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Old wives' tales
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This weeks feature
Is there any truth in any of those old sayings? Simon Evans investigates
Research scientists, chasing headlines and research grants, seemingly announce miracle cures almost every week, only to swiftly backtrack when their claims are exposed to any detailed scrutiny. Some medical claims, however, go back a lot further than one of last week's daily papers; in some cases thousands of years, and you may be surprised by how many have at least a kernel of truth. |
An apple a day keeps the doctor away
TRUE. There's actually a lot to be said for this, although you could easily substitute just about any item of fresh fruit, all of which contain valuable antioxidants. Apples, however, have been shown to be especially effective at keeping cancers at bay since they are a good source of flavonoids, which are strong anti-carcinogens. |
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| Put butter or ice on a burn
FALSE. Since butter can resemble some ointments it may once have been used to ease burns, but it won't actually soothe the skin or prevent tissue damage. Putting ice on a burn can be even worse, causing the same kind of tissue damage as a burn. The best remedy, at least in the short-term, is cold water, which stops the burning process and prevents deeper tissue damage. |
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Spinach makes your muscles strong
FALSE. Popeye may have believed "I'm strong to the finich / 'Cuz I eats me spinach", but it doesn't actually make any difference. Though spinach contains iron, it also has oxalates that actually discourage absorption, so if you want to build up those muscles you are better off with meat or fish. |
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| Feed a cold, starve a fever
FALSE. Although feeding a cold won't actually get rid of it any faster, it's likely that you will feel a little more peckish, since the body's metabolic rate increases with any type of fever, and this causes you to burn up energy. |
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The idea that eating well may actually make your fever worse, rather like adding wood to a well-stoked fire, is, however, false. Whether you will actually feel like eating anything when you have a high fever is another matter. When you are ill you shold really only eat when you feel hungry, and even then eat the right sort of things to help you back to health, such as fresh, nutritious foods, not junk. Eating well when you have a fever or cold can only help your recovery, since it boosts energy levels and enables the body to fight back against the infection.When you have a virus it is especially important that you take plenty of fluids, especially water and fruit juice.
Another old chestnut is that you can 'sweat out' a cold. You can't, since a cold can take one or two weeks to run its course, and the only way to get rid of it is to take care of yourself. Sweating isn't harmful when you're ill, as long as you replenish your body with fluids, change your clothes, and avoid sweating in the cold. You also can't exercise out a cold; your body needs to conserve energy to fight it. Exercising is a good way to keep your immune system strong when you're well, but skip your workout if you're feeling run down. Exercise can be a strain on a body that is trying to fight an illness. |
Eating cheese gives you nightmares
FALSE. This particular myth probably originated with Charles Dickens' perenniel festive favourite 'A Christmas Carol', in which Ebenezer Scrooge blames "a crumb of cheese" for his nightly spectral visitations. More recently there was a health scare in the Fifties, when cheese, when taken with a particular anti-depressant, was shown to hold certain dangers. The jury is out on this one, as there is no research linking cheese with nightmares - but nothing to disprove it either! Foods you should definitely avoid before bedtime, however, are coffee, tea and chocolate, which will keep you awake. |
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| Reading in dim light will make you blind
FALSE. Although this would appear to be self-evident, in reality reading in poor light will cause your eyes to become fatigued, probably leading to the mother of all headaches, but it will not cause any lasting damage. Best though to always read in a well-lit room. |
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Spicy foods can cause ulcers
FALSE. Spicy foods may aggravate ulcer symptoms in some people, but they don't bring about ulcers. A bacterial infection or overuse of pain medications such as aspirin or anti-inflammatory drugs is the usual cause. Stress and eating piquant foods can cause indigestion or even acid reflux, but they don't create ulcers - they just irritate them. |
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| Too much loud noise can cause hearing loss
TRUE. Just 15 minutes of listening to loud, pounding music or machinery can cause temporary loss of hearing and tinnitus, a ringing in the ears. Loud noise causes the eardrum to vibrate excessively and can damage the tiny hairs in the cochlea, a cone-shaped tube in the inner ear that converts sound into electrical signals for the brain to process. Although temporary hearing loss usually disappears within a day or two, continuous exposure to extreme noise can result in permanent hearing loss. |
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Never mix grape and grain
FALSE. We are often told that mixing wine and beer is a mistake, but in reality any Freddie Flintoff-style hangovers that we suffer are likely to be a by-product of excessive alcohol intake - of whatever variety - rather than mixing different types of drink. When both fruits and grains are fermented, producing alcohol, a compound called fusel oil is also produced, and it is this that tends to cause hangovers. |
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| If you go to bed with wet hair, you'll catch a cold
FALSE. Although going to bed with wet hair, or going outside with a soaking head, is not advisable, since it causes our body temperature to drop more quickly than it would normally, you will not catch cold as a result. Colds are viruses, and we are more susceptible to them when we feel tired or stressed, since both of these affect our immune system, regardless of the temperature of our bodies. |
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The main way we catch colds and flu is by touching something with the cold virus on it, and then touching the nose or eye, or by breathing in viruses from someone sneezing near to you.
If you go out into the rain without a coat, or go to bed with wet hair, you may feel a slight chill, but you won't catch cold, unless you get particularly stressed from getting wet or cold, in which case the immune system can be affected. the reason we tend to catch more colds in the winter is that we are indoors more, where viruses spread quickly and easily, especially in the dry air of modern central heating. It is this, dry air, that lowers resistance to infection more than having wet hair after a shower. |
Eat the crust of the bread - it's especially good for you
TRUE. A crumb of bread crust has eight times the amount of cancer-fighting antioxidants as a crumb from another part of the slice, according to a recent study published in the 'Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry'. |
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| Wait an hour after eating before you go swimming
FALSE. In general you should not need to wait this long before taking to the water, unless you have indulged in a big meal. As a general guideline it is best to wait until digestion has begun - normally about half an hour - especially if you plan to swim strenuously, as opposed to just splashing about.
When you eat, blood is diverted to your digestive system to help metabolise the food. Exercising also increases blood flow, since blood carries the oxygen your muscles need to work. If you're digesting food and exercising vigorously at the same time, there's not as much blood available for the muscles - so they could cramp. This is only likely, however, if you eat a five course meal and then exercise vigorously. Light snacks before swimming are, however, not a problem. |
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A cure for coughs?
Some old wives tales are just that - tales - with no actual basis in science or medicine. Take this convoluted cure for coughs: Take a hair from the coughing person's head, put it between two slices of buttered bread, feed it to a dog, and say, "Eat well, you hound, may you be sick and I be sound." |
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| Carrots help you see in the dark
TRUE. A difficult one this - in common with most fresh vegetables, which are rich in antioxidants, carrots are good for the eyes, and, indeed, a healthy diet is very important for good eyesight since what you eat affects the blood vessels in the eye. Carrots, in particular, contain vitamin A, which is an excellent source of beta-carotene which can, in certain cases, prevent glaucoma and macular degeneration, as well as helping you to preserve good night vision. |
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There is, however, no evidence that eating an excessive amount of carrots will make any real difference to your vision, except in helping you to preserve the eyesight you already have, rather than enhancing it in some way. A vitamin A deficiency can cause night blindness, but this is not a common problem in developed countries.
In fact broccoli, spinach and other green leafy vegetables are excellent sources of lutein, which is found in smaller quantities in carrots and is especially effective at reducing the severity of age-related eye deterioration.
The carrots myth appears to have arisen during World War Two, when British intelligence is thought to have deliberately spread the rumour that their pilots had good night vision - and were especially handy at picking off Nazi bombers - because they ate lots of carrots. This tall tale was intended to obscure the truth - that it was radar that enabled the bombers to be targeted so accurately, but it would appear to have contained enough of the truth to be convincing - and to have stuck. |
Fish is brain food
TRUE. Fish is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids that have been shown to be very good for the brain. Research has also shown that people who eat fish have less plaque in their arteries, which, in itself, can improve our mental functions. Fish also contains important B vitamins that help with our everyday brain processes and memory. |
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| Hangover remedies
If you have overdone it at Christmas there is plenty of advice around to cure that monster hangover.
Rest, plenty of water and a couple of paracetamol are the nearest thing you'll find to a hangover 'cure', doctors insist. Even so, homespun remedies abound, some of them dating back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. |
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Most are based on the notion that you should take some of the "hair of the dog that bit you", a centuries-old idea that originally did, quite literally, refer to a cure for dog bites.
During the Roaring Twenties this maxim was applied in the form of the Bloody Mary - vodka and tomato juice - which was invented at this time and widely advocated as a post-hangover pick-you-up. More recently, there has been the Black Velvet, made up of equal parts champagne and flat Guinness.
Fatty food, that is rich in calories, is another popular 'morning after' remedy which, today, usually takes the form of a hearty fried breakfast. In Roman times, however, they were quite partial to fried canaries while the Greeks contented themselves with some cabbage. |
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