Ice cream or other ice products can affect pulmonary functions, so parents are advised not to allow asthmatic children to consume them, even in the summer, doctors said.
Wang Li-chieh (
One day, her parents decided to treat her to a feast of frozen treats. The next day, she was so severely stricken with asthma that she had to be rushed to the hospital's emergency ward, Wang said.
One month later, the girl consumed some shaved ice, only to be hospitalized again within two days, after beginning to hyperventilate, Wang reported.
The hospital's pediatric department recently completed a study on the effects on children of drinking iced water under normal circumstances, and doing that or eating ice cream after exercise. The study was conducted with the participation of 37 asthmatics and 30 healthy children.
Researchers found that drinking ice water or eating ice cream after exercise was most harmful to children with asthma, probably because the sudden intake of icy water constricted their tracheas and bronchial tubes as their body temperatures rose with labored breathing, bringing their lung's functions to half the level of normal children.
Ice water also affects the pulmonary functions of asthmatic children if cold water is taken during a period of rest, but the effects are not as severe as when it is taken after exercise.
Eating ice cream under normal circumstances -- not after exercise -- causes the least adverse effects on asthmatic children.
As summer approaches, Wang said it might not be realistic for parents to simply ban kids from consuming iced products.
Instead, she added, it's better to educate young people how to properly enjoy ice products -- let the icy water "warm up" a little before slowly drinking it, or take in only a small bit of ice cream at a time.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS