Health Myths You Should Know About
Hopefully, you’ve improved your health-savvy beyond the “step on a crack — break your mother’s back” stage. However, even though we live in the information age, we also live in a misinformation era. Many people cling to outdated health myths and share their beliefs online, making it challenging to know who to trust.
How can you discern whether the information you have is correct? One way you can do so is by through research, but who has all that time? Here are nine health myths you probably still mistakenly believe — learn and spread the truth.
1. Oranges Are the Best Sources of Vitamin C
Did your mom break out the OJ when you had a cold? While she wasn’t entirely wrong, she would have done better to whip you up a salad.
While oranges are a potent source of vitamin C, a cup of chopped red pepper contains three times the amount — but you don’t see much pepper juice in stores. However, if you want to boost your immune function, add red bell pepper slices to salads, toss them in stir-fries and dip them in hummus.
2. Medicine Can’t Help Those Struggling With Addiction
Addiction is a mental problem — meaning the cure must come down to mindset. Don’t make this mistake. While addiction may originate from a psychological desire to escape reality, it causes lasting physiological changes. These adaptations can make withdrawal excruciatingly painful and even deadly in some cases.
Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) helps wean patients from opioid medications while avoiding painful withdrawal symptoms. These drugs work on the same brain receptors that light up with Oxycontin or Fentanyl abuse. Withdrawal from heavy alcohol use likewise requires professional intervention. Patients can suffer wide fluctuations in brain and other organ function that can result in seizures and death.
3. Red Wine is Good for Your Heart
If you don’t want a heart attack, you should drink red wine. Please forget such silliness now. Several studies suggest that grape juice has similar protective effects without alcohol toxins. Too much of the vino can damage your heart by raising your blood pressure and increasing arterial stress. Imbibe if you must, but don’t kid yourself that you’re doing so solely for the cardiovascular benefits.
4. Feeling Cold Will Make You Sick
If you stood in a germ-free freezing environment, you’d develop goosebumps quickly, but you wouldn’t catch a cold. Pathogens like bacteria, viruses and fungi cause illnesses, not temperatures. However, many viruses spread more quickly in the cold, and dry air evaporates your mucus membranes. These serve as your first line of defense, meaning it’s more likely you’ll catch a bug when indoor air affects your sinuses.
5. Eating Breakfast Makes You Lose Weight
A calorie is a calorie — these units of energy don’t turn your waistline into a pumpkin any more at midnight than at 6 a.m. However, you might cling to the myth that eating breakfast will help you to lose weight. It can, but only if you reduce your overall caloric intake. Forcing yourself to eat a morning meal if you typically don’t dig in until brunch can mean consuming more food overall, resulting in a net gain, not loss.
6. Cracking Your Knuckles Gives You Arthritis
You might have one of any of multiple forms of arthritis, but none of them developed from you cracking your knuckles. This disorder develops from an autoimmune disease or normal wear-and-tear. The next time you see the gnarled hands of an arthritis patient struggling to get their chip card into the reader at the grocery, don’t assume they brought their condition on themselves. Have patience and empathy.
7. Your Weight Equates to Your Health
According to researchers in both the U.S. and Germany, your scale might consider you overweight — but that doesn’t mean unhealthy. While it’s true that heavier individuals run a 50-50 chance of developing heart disease and other complications, multiple factors contribute to their overall health portrait.
Athletes, for example, often weigh considerably more than their more sedentary peers. This difference stems from their increased muscle mass, which weighs more than fat. Their effect on gravity doesn’t create health woes, however.
8. You Need a Full Hour to Work Out
If you don’t have an hour to hit the weight room, you shouldn’t bother working out. Please dismiss this ludicrous myth immediately. Any physical activity benefits your health — but too much might cause harm.
Researchers discovered that prolonged low-intensity exercise decreases your body’s glycogen or sugar stores. Your body, in its infinite wisdom, then thinks you’re starving and amps up cortisol production to help your muscles function without fuel. However, too much of this hormone can increase stress on your heart. Additionally, it can prompt you to gain weight — the opposite effect of what you probably hoped to accomplish from your fitness efforts. Keep workouts to less than 60 minutes.
9. Vaccines Cause Autism
Was that the sound of an internet flame war starting? As controversial as it sounds, it’s challenging to argue with science. Fortunately, theories don’t mind standing up to scrutiny. It’s all part of the scientific process.
However, a recent meta-analysis of more than 1.2 million children — an impressive survey pool — found no evidence that vaccines cause autism. Indeed, the MMR vaccine, which opponents of vaccination often identify as the suspected culprit, may offer protection against the disorder. While you can probably still get a religious exemption to mandatory vaccination, you should know the facts regarding your kids’ health.
Know These Health Myths to Improve Your Well-Being
There’s a ton of health information available — but fairy tales abound, too. By educating yourself about the ten myths above, you’ll arm yourself with the knowledge to make the wisest decisions for yourself and your family.
