10 Facts About Our Bodies That Are Really Myths
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It has been a common trend to fabricate facts about our bodies that, over time, have been misconstrued as truths. With the advent of social media, such myths are spreading like wildfire when posted on unreliable health blogs and websites. For this reason, it’s imperative that you bring an end to these alluring myths and inaccuracies by learning the real facts about your body.
Today we’ll bust ten common myths about your body!
1. Excess Vitamin Consumption Is Good
Sometimes, we consume vitamins as though they are the elixir of life. But, in reality, they are not really a substitute for a healthy diet, according to a report by WebMD (1). While the thought of having a pill a day to make you healthy sounds good, researchers believe that consuming excess vitamins, if taken in the form of pills, could be harmful.
2. Brown Sugar Is Healthier
The second myth we want to address is the notion that brown sugar is better than white sugar. In actual fact, brown sugar is just regular sugar that has been turned brown because of the addition of molasses. According to experts, dark brown sugar has around 6% molasses while light brown contains nearly 3% (2). Though molasses contain minerals and vitamins such as magnesium and potassium, there is insufficient data to suggest that brown sugar is healthier than white sugar.
3. ‘Sugar Rush’ Is Real
For decades now, parents were under the impression that cakes and sweets in parties made children hyperactive. However, experts say that no credible studies have been able to support that claim (3). While it should be noted that too much sugar can harm your teeth, some experts suggest that consuming sugary drinks can also help with a child’s concentration and mood.
4. Sugar Is Addictive
Sugar is found in a variety of nutritional food items such as fruits and vegetables. While excess sugar consumption is not good, eliminating sugar from our diet would not be advisable. Sugar can, however, result in drug-like effects such as exacerbating depression (4). But it cannot result in abnormal mental changes in behaviour as seen in other drug addictions.
5. Eight-Hour Sleep Myth
Conventional wisdom implies that every person requires at least eight hours of sleep in a day. But, in actuality, each person needs different amounts of sleep. To put it simply: both surplus sleep and a lack of it can cause harm to your body. For instance, some might still feel tiredness after sleeping for nine hours, while a person who slept for four hours could feel fresh.
6. Our Nails Grow After Death
Our fingernails do not grow after death simply because the human body cannot generate more cells. Though it might appear that nails grow longer after death, this notion has been busted long ago. In fact BBC recently explained the reason for this illusion stating that it isn’t actual nail growth that we see, but because of dehydration the skin around the nail pulls back, making them look longer (5).
7. Alcohol Can Destroy Your Brain Cells
There is no major study that backs the claim that alcohol kills brain cells but in reality, alcohol disrupts brain function in adults by harming dendrites on neurons in the cerebellum. It thus alters the link between the neuron and the brain, according to a report published by the BBC (6).
8. Nerve Cells Don’t Regenerate
In recent years, many scientists and biologists around the world have learnt that nerve cells can regenerate – they just don’t do very much of it and they also don’t do it very quickly, which is why people who injure their nervous system can face paralysis.
9. We Use Only 10% Of Our Brain
It has long been falsely believed that human beings use only 1/10th of their brain’s total capacity. And experts speculate that one of the reasons for this 10% usage misconception is because our glial cells (read: helper brain cells) outnumber neurons by a 10:1 ratio in the brain (7). Neurons constitute only 10% of the entire brain.
10. Antibiotics Get Rid Of Viruses
It has long been perceived that a person can use an antibiotic to treat even cold or flu. However, antibiotics just take action against bacteria. Viruses, which lead to medical conditions like colds, herpes and influenza, are not affected by antibiotics. Also, it must be noted that the more antibiotics we use, the more good bacteria get destroyed.
From myths like “shaving makes your beard thicker” to “urinating on a wound inflicted by jellyfish helps to decrease the pain”, most false notions about our bodies are blindly believed by a surprising number of people around the world as true. Hence, you must be careful about the choices you make that affect your body – be it the consumption of vitamins and antibiotics or starving a fever – you should make informed decisions from reliable sources and studies.
