In an article published in the year-end edition of the British Medical Journal last weekend, the Indianapolis-based team of Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll identified seven widely held health beliefs in need of critical review.
They included the notion that people should drink at least eight glasses of water a day, that we only use 10 percent of our brains, and that turkey causes fatigue.
"These medical myths are a light-hearted reminder that we can be wrong and need to question what other falsehoods we unwittingly propagate as we practice medicine," the authors say in the article.
The researchers used Google and Medline, an archive of medical literature, to find evidence to support or debunk health claims endorsed by physicians and the general public.
The following myths are busted or just have meager medical evidence:
- People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
- We use only 10% of our brains
- Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
- Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser
- Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
- Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy
- Mobile phones create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals.
Editor:
"Enjoy reading the report, it's rather amusing!"
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