Health fact or fiction?

By TEDDYE SNELL

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS February 20, 2008 02:37 pm

— Step on a crack and you’ll break your mother’s back. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Sit too close to the TV and you’ll suffer brain damage.
These are but a few old wives’ tales anyone over age 10 can dispel with a quick search on the Internet.
And there’s more.
Drink at least eight glasses of water a day for optimum health. Humans use only 10 percent of their brains. A chemical found in turkey makes people lethargic.
Many people – even some doctors – believe these to be tried-and-true health facts, but according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal, many of these “facts” are unproven or flatly untrue.
The study, “Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe,” was compiled by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine, included myths that people only use 10 percent of their brains and that hair and fingernails continue to grow after we die.
The surprising findings are that all these beliefs turned out to be bunk.
“We got fired up about this because we knew that physicians accepted these beliefs and were passing this information along to their patients ... we didn’t set out to become myth busters,” Dr. Aaron Carroll, assistant professor of pediatrics and a Regenstrief Institute Inc. affiliated scientist, told StatePoint.net.
The first belief they explored was that people should drink at least eight glasses of water a day. This advice has long been promoted as healthful, as well as a useful dieting or weight-control strategy.
“When we examined this belief, we found that there is no medical evidence to suggest that you need that much water,” said Dr. Rachel Vreeman, a pediatrics research fellow and co-author of the new study in an interview with StatePoint.
Vreeman believes this myth can be traced back to a 1945 recommendation from the Nutrition Council. But an important part of the Council’s recommendation has been lost over the years: The large amount of fluid contained in food, especially fruits and vegetables, as well as in the coffee and soda people drink daily, should be included in the recommended total.
As a matter of fact, drinking excess water can be dangerous, resulting in water intoxication and even death, the study authors noted.
While not doctor recommended, many local residents recall health myths told to them by mothers and grandmothers throughout their childhood, the most popular being that of not going out in the cold to avoid catching a cold.
“This came from my mother-in-law many years ago,” said Pam Moore. “Now that I am all grown up, I know that germs cause colds, not cold.”
Sammye Rusco had a similar version of the cold myth.
“A common my that my mother to this day, and I mean today, repeats is you’ll catch a cold or you’ll catch your death if you go outside with wet hair,” said Rusco. “Of course, I listen to the sage advice of my mother. Still, I have friends who virtually never use hairdryers and leave the house every morning with clean, wet hair. Wet hair hasn’t hurt them so far. Hmmm.”
Pregnancy precautions abound, and Kristie Girdner recalls one her grandmother swore was truth.
“My grandmother told me when I was pregnant with my kids not to put my hands above my head,” said Girdner. “[She said if I did] the [umbilical] cord would wrap around the baby’s neck.”
Linda Pope works with youth at the United Methodist Children’s Home, and has worked in group settings a great deal of her life. Throughout her tenure, she’s collected some doozy medical myths.
“I’ve heard that boys should pee on their feet in the shower to avoid contracting athlete’s foot,” said Pope. “The girls where I went to school were told never to wash their hair while they were on their periods. My grandmother said if Camphophenique and a Band-Aid won’t cure it, it can’t be cured.”
Pope also mentioned avoiding swallowing watermelon seeds lest you sprout a watermelon in your belly, and that singing before breakfast would make you ill before supper.
Tahlequah High School English teacher Shannon Jolliff had a mortal fear of potatoes, thanks to the sage advice of her grandmother.
“My grandmother used to tell use the ‘eyes’ on the potatoes would bite us,” said Jolliff. “For a long time - into my teen years - I hated to pick up the potatoes for fear of some malevolent happening. However, looking back, I realize there were way too many of us grandkids who would’ve piled into the kitchen while she was trying to cook if we’d not been threatened with something!”
Jolliff has also realized over the years that some of that advice was pretty good.
“My dad’s mom, Granny, always told us ‘a little dirt never hurts,’” she said. “She is still such a calm, serene, pragmatic person. She never minded if we were filthy, as long as we were having fun being kids. I know that as a parent of a young daughter, I am always worried about germs and dirt, but I think that life was much simpler when I was a kid. My granny worked as a nurse for 30 years, and was just pretty calm about all kinds of ailments. With five kids and 17 grandkids, I guess she’d seen about all the ‘normal’ kid stuff, too.”
Isabel Baker’s kids probably never had to wear long underwear unless they wanted to, thanks to Baker’s mother.
“The [myth and rule] I hated the most was wearing long underwear until April,” said Baker. “If you took it off, my mom would say, ‘Sure, it’s warm, but this is pneumonia weather, young lady, so keep it on!’”
Baker also hates the smell of kerosene, thanks to a home version of bug repellent employed when she was a kid.
“Something really distasteful to me was wrapping my ankles and wrists with cloths socked in kerosene to keep the chiggers and ticks away while picking blackberries,” she said. “I hated the smell and was afraid I would catch fire from my brother smoking!”
Becky Wolfe probably never kissed any frogs hoping for a prince, as she was brought up believing frogs - or a by-product of frogs - would give you warts.
“I grew up believing that if a frog peed on me, I’d get warts,” said Wolfe. “I’m not sure why I believed it, but I did, and as a young girl, I wouldn’t hold a frog at all. It may have been because they’re yucky to hold, anyway, but imagining one peeing on me was just gross!”
While frog urine was verboten, human urine was believed to hold homeopathic properties in Wolfe’s family.
“My grandma believed that putting a drop of your own urine in your ear would cure an earache,” she said. “My sister, the registered nurse, practiced it when her children were infants.”