farmdoc's blog post number 255

Last Saturday, within the framework of Myths and Symbols, I wrote about symbols. Today I’m writing about myths. Medical myths. This article in the 19 December 2008 British Medical Journal debunks the following myths: Sugar causes hyperactivity in children. Suicides increase over holiday periods. You can’t mix alcohol with antibiotics. More heat is lost through the scalp than through any similar area of skin elsewhere. Nocturnal feasting puts on more weight than eating the same food at other times. And you can cure a hangover. A year earlier, this article by the same authors in the 22 December 2007 BMJ debunked the following myths. 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. The authors’ message? Be aware of when evidence supports our advice, and when we operate based on unexamined beliefs. Only by investigation, discussion, and debate can we reveal the existence of myths and move the field of medicine forward. I reckon the same goes for non-medical myths. Finally I’m not mythologising when I wish each Farmdoc’s Blog reader a healthy, safe and fulfilling 2009.