Do you get sick from wet hair in the cold? Plus 4 other common health myths
Many popularly held health myths that people have passed down from generation to generation are not scientifically supported. These beliefs persist partly because they’re often repeated and sound plausible, but they don’t hold up under scientific scrutiny.
Here are five common beliefs to debunk at your next social gathering to really impress your friends:
1. Wet hair outside can get you sick
I can hear my mom now yelling at me to throw on a coat before going outside because I could catch a cold. Common to the idea that cold weather alone can make you sick, walking outside with wet hair in the cold will not cause you to fall ill.
“I wouldn’t worry so much about going outside with wet hair,” Sean O’Leary, chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told The Washington Post. “I would worry about making sure you’re protected from the things we know can be very severe.”
While going outside with wet hair can make you feel uncomfortably cold, it does not make you more susceptible to catching a cold virus.
2. Vitamin C prevents colds
“The practice of taking vitamin C tablets and eating oranges when you get sick was spearheaded in the 1970s with a recommendation to eat the equivalent of 12 to 24 oranges to prevent illness,” the Deseret News previously reported.
While vitamin C is essential for overall health and can contribute to a healthy immune system, vitamin C supplements do not significantly lower the risk of catching a cold.
According to the National Institute of Health, “Taking vitamin C every day to try to prevent colds won’t protect most people from colds. It only slightly shortens the amount of time that they’re ill. Starting to take vitamin C once you already have cold symptoms won’t have any effect on your cold.”
3. Cracking knuckles causes arthritis
Besides annoying people around you, research shows that cracking knuckles won't actually harm your health.
“There are no known detrimental effects to cracking your knuckles,” orthopedic surgeon John Fackler told Houston Methodist. “At worst, knuckle-cracking may cause temporary swelling or a feeling of weakness in the hands — but arthritis, not quite.”
Studies have shown that knuckle-cracking does not increase the risk of arthritis, although it can lead to reduced grip strength or hand swelling in some people.
Related
4. Eating at night makes you gain weight
The belief that eating late at night causes weight gain is a common misconception. Weight gain occurs when you consume more calories than you burn, regardless of the time of day.
“As long as the number of calories you eat in a day is not more than the calories you burn, eating late won’t cause you to gain weight. The same meal has the same calories at 10 p.m. as it does at 6 p.m.,” per Children’s Minnesota.
However, eating late at night might be associated with unhealthy eating habits, which can contribute to weight gain. Try to avoid unhealthy snacking and choose fruit or vegetables to hold you over till breakfast.
5. We only use 10% of our brain
The popular myth that we use hardly any of our brains is untrue; people use most of their brains. As many as 65% Americans believe in the 10% brain myth, according to Medical News Today.
“While some parts of your brain are working harder than others at any given time, it’s untrue that 90 percent of your brain is just useless filler,” per Healthline. “Each section of your brain specializes in different functions and, over the course of a day, you use just about every part of your brain.”
