I'll do a brief rundown of the results for the impatient, but here are the actual articles if you want to read them: article one, article two.
Myths debunked in article one:
- Drink 8 glasses of water a day. Basically they traced this back to a recommendation for 2.5 liters of water per day, but that most of that will come from the food you're eating.
- We use only 10% of our brains. Evidence doesn't support this at all.
- Hair and fingernails grow after death. Really it's just the skin drying and shrinking back that make them seem like they're still growing.
- Shaving causes hair to grow back faster, stronger, or coarser. Shaved hair has sharper edges that haven't been "weathered," so it appears courser. It hasn't been lightened by the sun like existing hair, so although it is darker, that isn't an effect of shaving.
- Reading in dim light ruins eyesight. It can produce temporary effects like headache and eye strain, but permanent damage is not likely.
- Eating turkey makes you especially drowsy. Turkey doesn't contain a particularly high amount of tryptophan, and pork and cheese actually have more by weight. The drowsiness after big holiday meals is likely because of eating so much food, period.
- Cellphones create dangerous interference around medical equipment. Studies show an extremely low rate of interference, and even then only at very close distances (under 3 feet).
Myths debunked in article two:
- Sugar causes hyperactivity in children. Studies don't support it. It's just a psychological effect, self-perpetuated by the myth. Parents know the kids ate some sugary stuff, and so they perceive the kids as being more hyper.
- Suicides increase over the holidays. George Bailey notwithstanding, there actually seems to be a slight decrease.
- Poinsettias are toxic. This was a big one for me, because I have often warned people of poinsettia toxicity in the past. No evidence for it at all. One less thing to worry about, I guess.
- 40-45% of body heat is lost through the head. The myth probably arose from inaccurate conclusions of an old study. There's nothing special about the head in terms of heat loss. Heat loss is proportional to the unconvered area no matter what part of the body. Speaking from personal experience, though, being bald makes hats a necessity in winter.
- Eating at night makes you fat. Time of day doesn't matter. It's all about the number of calories consumed versus expended.
3 comments:
Those are really interesting facts. Thanks for sharing them. Although, I'm still a little warry about poinsettas. If I ever buy any, they will probably be fake. My cat just likes to eat plants too much.
I had read about poinsettas before because my old boss was SO WORRIED when we got them at Christmas, so that wasn't new. What I thought was interesting was the sugar/hyper activity myth. Hmm..all a parent's perception, interesting...
As for the suicide during the holidays, while that may be true, I have read another study that concluded that DEATHS (not necessarily suicides) do increase over the holidays. If I remember correctly, one of their hypothesis were because people are with their families and put off going to the doctor/hospital longer, and in some cases, too long. Anyhow, thanks for sharing. That was an interesting read.
Just yesterday I read an article written by a medical examiner and she said, "But no matter where you are, the number one death that I see is heart disease, and the number one day to die of heart disease is Christmas because people don't want to ruin the holiday by seeking medical treatment." I know I had a gall bladder attack on Christmas Eve and Christmas day I didn't want to go to the ER either, (I didn't know it was my gall bladder until after I went to the ER). Anyway, I can understand people's reasoning, no matter how wrong it is.
Post a Comment