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Seven Medical Myths
By Scott Roberts, 29 Jan 13:40
Ask your doctor how much water you should drink or why you couldn't keep your eyes open after Thanksgiving dinner, and you're likely to get the same misinformation your mother-in-law might dispense.
A study published in the December 2007 British Medical Journal tweaked physicians on their acceptance of some widespread medical beliefs that might now be reclassified as old wives' tales. Here's a rundown:
1. Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day: The researchers who conducted the study could find no clinical evidence to support this notion. But they did dig up an article from the November 2002 American Journal of Physiology that documented the lack of evidence behind this popular recommendation. You do need to be well hydrated, but research suggests that the liquids most people drink daily - juice, milk, and decaffeinated beverages - will do the trick. Your best bets are purified water, diluted fruit juice, tea, and sparkling water flavored with fruit juice.
2. We use only 10 percent of our brains: This is a real oldie that traces its history back to 1907, but didn't originate, as once believed, with Albert Einstein. Now that we know much more about neuroscience than we did 100 years ago, we can say for sure that we use much more than 10 percent of the brain, say the BMJ researchers. In fact, high-tech methods of studying the brain have not identified any inactive areas.
3. Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death: This disturbing, gruesome image is pure "moonshine" according to forensic anthropologist William Maples, who was quoted in the BMJ study. However, he explained that dehydration of the body after death can cause retract
Tags: medical myth fact fiction