Health Myths

Acne is caused due to impure blood or constipation

Acne is caused by excessive secretion of sebaceous glands, hormonal imbalances and stress. Impure blood or constipation has nothing to do with it. You can control acne by avoiding fancy scented soaps, oil massages and excessive moisturising. Have more green leafy vegetables in your diet and keep your face clean.

Oiling hair every day encourages growth

It’s one of the most popular Indian myths. Oiling hair merely protects it from dust, pollution, colour and external pollutants. Regular application of oil has no relation with hair growth. When you scrub oil on your scalp, the hair merely soaks it up. It is then protected from external factors. Oil cannot stimulate growth, so don’t expect any Rapunzel effect.

Cracking knuckles causes arthritis

Very often elders might stop you from cracking knuckles, warning it could cause arthritis. However, that’s wrong. Accumulation of gases around the joints causes air bubbles which burst when we crack them and the air is released. Arthritis is caused because of excessive strain on one muscle, ageing and because of infection in a joint.

All types of cholesterol are bad

There are two kinds of cholesterol, the HDL, which is the good one, and LDL — the bad one. Foods such as olive oil, nuts, oily fish, soya oil are good sources of HDL. Good cholesterol prevents the harmful effects of LDL ie., choking of blood vessels. On the other hand, foods like vegetable oil, mayonnaise, cheese, butter are the evil ones that congest the arteries.
One must drink eight glasses of water daily
Everyone’s been recommending this trick, from the supermodel in a beauty magazine to your neighbourhood aunt. Yes, water is good for the body, but the need varies from one person to another. For example, a kidney or a heart patient may need more than eight glasses of water. Also, if your diet is high on other water sources you needn’t necessarily consume eight glasses per day. Soup, cucumber, water melon and other foods high on water content should also be counted. But, if you manage to gulp down more than eight glasses of water, good for you!

Reading in poor light ruins eyesight

This one is another old wives’ tale. Reading in dim light merely strains the eye temporarily causing headaches but doesn’t ruin them. Nor does it make eyes more prone to eye infections. However, stressing the eyes for a long period may have adverse consequences. Factors such as staring at the computer screen for too long, etc can be blamed for ruining the eyes in a short span.

Chocolate is bad for your teeth

Attention, chocoholics! Chocolate has no reason to make your teeth bad. In fact, a sticky molten cheese pizza may have a worse effect on your teeth than a harmless bar of chocolate. The bottom line being anything that sticks to your teeth needs to be cleaned and if it stays there for a long time, it’s likely to cause decay.

You must sweat when exercising

Sweating has no relation to weight loss when exercising. People sweat because their body is getting heated while performing a workout and needs to cool down. And everyone has a different sweating pattern. It varies as per age, sex and most importantly one’s environment. And with most gyms, having air conditioning, you can end up working out twice as much and still not sweat a drop.

Overeating sweets leads to diabetes

People eating sweets have an equal chance of getting diabetes as those who stay off it. Diabetes is mainly caused due to accumulation of glucose in the body or by the inability of the pancreas to regulate the sugar level. It can be triggered off by sugar but not really caused by it.

All health foods are good

With the amount of soya bars and protein shakes hitting the market, everyone’s been gorging on health foods. However, most of them are packed with preservatives. Also, it’s important to use them as substitutes, not as add-ons to regular diet.