drjparente
- Apr 18
- 11 min read

Emergency Minute - Dangers of the Solar Eclipse

Doctor John Parente: Very excited to talk about the upcoming solar eclipse

All right, welcome back everyone, to emergency minute. This is your host, Doctor John Parente. Appreciate you guys joining me today. Very excited to get into the weeds on the upcoming solar eclipse. Uh, • we're going to talk about some of these crazy myths that have existed for centuries, for generations, but also hit some of the medical issues, bad things that can happen to you if you're not prepared. But first, I wanted to thank everyone for joining last week for a discussion on some of the toughest cases of my career. I wasn't expecting such a reaction online from that episode, but apparently it did resonate with a lot of my listeners. So if you haven't checked that one out, please do so. As always, I do appreciate the online support, the reviews, especially on Apple podcasts and Spotify. These are my most popular venues for this podcast, and you can share my post with my podcast teaser that I always do the day the podcast becomes available with a link on social media and I will buy you a, uh, Manhattan or whatever your drink of choice may be. I truly will. So hit me up online. Cheers. Moving on.

Cleveland is directly in the path of totality on Monday

All right, so why are we doing this today? Well, we're doing this today because northeast Ohio, which is where I'm based out of, is in the path of totality. Well, what the hell does that mean? I mean, these things happen all the time, right? I mean, most recently in 2017. But this time is going to be a little bit different, actually, a lot different. So the sun is in a different phase of its cycle and will be essentially brighter, and the moon will be a little bit closer. So this, in addition to the fact that we are directly in the path of totality, is it's actually a big deal to the international community. Now, as snobby, egocentric Americans that we tend to be, it may not seem like a big deal, but globally, trust me, this is a huge deal. In the Cleveland area, this will be around 313 to 317 pm, around four minutes long. We're already preparing at local hospitals for just this complete influx of people coming into our communities, because people will travel from around the world to be in this path of token. In fact, a lot of the municipals around here are even saying, like, please stock up on food and bread and water because a lot of the grocery stores are going to be depleted with whatever you need to get through the day. So this is a big deal. Uh, traffic will be a big concern as well, because from what I understand, when this happens, people will pretty much just get in their car and start driving home, and it just creates this instant gridlock, especially in communities that aren't necessarily used to having this type of traffic. So that's why we're talking about this today. But obviously, as I do on every show, I talk about medical issues and how they pertain. So people are hoping to see what is referred to as a 360 degree sunset. And what this means is that the sky will become dark, but not just on the horizon. It will be all over, and you will actually be able to see stars and planets and things that you could have never seen. Otherwise, this will be spectacular. And my only hope is that we don't get a typical lousy cloudy day in Cleveland and can't even see past the damn rain clouds. That would be the total Cleveland thing to do to celebrate this eclipse. So, as the moon crosses into the path of the sun, you will see the corona ring around the moon, and then it turns into what's called a diamond ring. And then after, there will be a sunrise that occurs, and again, this will be all over. Now, there's a ton of myths that have existed over the centuries about these eclipses. They, uh, used to think that these were, you know, some sort of celestial dogs that were trying to steal the sun, dragons trying to steal the sun. So, you know, obviously, today we're gonna talk about some of the myths related to medicine. Cause that's the purpose of the show, the take home message. Spoiler alert. Is that there is no scientific evidence that solar eclipses impact human health, behavior, or the environment in a negative manner. Unless, of course, you're counting humans who are running around the earth and gathering and sort of chasing the eclipse, so to speak. In which case, I would argue that's probably pretty fair. But, you know, this does happen. Shout out to my friend Sonny, who, uh, did this once and chased the path of totality and said he had a great time and gave me a lot of information for this show. So appreciate you, Sonny. Much love to you.

Being outside during an eclipse must be dangerous, right?

Uh, being outside during an eclipse must be dangerous, right? Like, the radiation is. Is harmful. Well, that's false and true at the same time. It's no different than being outside any other day. So, yes, radiation in general, you know, can cause sunburn, can cause, you know, skin cancer, things like that. But it's no worse during an eclipse than it would be if it was just a normal day. So that is essentially completely false. How about food? Now, there's this myth that food becomes poisonous during an eclipse. Bring it inside the house, can't be outside. It's going to see that eclipse, and it's. It's going to become poisonous. Yeah, that's not true either. Well, what about pregnant women? Any impact to them at all? You know, can't go outside, might expose the baby to something harmful. No, that's not. Not true as well. So a lot of myths that we won't get into. A lot of those, uh, silly myths.

You can burn yourself, your retina, by staring into the sun

But what I do want to talk about are some of the medical issues. Now, one of the things that people don't realize is that you can burn yourself, your retina, by staring into the sun. Now, on a normal day, if you tried to just like, hey, I'm gonna go stare at the sun, it would hurt. It would become uncomfortable, and you look away. I don't know if you ever try to do this, wouldn't recommend it. But if you try to look directly at the sun for even just a second, it's very painful. But here's the difference. During an eclipse, it won't feel uncomfortable to you. So you feel like, I'm not having pain, therefore, I can get away with this. I can look at the sun without any harm or pain. But that's not true. It's actually very harmful. And so that's what we're here to talk about. So there are basically four bad things that can happen to your eyes by staring into the sun. Now, there's solar erythema, just a, uh, fancy word for sunburn. There's actinic conjunctivitis, photokeratitis, and then the worst. And the thing that we don't want and the thing that we're trying to prevent with this show is something called photic retinopathy. So let's talk about these things. How do we treat these things? Well, for sunburn and actinic conjunctivitis, that's just sort of supportive care, meaning, you know, cool compresses, artificial tears, etcetera. Now, if it's a real severe case, you can get scar tissue on the surface of your eyes. And this can lead to something such as, like a pterygium, which is just some scar tissue over the eye that needs surgery in order for you to remove the scar tissue some people just live with them forever, and they just sort of become used to them as long as it's not bothering them. Now, what about solar keratitis? Well, this is damage to the epithelium, which is the layer of cells over the surface of the eye. But the surface starts to leave the endothelium, which is the part directly underneath, and exposes the nerves. Has anyone ever had a scratch on your eye? It is extremely painful, very uncomfortable. So as those nerve endings get exposed, this becomes very painful. Now, normally, this occurs with people who are skiing. So we see, you know, patients who are skiing in the bright white snow, very highly reflective, and it can actually burn your eye. That's why people, when you go skiing, you see a lot of people wearing sunglasses or they are wearing ski goggles that are shaded to protect their eyes. Now, we also see this in people who try to weld without eye protection. But now we're also going to see this with people who are trying to watch the solar eclipse. This is definitely going to happen. Most of these people will be just fine. Uh, some will require some treatments, maybe topical antibiotic ointments, such as erythromycin ointments, artificial tears, cool compresses, and obviously, avoiding contact lenses until you are fully healed. Now, should we patch the eye? No, that's something that used to happen a long time ago, but what we found is that it actually takes longer to heal and associated with more complications and increases risk of infection. So we no longer do that. And another side note, uh, for patients who do wear contact lenses, always remember that with contact lens wearers like myself, you know, we have an increased amount of bacteria that just sort of live in our eyes. Very high risk for something called pseudomonas. So if you ever start to get a red eye in your contact lens wearer, it's very important that you go out and seek medical attention. These infections can sneak up on you pretty quickly and become catastrophic if you don't get the contact out of your eye, throw it in the trash and also get yourself on some antibiotics. Now, the first three things that we just talked about aren't going to kill you and probably not going to lead to permanent eye damage.

Photic retinopathy can lead to permanent damage to your retina

But the last thing that we're going to talk about, this photic retinopathy can lead to permanent damage to your retina, and this can impact your vision for the rest of your life. So, you know, how long do you think this takes? You know, take take a minute to think. Do you think this if staring at the eclipse for hours, what do you think? Minutes? How long do you think this would take to permanently damage your vision? • Well, how about a few seconds? Let me say that again. Just a few seconds of staring into an eclipse, and you can burn the back of your eye, leading to this photic retinopathy. So this light energy basically causes burning to the retina, which then permanently damages the tissue. You only have one retina? Well, I mean, one on each eye. And it's a real small area, and it's kind of important to your vision because without it, uh, you can't see. So there's never a safe time to stare at the sun. So despite these warnings, people are going to take their chances. They're going to look up at the sun. They're going to check out the eclipse. They're going to say, you know what? I don't want to buy the cheap goggles online. The glass, sunglasses, things like that. So most times when this happens, it will be bilateral, meaning with both eyes, but it can occur with one eye, especially if the person is kind of squinting and using that one eye to view the eclipse. So what are some other symptoms? Well, you'll see some headaches, some eye soreness, maybe some distorted vision. Hopefully not. Patients, uh, • may even have a hard time, uh, distinguishing color. And even a phenomenon that's called micropsia, which is seeing objects smaller than they actually are. Which reminds me of the old cars that had the sign in the mirror that says objects in the mirror appear closer than they appear. So, moving on.

There's no known beneficial treatment for photic retinopathy

So what's. What's the most common thing, can you think of that would cause photic retinopathy? • • Any ideas? Laser pointers. Yeah. So, going back to the, uh, Christmas story, right? You'll shoot your eye out, but this time with a laser. So what's the treatment for this? Well, here's the bad news. There's no known beneficial treatment. You kind of have to wait it out and see if you get better. If, uh, you do, it's going to be in months or perhaps a year and sometimes, perhaps never. So, uh, this is definitely not something to take lightly.

How do you safely view the solar eclipse on April 8

All right, so how do we safely view the eclipse? Well, one option would be to live stream via the NASA website, which would be a really cool way to view it and obviously would be safe. You can also use pinhole viewers, which you can read more about online. I don't really want to get into that, but the best way is with solar eclipse glasses. With anything in the world these days, everyone's trying to make a buck, right? So you have to make sure that your glasses are ISO, which is the international safety organization. Make sure that they are ISO certified and meet their standards because there will be plenty of imposters. There will be plentiful that, uh, people are just trying to sell these things to make a buck, make them look cool, whatever. And they should be worn over your contacts or your regular glasses. Another thing that I can't stress enough, when you're on the airplane, and they say, you know, when the oxygen mask comes down, please put on your mask first and then put the mask on those around you. Well, this is the opposite. Please put the sunglasses on your children, • and it is obviously recommended that you put the sunglasses on before trying to stare at the eclipse. I know this seems like real common sense stuff, but shadow me for a day in the ER and you will see everything that is the opposite of common sense. So I just recently watched a lecture where the physician said, enjoy the greatest show in the universe. I was like, hey, I didn't know he was a listener of emergency minute. But in all seriousness, this should be a spectacular show of the beauty of our universe on April 8. So please enjoy it. Please do it safely and hopefully this show helped you accomplish that goal. If you know someone that you're like that dude, that dude is absolutely gonna stare at the sun, at the eclipse and going to burn a hole through his eye. Please consider sending that person my show and save their vision. I'll buy you a drink. I'm currently working on another episode of Emergency Minute that will be titled when and where do I take my child? Or something like that because it's kind of wordy. But basically I'll break down the difference between going to the pediatric office, going to the Urgicare never, and going to the emergency room. I will also tackle some specific illnesses, like when do you go in with croup or rsv, certain injuries, if you have a laceration, a head injury, if your child has abdominal pain, or if there's suffering from asthma, like when do you go to the peds office versus the ER, et cetera, and some other common pediatric conditions. And yes, eventually Doctor Lewis and I will get our schedules on the same page so we can finally have the show that I've been talking about for a month now.

All right, so I wanted to thank everyone for joining in today. Please consider sharing this show with your loved ones and save an eyeball today and appreciate any reviews. Love on social media, especially if you share my teaser I'll buy you a drink, hit me up on social media and I promise I'll make it happen. And as always, peace, love and happiness to everyone out there. Cheers everyone.

EMERGENCY MINUTE