Metal Mummy

I’ve just found quite an interesting post about some common misconceptions – the original article can be found here, but I thought I’d share it anyway.

Did you believe the myths? Or were you a cynic all along? I believed a few of them, I have to admit.

10. Sleepwalkers should never be woken.

Sleepwalkers are often confused, or disorientated when awakened, but this is far better than the danger of injuries that are common from tripping over things, walking into dangerous areas and more. Thus, wake them gently and help them get back to bed.

I wasn’t sure about this one. I’ve never had to decide whether to wake a sleepwalker or leave them to it. I remember sleepwalking myself once, but I woke myself up before any harm came of me. I can see the logic behind waking sleepwalkers up though. Imagine if they fell down the stairs, and you knew they were sleepwalking?!

9. You will catch a cold if you go out in the wet, freezing weather.

There is no evidence to support this misconception at all. Viruses are more common in low humidity time of winter and of course, people are gathered indoors more, so they spread easily but the only thing that going out in the cold does is perhaps lower your resistance to an infection you already have, starting some temporary sneezing and coughing.

I was always told this when I was younger. I used to always go out in the cold weather and hang out with friends, often with nothing more than a hoodie on. I was never one for coats. Still not really. I remember my family saying something along the lines of “You’ll catch your death wearing that” etc, and I’m still here. In fact, I don’t remember a time when my cold symptoms were exacerbated by going out in the cold. So I didn’t believe this myth.

8. Fingernails and hair continue to grow after death

Neither continue to grow. What does happen is that the cuticles and skin shrinks after death, making it appear as if the nails and hair were lengthening.

I can’t say I’ve ever seen a dead body (in real life) so I wouldn’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever been curious about this either. Thinking about it though, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible for things to continue to grow after the person has died. That’s just a bit weird.

7. Your hair grows back thicker and darker after shaving.

Another falsity. Uncut hair is tapered, so doesn’t appear as thick as cut hair. Also, uncut hair has more exposure to the sun, which lightens it a little, making cut hair appear darker at first.

The amount of times I shave my legs, I wouldn’t have paid much attention… I have wondered though when people say it grows back darker. It’s from the same follicle, so how would it grow back a different colour?

6. Conditioners and shampoos can cure split ends.

Not so, there are no cures for split ends beyond cutting them. Good conditioners and shampoos might help prevent them in the first place but anything purporting to heal them should be looked at with the same eye as you would look at snake oil.

This one I believed. I must be a sucker for the publicity and advertisements that shampoo and conditioner companies give. I really did think that if you condition your hair, the split ends would somehow glue themselves back together. Silly me. Another thing, what is snake oil?

5. Men think of sex every 7 seconds.

It would make it hard to concentrate on needed things such as work if this were true, so good thing it isn’t. Even though there is no way of measuring this properly, studies scientists have done show this is a huge exaggeration.

I can agree with this. 7 seconds is a bit much. 10 seconds, maybe.

4. Different areas of the tongue taste different things.

The idea that taste buds in different areas of the tongue correspond to sweet, sour, savory and salty has been floating around for decades but is false. Every area of the tongue can taste every type; the idea that there was a tongue map came from a mistranslation by a Harvard professor, of a badly written and discredited German paper.

I thought that there were different areas of the tongue for different tastes. That’s what we were always taught in school – that cool little diagram of a tongue, with different coloured patches for each type of taste. I’ve been lied to!

3. We only use 10% of our human brain

William James, a psychologist in the 1800s, once metaphorically used the idea of 10% of the brain being all that was used at one time. This grew into the rumor that it was all the brain was overall and most of the rest was not understood or used as far as we know. Actually, the inactive neurons are just as important at any given moment as the ones actively firing at a point in time, and the 10% comes from varying areas at different times.

I know that not all the brain is used at once, but I don’t believe this myth.

2. Sugar makes children hyperactive

False! Twelve controlled, double blind trials have shown that there is absolutely no connection between children’s behavior and their sugar intake. One thing was found, namely that parents rate their child’s behavior as more hyper when they thought they had been given a sugary drink. “The studies included sugar from sweets, chocolate and natural sources. Even in studies of those who were considered “sensitive” to sugar, children did not behave differently after eating sugar-full or sugar-free diets,” said Vreeman and Carrol who undertook the retrospective study.

I used to believe that sugar made you hyper. There was definitely something in blue smarties that didn’t agree with me when I was a kid, but I think that was more E Number than sugar. I remember watching a show with Jo Frost earlier this year about this, and she did a similar sort of test with some primary school kids and proved all the parents wrong about the sugar misconception.

1. Warts can be caught from other animals, like toads

Human warts are caused by a virus that affects only humans, the human pappiloma virus. They cannot be caught by animals with warts and certainly not by toads whose bumps are not warts but glands.

I wouldn’t have put this as the number 1 myth/misconception. I’ve never heard such rubbish. And even if it was true, why would you go and rub skin with a toad anyway?

So, there you have it. I thought it was quite an interesting read. What you can learn from it? Don’t spend a fortune on hair products you don’t need, just get your hair cut regularly. Also, don’t worry about the amount of sugar you or your kids eat, apart from the unhealthy factor. Oh, and don’t go rubbing your face on a toad. Not because you can catch warts from it, just because it’s odd.