Seven Medical Myths Debunked

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sudsmaster

sudsmaster

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LONDON (Reuters) - Reading in dim light won't damage your eyes, you don't need eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy and shaving your legs won't make the hair grow back faster.

These well-worn theories are among seven "medical myths" exposed in a paper published Friday in the British Medical Journal, which traditionally carries light-hearted features in its Christmas edition. Two U.S. researchers took seven common beliefs and searched the archives for evidence to support them.

Despite frequent mentions in the popular press of the need to drink eight glasses of water, they found no scientific basis for the claim.

The complete lack of evidence has been recorded in a study published the American Journal of Psychology, they said.

The other six "myths" are:

* Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight

The majority of eye experts believe it is unlikely to do any permanent damage, but it may make you squint, blink more and have trouble focusing, the researchers said.

* Shaving makes hair grow back faster or coarser

It has no effect on the thickness or rate of hair regrowth, studies say. But stubble lacks the finer taper of unshaven hair, giving the impression of coarseness.

* Eating turkey makes you drowsy

It does contain an amino acid called tryptophan that is involved in sleep and mood control. But turkey has no more of the acid than chicken or minced beef. Eating lots of food and drink at Christmas are probably the real cause of sleepiness.

* We use only 10 percent of our brains

This myth arose as early as 1907 but imaging shows no area of the brain is silent or completely inactive.

* Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death

This idea may stem from ghoulish novels. The researchers said the skin dries out and retracts after death, giving the appearance of longer hair or nails.

* Mobile phones are dangerous in hospitals

Despite widespread concerns, studies have found minimal interference with medical equipment.

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I recall a news story a couple of years ago that nutritionists had finally admitted that the "eight glasses of water a day" recommendation was based on a false assumption, and really wasn't necessary.

I always thought it was a bit bonkers, and refused to count how many glasses I drank a day.

And we all know what WC Fields had to say about water... lol...
 
Bottleled Water Craze

This whole water bottle craze has got me crazy. People who buy little bottles of water all day long thinking they are healthy and doing good for themselves are Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.
Do you know what the environmental cost to produce those plastic bottles is in terms of pollution, not to mention to truck them in, the gasoline and pollution? Drinking bottled water is not green and healthy, it is stupid.
OK, New York State has perhaps the purest water from the tap of any state, and much of it is untreated.
Paranoid People can get a tap filter and fill a jug and bring it to work every day, or do a Sparkletts water delivery at work, one plastic jug, 10 gallons of water instead of hundreds of office workers paying over a buck for 10 ounces and having hundreds of plastic bottles to dispose of in landfill or our ocean dumps. Stupid Stupid Stupid.

If you had a tap for municipal Vodka in your house delivered cheaply, would you pay 10,000 times that amount for an ounce in a plastic bottle? A glass of water from the tap is less than .00006 cents. Even if a tap filter costs 50 bucks, you make that up in two months not buying bottled water.

Potable water exists in all big cities in the USA.Get a filter!
We should be more worried about food additives and hormones that go into our meats, dairy, breads, eggs as we eat our deli sandwich and swill it down with our special, protected, bottled water.
And by the way, do you really think that the bottled water industry is tightly regulated with numerous inspections and authenticity requirements as to it's origins? Do you think the government has enough agents to even check this?

Some guy in Hackensak, New Jersey is using filterd tap water and filling bottles with Saratoga on the label.

Stupidest thing since the pet rock. At least with the pet rock, you had something to point to, instead of expensive water that you literrally piss your money away on.
 
City Water

As much as most people don't want to believe it, Municipal water goes through a much more stringent regulation than bottled water. I use to work for a municipality and the water was tested every month. Any violation was required by law to be reported to the users. At the time, bottled water was pretty much unregulated. That was 12 years ago, but the cost of bottled water makes gasoline seem cheap!
 
I still like the BRITTA ad that was out a few years back...It stated the following:

"You can buy purified, bottled water for about a dollar a quart....or you can bottle your own for about two cents!" The commercial showed someone re-filling a plastic water bottle.

What a truthful and very resourceful ad! Not only does it promote the benefits of their product, but also promotes conservation at the same time! I haven't seen it played very much lately, but it was rather common a few years back.
 
I have never bought bottled water, and I never will...what a freakin' rip off. Get a filter if you must, and put these people outta business already. We don't live in Calcutta!!
 
The thing with tap water in L.A. is that it just tastes Gawd-awful. Always has a metallic-musty aftertaste. I really cannot drink it. So, yes, I am one of those ecology-hating pretentious queens who runs around with bottled water. It's probably true that City water is cleaner than bottled but, hey, you can't beat the crisp, sparkling taste of Arrowhead water. I have tried the Brita filter pitcher and it does help some, but City water still does not taste as fresh as Arrowhead.

The best water I have ever tasted was when we lived up in the Blue Ridge Mountains area of Virginia, near Roanoke. The parsonage we lived in had a well fed by a running stream. The water was always cold, pure and refreshing. I can still taste its crispness to this day.
 
I agree. I've tasted LA water and it's not very good. Neither is San Jose water, for that matter. Lucky enough here to live in an area that gets its water, mostly, from the Sierra Nevada (Mokolume River).

There are, however, reverse osmosis water filters that supposedly can make even LA water taste good. They aren't cheap, though, but probably less expensive than drinking a lot of bottled stuff. I've seen them at Costco from time to time. About $200 for the setup, and then about $50 for annual filter changes, as I recall.
 
Ever tasted Red Water? That's the water that comes from the cleanup of explosives such as Composition B at ammunition plants. I used to work directly with the collection and disposal of such waste water. There was a time that all this water was dumped directly in to open air lagoons and allowed to seep into the soil as method of disposal. I saw my old plant have to, under direct order of the EPA, incinerate all the soil that was contaminated by these lagoons. And to think that all the drinking water that I drank there for those years (10) was from wells only a short distance from these lagoons. In some cases, only feet from the lagoons. No wonder that the community across the road from the plant had such a high cancer rate. They drank the water for years on a 24 hour basis. I only drank it for 8 hours a day 5 days aweek. Scaryyyy;.
 
No more comments on this thread? I'm sure Homeland Security is after me now with the mention of explosives. HaHa ~I'll deal with the Gestapo when they get to my my front door. Oh, I forgeted again, I don't have a front door. Got too much piled up in front of it to call it a door anymore. You know how those demo blocks take up so much room when they are stacked incorrectly ya know? Se ya in Leavenworth yaws.
 
I drink all the water I can when in NYC. Was rated at or near #1 in the country for taste and prob health; it's from the mountains.

Long Island water, OTOH tastes like @$$, and not in a good way. It is extracted up from the ground and believed to be carcinogenic.

My Kenmore brand distiller serves me just fine for pure water!

Yes there is some bottled water in the house for local (Long Island) excursions!

1-3-2008-19-48-32--Toggleswitch.jpg
 
Soil, if incinerated, would probably be reduced to an ash composed of the mineral content of organic matter (similar to wood ash) and the inorganic sand and rock grains that are present in many soils. No need to get the temp high enough to melt sand/rock, I would think.

BTW, nice Kenmore distiller. I didn't know such things existed. Beats having to buy it at the supermarket, I suppose. But be careful drinking distilled water - it doesn't have the mineral content your body needs. You might need an extra helping of hot Ralston to compensate!
 

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