Medical myths abound.

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I found the following interesting and hope you will also.

Ralph Giarnella MD

Southington Ct USA

7 Medical Myths That Might Have Your Doctor Duped

By Adam Voiland

Posted December 21, 2007

Medical myths abound. For Carroll, a

pediatrician at the Regenstrief Institute in

Indianapolis, the last straw was hearing an ominous

radio report that warned parents that strangers might

try to poison their kids on Halloween. " There hasn't

been one documented case of a stranger actually doing

that, " Carroll says. (He adds that the few Halloween

candy poisoning cases that have occurred have involved

the child's family, not strangers.) The radio story

prompted Carroll and a fellow pediatrician,

Vreeman of the Indiana University School of Medicine,

to start looking for other common, unsubstantiated

beliefs. They found numerous examples and have just

published a report in the British Medical Journal

naming seven common medical misconceptions and laying

out the evidence for why they're not true.

We Use Only 10 Percent of Our Brain. People have been

spouting this " fact " since 1907, but numerous

brain-imaging studies have shown that no area of the

brain is completely inactive.

Drink at Least Eight Glasses of Water a Day. We've all

heard that we're supposed to drink before we're

thirsty and that our pee should be as clear as mineral

water, but most of us get plenty of water from food

and other drinks. Drinking water when you're thirsty

makes sense, but eight glasses is setting the bar too

high for many people.

Hair and Fingernails Continue to Grow After Death.

Makes for creepy fiction, yes, but actually it's the

retraction of desiccating skin that makes the nails or

hair of a cadaver appear to be growing. Real growth

requires complex hormonal regulation, which stops at

death.

Shaving Hair Causes It to Grow Back Faster, Darker,

and Coarser. No, no, and no. Newly sprouted hair looks

dark because it has had minimal exposure to sun or

chemicals, and it seems coarse because shaved hair

lacks the finer taper seen at the ends of unshaven

hair.

Reading in Dim Light Ruins Your Eyesight. Dim light

may force you to strain or squint your eyes, most

ophthalmologists say, but it does not cause any eye

damage.

Eating Turkey Makes You Drowsy. Tryptophan, an amino

acid that's linked to mood control and can cause

drowsiness, is found in turkey meat. But chicken and

ground beef contain similar amounts, and pork and

Swiss cheese contain even more tryptophan per gram.

Any large meal can induce sleepiness by decreasing

blood flow to the brain.

Mobile Phones Are Dangerous in Hospitals. Not one

death caused by the use of a cellphone in a hospital

has ever been reported, according to Carroll and

Vreeman, though equipment malfunctions occasionally

have been. Research actually suggests that allowing

physicians to use cellphones inside hospitals reduces

the risk of medical error and injury.