Seven Medical Myths

These are something that you're likely to get from your mother or mother-in-law the 1st time you accidentally complain about small unimportant headache...and you already know they will say the same thing no matter how old you are right now.

1. Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Actually it means your body need liquid about 8 glasses a day. That means any liquid from food, fruit, juice, drinkwater, etc. So you do not have to drink water 8 glasses a day, just try to have liquid minimal as much as 8 glasses a day.
   
2. We use only 10 percent of our brains. This assumption was made back in 1907. Just think what kind of equipments and how deep is medical science 100 years ago? Now, with all technology in neuroscience, experts believe we use more than 10 percent. In fact, high-tech methods of studying the brain have not identified any inactive areas.
3. Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death. Every parts of our body need energy to sustain their function. This include tissue regeneration. Once the body shutdown, there are no source of energy left. And then the dehydration of the body after death can cause retraction of the skin around hair and nails, giving the illusion that they have grown.
4. Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight. Statistic says that rate of myopia (nearsightedness) is higher right now then it was centuries ago when people read in candlelight. Read in dim light can cause eyestraint and difficulty focusing, but never causing permanent effect.
   
5. Shaving causes hair to grow back faster or coarser. Study shows it was wrong. Newly grow hair lacks the fine taper seen at the end of unshaven hair, making it appear coarser. And the fact that it hasn't been exposed to light may make it seem darker than other hair.
6. Mobile phones are dangerous in hospitals. Studies in England and the U.S. have found little in the way of interference and few serious effects. The study showed that no interference at all in 300 tests in 75 treatment rooms. In fact, some reports said that the use of mobile phones by physicians was associated with a reduced risk of medical error or injury resulting from delays in communication.
7. Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy. Some said this is because some substance called tryptophan. But the amount of this tryptophan in turkey is the same as it is in cheese and other meat product. And the true factor is: any big meal can make you sleepy because of a decrease in blood flow and oxygenation to the brain. And then, of course, there's the wine.

*The facts above was taken from a study published in the December 2007 British Medical Journal re-written by Dr. Andrew Weill, MD. You can go to his website for good information in health & medicine.