Sorry, moms: it turns out that reading in low light won’t make you go blind; going hatless in the winter won’t make you freeze to death; and you could eat poinsettias all day and not be poisoned.
All this holiday medical myth-busting and more is courtesy of our somber friends at the British Medical Journal (part one and part two).
Of course, you probably didn’t need the British Medical Journal to tell you that — a quick Google search would have popped the bubble on each of the three myths we mentioned.
The internet may be good at slaying old myths. But if myths can spread like viruses, do they also respond under the pressures of natural selection by evolving?
Google might cure you of the myth that turkey-borne tryptophan is what makes you sleepy at Thanksgiving. But WebMD might give you imaginary Restless Leg Syndrome.
Happy New Year to all and feel free to share your favorite medical myths in the comment section below.
(Hat tip: Chris Blattman)
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Whew, glad my mom was wrong. I didn’t go blind!
Vitamin c cures colds.
Cracking your knuckles does not cause arthritis-despite what your mother told you.
I’m not sure “evolving” is the right word but email health warnings do sometimes connect and build on previous ones.
I received the lead-in-your-lipstick warning a while back, and it was clearly cut and pasted over the dioxins-in-your-water-bottle-cause-breast-cancer warning, a few scraps of which were still included.
A teaspoon of dry white sugar cures hiccups…my mom really thought this would work when I was a kid!
I read in a recent book that water with meals interferes with digestion. The sad thing is it would have taken the authors all of a two minute Google search to learn this was false.
Has anyone else noticed a resurgence in the ideas of physiognomy. There have been research articles and articles in the economist. Not sure how this could possibly be statistically sound.
We just had a baby and I’m drowning in baby myths. Anyone know of a good site where baby related medical myths are disabused?
http://kingpolitics.com