A human’s body is a very complex system which can be affected in very unpredictable ways. Scientists are working hard to learn more and more about the way it is functioning, although it is not thus simple. Unfortunately, while they are gaining new information about our health debunking previous myths, new ones are created. In this article, we would like to share some of them.
Hand osteoarthritis cannot be caused by knuckle cracking
If you are a person who is attentive to one’s own health, in all likelihood, you are not practise knuckle cracking because there is a strong belief this popular habit which helps many people to get over stress can cause osteoarthritis.
Such a belief seems to be reasonable because the movements of the joints during cracking does not seem to be natural let alone the unpleasant sound released with cracking. Still, a group of American researchers carried out an experiment checking whether there is really any interconnection between knuckle cracking and osteoarthritis. It turned out, the habit has no implication on the health of the joints in your fingers.
Interestingly, Donald L. Unger who is a doctor himself even conducted such an experiment on himself for which he received an Ig Nobel prize in 2009. He constantly knuckle cracked with only his left hand for fifty years in order to check how its health will be affected in comparison to his right hand. It turned out, none of his hands developed osteoarthritis.
Ice cream causing sore throat and making it more severe
One of the most popular beliefs about health is the one connecting ice cream and sore throat.
According to many people, ice cream can cause sore throat because it is rather cold. Others believe people should not have ice cream once they have sore throat as it will make the inflammation more severe for the same reason. Finally, there are people who are ice-cream as well as any other dairy products should be avoided altogether if you have a sore throat as milk intensifies the production of mucus which makes it harder to breathe and feel pain while swallowing.
There were several researches on this topic which showed ice-cream is not thus dangerous for people with sore throat as we believe. Actually, sore throat itself is hardly caused by eating something cold as it is a reaction of our body to some kind of an infection. Definitely, such infections are not present in ice cream.
Once you get ill, you can even try eating a bit melted ice cream which can even sooth the inflammation in your throat.
All of the psychopaths being criminals and murderers
The majority of people believe all of the psychopaths are murderers and if they still haven’t killed anyone, they are definitely criminals in any other way. Needless to say, such a belief is extremely popular due to the mass culture which has lots of examples of psychopaths being criminals.
In the reality not all of the psychopaths are killers or criminals, however, they certainly have such a biological predisposition, yet, it is not necessarily a need to kill someone. What is true about psychopaths is their specific biology of brain which is making them more prone to taking risks than other people. One of the features true for many psychopaths is not being able to learn from previous experience and feeling responsibility for it which makes them more open to taking such actions which regular people will be afraid to do.
Thus, it does not mean that all of the psychopaths are willing to kill someone, but they will certainly get through such an experience more easily than regular people will. This fact actually makes the number of inmates in prisons pretty high. At the same time it is crucial to understand that so far even professional psychiatrists are struggling with identifying real psychopaths since there is no perfect test for this task. That is why researchers are conducting experiments for understanding the brain activity of psychopaths.
Eating before bed is leading to weight gaining
A popular belief that eating before bed contributes to weight gaining itself is not true. For weight to be gained, it is not important whether when you have eaten the food. What is certainly important is how much you have eaten.
For many people the claim about gaining weight more easily if you eat right before going to bed is usually true because these people have a poor eating habit of not having enough food during the day and then compensating it right before bed. For that reason, people who have a full meal right before sleeping usually really gain weight as it is frequently related to overeating.
Yet, if your diet is well-balanced, you will not gain weight because you have had your meal before going to bed.
Note that apart from junk food, weight can also be gained by mixing some products together. For example, according to studies having sweet treats right after a meal rich in fat enhances the capacity of your body to store fat. It is relatable not only for sweets but also for fruits.