Life & Style
HEALTH
The Risks of Summer Fun
Enjoying the great outdoors is not without its obstacles. Take precautions for you and your family to stay safe and healthy.
T
he long days of summer typically bring extended time outdoors – enjoying a hike, camping or backyard gardening. But communing with Mother Nature can have its costs. Bug bites and skin rashes can range from a minor irritation to a need for medical intervention. Dodging a bee or a wasp is a seasonal dance that’s humorous to watch, but it’s not so funny if you get stung. While a honey bee can only sting once because it leaves its stinger behind, wasps can sting repeatedly. After coming into contact with these insects, it is important to be able to recognize whether you or someone you are with is experiencing a severe allergic reaction. “Bug bites and stings, although painful, are typically not severe. But they can be,” says Dr. S. Christopher Shadid, a family medicine physician with INTEGRIS Health in Oklahoma City. “Some people have severe allergic reactions to these. Concerning signs and symptoms may be: rash, shortness of breath, cough, a feeling of your throat closing up. If you have any of these, seek medical attention immediately. People who know they have these typical reactions should carry a medicine with them called an EpiPen. This can be injected after the initial bite or sting prior to emergent medical treatment.”
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OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE | JUNE 2016
Commonly referred to as an insect, ticks are actually parasitic arachnids – meaning they feed off the blood of a host. And if that’s not enough to make your skin crawl, tick bites can be hazardous to your health as certain infected species carry diseases to humans, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. While Dr. Shadid notes that Lyme disease can be a very severe illness, he most often treats patients for Rocky Mountain spotted fever. “There has not been a documented case of Lyme disease in the state of Oklahoma in many years. This is only seen in the New England states of the United States,” Dr. Shadid says. “For us here in Oklahoma, Rocky Mountain spotted fever is the bigger tick-born concern. I diagnose this at least a few times every