870 pages of Potter can pose health hazard

[Nottingham]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2191759

870 pages of Potter can pose health hazard
Reuters News Service

BOSTON - The spell cast by the latest Harry Potter book may have an unintended side effect.

A Washington doctor warned that he has seen three children complain of headaches caused by the physical stress of relentlessly plowing through the epic 870-page adventure.

Call them Hogwarts headaches, named after the wizard school that Harry attends.

Dr. Howard Bennett of George Washington University Medical Center wrote in a letter to this week's New England Journal of Medicine that the three children, ages 8 to 10, experienced a dull headache for two or three days.

more...

Heaven Help us!!! Children reading!!! and getting ILL from it!!!

WHAT a STORY!!!:bounce:

[Resistance Is Futile]

1. Think of the children!

Clearly, we must ban books to save the children.

Coming soon in a GOP sermon near you...

[Nottingham]

2. Oh I bet the Christian Right will have a field day on this

See See I told you it was EVIL :bounce:

[noonwitch]

24. If they don't, Landover Baptist will!

And it will be funny.

[DeathvadeR]

28. Im suprised they havent combed the book backwards

looking for satanic messages.

[bluestateguy]

3. Better for children to be doing something else than reading

Like drugs, alcohol, video games, television, Internet, sexual experimentation, binge eating...

Geez! Some people are only happy if they have something to worry about. These are the same people who piss and moan about playgrounds, soft drinks and any kind of competition that dares to assign winners and losers.

[sam sarrha]

4. if they read 870 pages of the old testament they would be in better shape?

:shrug:

[Lisa]

5. not to mention dropping the hardcover edition on your foot!

Ow!

[Nottingham]

6. LOL!!! You guys could publish a Book!!!

too funny :bounce:

This guy is a genius!!!

He must be a Republican

[Lisa]

8. well, just think of the possibilities!

Occupational Health and Safety would have a field day. There's repetitive strain injury from turning all those pages ... plus the risk of papercuts ... and we're only up to 5 books in the series, yet together they make up at least 8 lbs! You could throw your back out with improper lifting!

[sam sarrha]

7. I once did a marathon Bible study back when i was among the Christian

extremests... we read the bible front to back without stopping, read 2 pages and pass it on till finished... I really thought they would have to call the paramedics before it was over...they said many souls were saved that weekend.O8)

[LifeDuringWartime]

17. thats frightening

and stupid. :)

[WindRavenX]

9. If you think that's bad...

Try reading Jonathan Edwards and Cotton Mather for 4 hours straight :puke: :puke:
Gawwwwd Puritan era literature is mindnumbing...x(

[Fovea]

32. Cotton Mather...

I think they are pushing him for AG when they kick Ashcroft up to Governor of Iraq, aren't they? I got their wonders of the invisible realm, Right Here!

[frank frankly]

10. such ridiculous nonsense

what stupid bullshit. what outrageous garbage.

MESSAGE: don't read books or you'll get sick!

I wonder how I made it through all those hundreds of books in grade school without migraines. I guess it was because I loved reading them and it made me feel wonderful.

This lousy story was front page in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Pathetic.

[WindRavenX]

11. Reading for long periods of time can hurt your eyes...

...but you're right- this is so overhyped that it's laughable.
Reading causes cancer!!! :eyes:

[radfringe]

12. soooooooooo

reading is now DETRIMENTAL?

:evilgrin:

[Nlighten1]

13. It is a good kind of hurt though..

no pain no gain

[Buns_of_Fire]

14. My father taught me to read when I was 4

Not War and Peace, mind you -- just Dubya-level stuff. So does this mean they could now be arrested for child abuse?

[October]

15. GWU is a Catholid University, no?

And didn't the Catholic Church ban Harry Potter books?

:donut:

[Bridget Burke]

16. No, George Washington was not a Catholic....

The University was founded in 1821 & chartered by the United States Congress. In those days, it was barely legal to be Catholic in most of the USA. The National Catholic University is in DC--but you may have been thinking of Georgetown, the famous Jesuit school.

I can't remember any Catholic banning of the Harry Potter. Generally, it comes from the small-minded Fundamentalist types who find Catholic ritual as appalling as the magic in the Potter books.

[demdave]

26. No the Catholic Church did not ban Harry Potter books.

And no GWU is not a Catholic University. But thanks for showing your anti-Catholic agenda. That's 2 atrikes. Would you like to try for a third.



Oh, BTW, I believe this whole thing was a sucker joke. Looks like that got several in here. Read my post below.


lololololo At you. lololololol

[WilliamPitt]

33. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight

:eyes:

[robcon]

18. I am fully willing to risk it.

My kids' reading habits have been terrific because of Potter, and the risk of a few headaches (which have not happened in my kids' case) are no impediment.

The Harry Potter series, with the accompanying hype, is a godsend to parents, IMO.

[seasat]

19. I liked Keith Oberman's comment on this study.

Did they take into account kids whacking each other over the head with this heavy book? :7

[llmart]

20. Heaven help us

Can the idiocy in this country get any worse? Oh, yeah, heaven forbid if children actually read more than they watch the boob tube. I work in a library and these books just fly off the shelves with multiple children waiting for the books. Must be a lot of "headachy" people in my community. Bring back the "Reader-in-Chief" President Clinton as opposed to this illiterate we have in there now.

[rman]

21. oh sure. they'll have to come up with *some* reason to ban this book

and other books like it.

remember when far-rw religious types wanted to ban (and did burn a few) Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Ozz - we wouldn't want kids to get ideas about "men behind the curtains" now do we.

[demdave]

22. This is a joke made by Dr. Bennett.....LOOK...

Dr. Bennett is a practicing pediatrician in Washington, DC and a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at The George Washington University Medical Center. When he's not sharing humor with patients, Dr. Bennett loves to poke fun at doctors and medicine. He is the editor of two humor collections:

The Best of Medical Humor (1997)
The Doctor's Book of Humorous Quotations (2001).



Consider the book and the timing. This is his idea of a Halloween prank and all the WHINERS have fallen for it. lolololol

Not everything is so serious that derision has to be heaped upon it. Not everything is so serious that we have to claim he is a REP. Get a life, not everything is political. lololol


HAPPY HALLOWEEN..........




BOO!!!

[LibLabUK]

23. Not only that...

The NEJM, BMJ and The Lancet all have issues that carry more humourous articles and letters (typically towards the end of the year).

It lightens the lives of us clinical researchers.

[bleedingheart]

27. hee hee...

I like sarcastic pieces... how about one that says

"Lots of exercise leads to longer life span which costs more"

hahahahah

[Emboldened Chimp]

25. It's because they're actually USING their brains

as opposed to just staring blankly at a tv or video game. Cripes, this is ridiculous! If kids read consistently, they wouldn't get headaches because their brains would work properly. What an idiotic article.

[Ripley]

29. Maybe they just need glasses.

Eyestrain can be caused by reading a lot, but perhaps the kids just ain't used to reading. How in the world can reading too much be considered a health problem? What about all of those fundie kids who are forced to read the Bible from sunup to sundown? Do they get headaches? Or do they just turn into Jeffrey Dahmer later in life.

[LeftHander]

30. I got headache reading DaVinci Code

could'nt put it down....

I welcome a reading headache anyday....over a Guiness headache....

well maybe....

[Fovea]

31. As they say in my old hometown

Larnin' addles a body.

[demdave]

34. IT'S A JOKE.....on all you whiners. LOLOLOLOLOL

I hate to yell but here is a little info on the good doctor...


Dr. Bennett is a practicing pediatrician in Washington, DC and a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at The George Washington University Medical Center. When he's not sharing humor with patients, Dr. Bennett loves to poke fun at doctors and medicine. He is the editor of two humor collections:

The Best of Medical Humor (1997)
The Doctor's Book of Humorous Quotations (2001).



Consider the book and the timing. This is his idea of a Halloween prank and all the WHINERS have fallen for it. lolololol

Not everything is so serious that derision has to be heaped upon it. Not everything is so serious that we have to claim he is a REP. Get a life, not everything is political. lololol


HAPPY HALLOWEEN..........








BOOOO!!!!!

lmao at YOU. lololol