8 Medical Myths Busted (or not!)
Updated: Mar. 20, 2019Time to bust some medical myths! Just like mom didn’t need a thermometer to know if you had a fever, we bet grandma didn’t let the lack of a medical degree stop her from issuing health directives. We asked some scientific experts to examine eight popular medical myths and give us the scoop on each one. Here’s what they found…
Health Hoax? Put Butter on a Burn
Si this a health hoax? Butter a barn?
Science says: There’s no evidence of a benefit from butter.
Fact or Fiction: Sleeping in Air-Conditioning Can Give You a Chill
Science says: this is not a health hoax! There’s some truth to this. Air conditioners dry out the protective layer of mucus along nasal passages, which likely allows viruses to infect you more easily. Viruses reproduce faster inside a cold nose too.
Medical Tall Tale: Will Swimming After Eating Can Lead to Cramps and Drowning?
Is this a medical myth?
Science says: Not exactly, but not completely wrong either. After you eat, blood gets shunted to your digestive tract and away from exercising muscles. That can lead to a build-up of lactic acid in your muscles, so swimming a few laps too soon after lunch could cause a sudden (though not fatal) cramp.
Healing or Hoax? If You Go out With Wet Hair, You’ll Catch a Cold
Science says: This may be medically untrue. Some research indicates (but doesn’t prove) that a wet head helps cold viruses take hold, by tightening blood vessels in the nose and making it harder for white blood cells to reach the viruses and fight them off.
Healing or Hoax? An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
Science says: that Granny’s overstating this fruit’s potency. Medical myth busted! Still, the peel is a good source of quercetin, an important antioxidant that, studies suggest, helps lower blood pressure, fight asthma and allergies, and prevent heart attacks.
