Eight-five percent of people who have it don't have any symptoms. So that means no discharge, no pain, no fevers, no rashes, nothing. And so that is one of the reasons why it is so dangerous. We just don't know that we have it.

Interviewer: So if you don't know that you have it, does it affect you health wise?

Dr. Jones: Absolutely, so there's both short term and long term consequences from this. So sometimes short term, you can develop urine infections and things like that. But, the long term, the really scary stuff is what is called pelvic inflammatory disease, which is a severe infection in your pelvis. So it causes lots of pain, fevers, chills. And the reason that is such a big deal is, that can keep you from getting pregnant for the rest of your life and you can end up with chronic pain.

You can often times end up with what's called an ectopic pregnancy where you get pregnant but the egg doesn't move, can't get to the right spot because all the tubes are scarred down. So it starts to grow where it shouldn't, and if it's not caught early that's something that can lead to death.

Interviewer: How early is early?

Dr. Jones: It kind of depends but, once you start, once you have an ectopic pregnancy you start to have pain. You can have lots of different localized symptoms like that. So if it's not acted on immediately, like I said you can have bad consequences.

Interviewer: Is it a dead end at that point, or is there anything you can do?

Dr. Jones: I mean you can definitely offer treatment and oftentimes you can prevent some of these really bad outcomes, especially if you treat shortly after you been infected. Considering that both men and women have it. Men have fewer long term consequences unfortunately in terms of women getting the brunt of it, but they can pass it along very easily. So if you're under 25, if you have multiple partners, you're at much higher risk of getting Chlamydia.

Interviewer: So with the symptoms of Chlamydia being almost impossible to find out and discovered, how do we prevent it from happening in the first place?

Dr. Jones: Absolutely with safe sex practices, so using condoms, all the things that we've been taught.

Interviewer: So I'm assuming Chlamydia is a disease that you can get screened for.

Dr. Jones: Absolutely, it's very important to get screened for this. You can do that at your primary care physician's office, you can do it at the local health department. It's recommended by the National Center for Disease Control that you get screened once a year. But it's very important to keep on top of that.

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Interviewer: Healthiest nation by 2030. That's coming up next, on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical News and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: The American Public Health Association has announced for this year's National Public Health week, the emphasis is healthiest nation by 2030. We're talking to Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones, family physician at the University of Utah. So Dr. Jones, is that even a realistic goal?

Dr. Jones: You know, it's definitely an ambitious goal and it's the type of thing we should be shooting for. But we do face an uphill battle, it's going to take a lot of work. A number of studies have shown that when you look at developed countries, we're the lowest in infant mortality, obesity, heart disease, and what's called Healthy Life Expectancy at age 60, so the number of healthy years you can expect once you're age 60.

When the Commonwealth Fund did a study of 11 developed nations, we came in 11th. When the World Health Organization did a study, which has become quite famous, a number of years ago, we ranked 37th in the world in terms of our health. So we've got a long ways to go.

Interviewer: Even though, I feel like in the minds of most people, that the U.S. is just so high in ranking according to some of our health stats, I mean people come to the United States for health treatments, but that might not actually be the best idea, from the stats you're telling us. We're not doing a very good job.

Dr. Jones: Well we certainly have the best physicians in the world, and a lot of the best hospitals, and the best innovations. The problem is, that doesn't make it to all of our citizens. And part of the reason we're in this position, is because we're not focusing on the right things. So as a family physician, I can only do so much. So we've found that when you look at an individual's entire health, only about 10% of it is impacted by their health care.

Now obviously that's an important 10%, so over about 50% of what goes in towards a person's health has to do with their environment, and that's kind of the element of public health. Of focusing on those things that go around us both culturally as well as things like pollution, that really are the biggest impactors of our health.

Interviewer: So what are some of the methods and ways that we can actually improve our public health care system to reach that healthiest nation goal by 2030?

Dr. Jones: So there are a number of different avenues to do this. Basically it's going to take participation from everyone. If you look at it from the perspective of the health care system, there has been a lot of talk in the last few years about how do you properly bring together primary care and public health because obviously we have very complementary goals. But we each have different ways of going about those goals. So better working together can make a much bigger impact.

If you look at it from the perspective of as our society, we need some policies that focus a little more on health. So, for example, tackling pollution, tackling some of those things that greater impact us. Encouraging, on a local level, exercise and healthy food. So things like putting in bike lanes on local streets that encourage more exercise by citizens.

When you look at it from a business standpoint, a lot of employers are offering wellness plans which encourages better eating, better exercise, encourages people to take better care of themselves. Which leads us to individuals.

What can we do personally, and basically it's all the things that our mothers taught us. Eat your vegetables, have a healthy diet, get your exercise, get as much activity as you can, drink lots of water, avoid junk food. And even things like avoiding distracted driving. So don't text while driving, don't use your phone at all while driving; don't eat. All those things will take us away from that.

So if we're following some of these goals, if we're working towards becoming the healthiest nation by 2030, we're going to have to go about it by many different avenues.

Interviewer: This sounds like a lot of work, but if it's a lot of individual work coming together, like a team.

Dr. Jones: Exactly.

Interviewer: From what you've described so far about the methods and the goals to get there, it seems pretty simple. It seems like we're actually, supposedly, in that state right now but we've been kind of stuck. Why do you think that is?

Dr. Jones: That's true. The answers seem relatively simple, but there's so many cultural changes that we are kind of behind on in addressing some of these health issues. You know, as we know, politically it's hard to get anything done, whether it's logical or not. Individually it's hard to change our behaviors. So it's important for us to try to and work towards that but it's not an easy thing.

Interviewer: So what are some of the things then that we can take away, or we can learn from some of the other developed countries that are actually in higher ranking than we are in relations to public health.

Dr. Jones: It's a great question and something we should be focusing more on. A lot of it has to do with more emphasis by the society and culture on public health, and like we mentioned, more than half of our health has to do with our environment.

A lot of this is cultural. With cultural things in America, we follow a lot of fast food, we do things like that. Whereas in many other countries, they focus a little bit more on eating at home, cooking their food which is obviously a lot healthier. So those are different things we can move towards, here, to help us be healthier.

Interviewer: So do you think this is realistic? Realistically talking, by 2030?

Dr. Jones: Maybe. Like I said, it's going to take a lot of work, but it's an appropriate goal. It's what we should be shooting for.

Announcer: We're your daily dose of science, conversation, medicine. This is The Scope, University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.

Interviewer: The general perception is that we all need eight hours of sleep. True or false? That's coming up next on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialist you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: We're talking today with Kyle Bradford Jones family physician at the University Utah. How important exactly is sleep?

Dr. Jones: Boy, sleep is huge. You know, if you get too much, too little, it severely impacts your health for the negative. It's been a big debate for years. How much sleep do we need? Currently the average American gets a little bit less than 7 hours. And so the question is, is that enough? Is that too much? Is that too little? So the National Sleep Foundation got together a bunch of sleep experts. They reviewed all of the scientific literature on sleep and came up with some recommendations for certain age groups.

Interviewer: And what are those guidelines?

Dr. Jones: So first of all for adults 18 and over. They give the range of seven to nine hours. So I mean that kind of fits the perception that we've had of roughly eight hours. But the nice thing is they give a little bit more of a range, because sometimes we need more sometimes we need a little less.

Interviewer: Right so there's that seven to nine buffer zone.

Dr. Jones: Exactly.

Interviewer: How about elderly people?

Dr. Jones: It's a similar amount. However with the elderly they tend to sleep a little bit less at night and nap a little bit more during the day. And that's okay. That's more of a natural rhythm for them. And so that's healthy for them.

Interviewer: So my grandma, bless her heart, always comes up with these crazy myths in the world. She always told me that the older you get, the less you need. I guess her way of saying that you can't sleep as much as you used to. That seems to be the case with this review.

Dr. Jones: Absolutely. As you get more into those elderly years like we said, it's a little bit less at night and then a little more napping during the day.

Interviewer: My grandma is not that crazy then.

Dr. Jones: Not on this aspect anyway.

Interviewer: And what about school age children? How much sleep do they need?

Dr. Jones: So this has been a big topic for years as well. How much do they need? We're talking about nine to 11 hours a night. Many kids don't get that. But it really impacts how they do in school. If they get that amount of sleep, they're going to do better, they're going to behave better and they're going to learn it better.

Interviewer: Does bedtime and waking up time have a difference or does that matter?

Dr. Jones: As long as it's consistent and you're getting the adequate amount, that's the most important thing.

Interviewer: Does school age children also include teenagers?

Dr. Jones: No. So for teenagers it's slightly different. We're looking at 8 to 10 hours. Parents of teenagers know that they like to sleep in. They like to do those things. Getting 8 to 10 hours is important because they are growing their bodies are changing, they need that rest in order to optimize their physical health.

Interviewer: What if you are a mother caring for a newborn, let's say?

Dr. Jones: So with a newborn its 14 to 17 hours a day.

Interviewer: More than half the day.

Dr. Jones: Exactly. They are growing so rapidly. Their brain is developing so rapidly. They really need that much rest in order for their body to grow.

Interviewer: So I'm not a mother yet, so I don't really know the answer to this, but is that in one nap or is it separated?

Dr. Jones: It's separated. So getting as much sleep during the night as you can which is easier said than done as any parent knows. But also includes a few naps during the day and letting them get their rest as much as they can really.

Interviewer: Does that also apply to adults as well, like little naps in the afternoons or something like that when we're free. Does that add up to the seven to nine buffer zone?

Dr. Jones: Actually for adults naps can be detrimental because it actually can worsen your sleep during the night. So ideally you want the seven to nine hours all in one chunk overnight.

Interviewer: Any final thoughts?

Dr. Jones: Just try to individualize this to yourself. So some people do better with seven some might do better with nine. You know you want to try to get within that range as much as possible to optimize your health. But the most important thing is making sure you get enough rest.

Announcer: We're your daily dose of science, conversation, medicine. This is The Scope. University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.

Interviewer: There's a misconception out there that lice is a result of bad hygiene and just being dirty. But that's actually not the case. We're talking about head lice and how to fix the family next on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: We have Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones, family physician from the University of Utah here talking to us about lice as a family, actually. Dr. Jones, you have an interesting story to tell us, so let's start with your story.

Dr. Jones: I did. So, over the Thanksgiving holiday, my family and I were affected with lice. It started with my son, who got it from school. We had received many notifications from the school that there had been many kids who had had lice. Honestly, we didn't think much about it, until we started seeing some of these small insects in his hair. It's one of those things where, we are a clean family, we bathe him every day, doesn't matter. You still get it from kids and it's hard because you feel a little violated. You've got these tiny bugs, you don't know exactly . . .

Interviewer: Where they came from.

Dr. Jones: Exactly. Where they are, even if you go through everything to get ride of them, you're still not completely sure they're gone. So it's a hard experience, not only for the person who initially gets infected, but they very commonly affect everyone in the family. So it's a big deal.

Interviewer: As a family, how do you overcome this problem? The source of the situation is somebody else's kid, but once it affects your family it's your problem. So how do you deal with it as a family?

Dr. Jones: Yeah. I mean there are a couple of things. You really got to help each other out. There is some medicine known as permethrin. Some of the brand names are Nix or Rid. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you wash your hair with it and repeat in one week, which kills any of the lice that's in there.
And then from there, this is the part where you need a lot of help from your family, is wet combing the nits out. So the nits are kind of the small eggs that attach to your hair, and they're pretty sticky. They're kind of hard to get out. So there are some special fine-toothed combs that you can use to go through and try to get rid of those nits. It's recommended that you do that every three days for a couple of weeks to make sure that you get all of them. And, you know, it's time consuming. It's not easy, so you need a lot of help from your family and friends.

Interviewer: And you said before that it is a myth that dirty hygiene and just being dirty in general is not the cause of lice.

Dr. Jones: Exactly, it's very common, especially in schools. It's estimated that the majority of kids are going to have lice some point in their lives. You know, it's one of those things where you can do the best you can and you can still get it. So don't feel bad about that. It doesn't mean you're dirty or have poor hygiene.

Interviewer: How long does it take for the whole family to kind of overcome this issue?

Dr. Jones: It's recommended to do these things for about two weeks. It's also recommended that you wash all bedding and clothing in hot water to try to kill everything.

Interviewer: You wash the pets too?

Dr. Jones: Absolutely. And there are a couple other things you can try. These things have not been studied, but some people say that washing your hair with vinegar helps, mostly because it's an acid and so of course it's going to kill something.

Interviewer: So these are like the home remedies that . . .

Dr. Jones: Exactly.

Interviewer: Okay.

Dr. Jones: But it's also a little caustic to your hair and your scalp, so you can consider that if you want. Also coconut oil, for some reason there's something . . .

Interviewer: And it's healthy, healthy smooth hair too.

Dr. Jones: Exactly. There's something about the coconut oil that the lice doesn't like. So there are many things to try to get rid of it. But the thing is you have to be persistent for a couple weeks.

Interviewer: Do you actually have to close out your self and not go to work, not go to school, because that's two whole weeks of your life just stuck at home?

Dr. Jones: Yeah. Thankfully, not for the full two weeks. If you have live lice in your hair, then that's easy to transmit to others. If you don't and you just have the nits or the eggs, it's okay to be around others. So it's not going to pass on. You can go back to school, you can go back to work. But, again, you still need to go through the combing every few days for a couple of weeks and some of these other things to make sure that this doesn't come back.

Interviewer: How young does lice affect? Because it's obviously a family issue, but is there an age limit, an age maximum, minimum?

Dr. Jones: You know there's not really any age limit but in my family, I have three kids, my youngest is three years old. She got it. My son that got it at school is nine and it passed on to my wife. Thankfully I didn't get it, but it's taken a lot of work to help get rid of it in all the rest of the family.

Interviewer: Any final thoughts about dealing with head lice as a family?

Dr. Jones: It's a hard thing because it takes a lot of work. Again, you feel kind of violated. But if you stick to it, you help each other out, you can get rid of it. And again, don't feel bad. It's not your fault. It's not because you have poor hygiene. It's just one of those things that happens to kids.

Announcer: We're your daily dose of science, conversation, medicine. This is the Scope, University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.