Medical Myths Debunked
Can you tell the difference
between medical fact and fiction?
By
Jean Lawrence
WebMD Feature
Reviewed By
Michael Smith
You don't want to be an April fool -- or any
kind of fool -- when it comes to your health. Yes, those old
wives knew a thing or two, but they never went to medical school
or conducted a scientific study. Are you sure you know the
answers to the following?
1: Chewing gum takes seven years to pass
through your digestive system.
____ True ____ False _____ Only Juicy Fruit
ANSWER: False. The gum component itself
is pretty indigestible, but will "pass" in a mass and will not
stick your insides together, either. This one probably got going
when exasperated parents tired of buying more gum after half an
hour because their kids had chomped, then swallowed, their
allotment. Also, swallowing gum was seen as ignorant and lower
class.
"My husband's mother told him he would grow a
gum tree in his stomach!" Loraine Stern, MD, clinical pediatrics
professor at UCLA, tells WebMD.
Incidentally, the desire to chew for chewing's
sake is quite ancient. Our ancestors used to chap away at tree
resin. Did you know that Santa Anna of Alamo fame first turned
gum manufacturers onto the gum resin. He thought it would be a
good substitute for rubber. It's OK to swallow the occasional
watermelon seed, too, unless you suffer from intestinal
inflammation. Doctors are pretty sure watermelon seeds do not
grow into full-fledged watermelons.
2: Cutting salt intake can help your high
blood pressure.
___ True ____ False _____ Pass the pretzels
ANSWER: True. Americans are not in love
with the idea of a tossing the salty snacks and tend to ignore
this advice. But in 1998, at the 13th International
Interdisciplinary Conference on Hypertension in Blacks,
researchers said that in blacks with high blood pressure who get
higher amounts of salt in their diets, even a small decrease in
salt can help regulate blood pressure. Blacks are particularly
prone to hypertension, but the advice goes for everyone. Tossing
the salt shaker is not the whole answer. That's because most of
the salt we eat comes from processed foods -- such as deli meats
and canned foods. The best advice is to change your taste for
salt. Don't automatically salt before tasting. Use herbal
seasonings and condiments to flavor your foods. Pretty soon,
things will begin to taste too salty and you'll be on the right
track.
3: Cracking your knuckles will cause
arthritis in later life.
__ True ___ False ____ Maybe
ANSWER: False. Depending on your point of
view, knuckle-popping sounds disgusting or cool. There is no
evidence that cracking your knuckles inflames the joints and
leads to arthritis. The cracking causes the bones to pull apart,
forming a gas bubble and breaking the adhesive seal in the
joint. Crack! About a quarter of the people in the U.S. crack
their knuckles and might begin to lose their grip a little.
Constant cracking can weaken the fingers.
4: Staring at an eclipse can blind you.
____ True ____ False ____ Only if you're not
wearing specially made sunglasses
ANSWER: True. Never view the sun directly
with the naked eye or with any unfiltered optical device, such
as binoculars or a telescope!.
As sunlight enters the eye, it can damage the
light-sensitive nerve endings in the back of the eye -- known as
the retina -- causing vision loss.
Total and partial eclipses can lead to serious
damage if precautions are not taken to prevent blindness. This
is why there are only a few safe ways to view an eclipse, such
as with a referred image. Regular sunglasses, exposed film, and
even a welder's helmet are not safe.
5: Staying out in the cold and wind will
give you a cold.
___ True ___ False
ANSWER: False. Colds are caused by
viruses, with enough variations to give you a choice of 200
versions of a cold (which is why you get them over and over
again). Because viruses get into healthy cells, it's difficult
to kill them without knocking off the good cells. This is the
job of your immune system, which usually clears out cold viruses
in a week or two. You can get the virus through inhaling
infected air droplets sneezed or coughed by an infected person,
or by touching something that an infected person has touched and
then transferring the germs to your mouth or nose. You don't get
it from cold air, slush, wind, or other wintry conditions. Cold
viruses are more active in the winter, and that's why people get
more colds in the winter. Stern says she used to come home from
swim class, her wet hair frozen crispy, but never got sick until
her mother saw it and said, "You will get such a cold!" So
what's the best way to ward off this miserable virus? Wash your
hands often.
6: You can catch a sexually transmitted
disease (STD) from a toilet seat.
___ True ___ False ___ Who told you that?
ANSWER: False. Mary J. O'Sullivan, MD,
vice chair for ob-gyn at the University of Miami, tells WebMD
that the idea that you could get an STD from a toilet seat
"sounds believeable," but is highly unlikely. Hard surfaces such
as toilet seats are not conducive to STDs. Incidentally, there
is rumor that the toilet seat myth got started by men who wanted
their wives to think a public restroom, not their mates'
adulterous ways, had given them an STD.
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