Most common medical myths
Content
Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................3
Most common TV medical myths...............................................................................4
White coat myth.................................................................................................4
The Successful Resuscitation Myth..........................................................................4
The Defibrillator Rub Myth.................................................................................5
The Next of Kin Myth..........................................................................................5
The Flat-Line Myth.............................................................................................6
The Doctors Do Everything Myth...........................................................................6
Most common medical myths from other medias............................................................7
Late-night snake will make you overweight...............................................................7
Snapping fingers or joints will cause an arthritis later in life...........................................7
You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day...................................................7
Blood sugar myth................................................................................................7
Carrot is good for eye vision..................................................................................8
Chocolate will cause face spots...............................................................................8
Cold weather makes us ill.....................................................................................8
We use only 10 percent of our brain’s capacity............................................................9
Chewing gum stays in our stomach seven years..........................................................9
Reading in dark and watching TV close up destroy eye vision........................................9
People should not swim at least one hour after a meal...................................................9
Fluorine prevents caries development.......................................................................9
Cancer curing myth...........................................................................................10
Conclusion.........................................................................................................11
Literature sources................................................................................................12
Introduction
Medicine is, maybe, one of the most important sciences for human kind. Since the ancient time,
people were trying to improve this field and almost fully succeeded. However, developing of the
medicine was often followed by the developing of pseudoscience and spreading false
information.
In late fifties and early sixties, when television started to be primer media, rumors about medicine
started to spread worldwide. Eighties and nineties gave us a whole bunch of medical TV shows,
series and films, which only enlarged number of medical myths. But, television world is not only
media that spreads false information about medicine. Newspapers articles were not immune from
this kind of disease.
In this era we live in, internet has become the primary source of information. Almost whole
human kind is online. That is why now we can find cure for every illness we type in our search
bar. Instantly, we can find a collection of blogs, articles and forum discussions of every topic that
interests us. But, did we really make that kind of progress? And, how can we be sure who is that
person that describe himself as a M.D., nurse or specialist?
On the other hand, this kind of popularity made medicine close to people and made them interest
for their own health. It made them aware of danger of living unhealthy lifestyle: drinking,
smoking, eating junk food ( explaining what junk food is ), etc.
Because of that, I think it is very important to make a clear line between what the real medicine is
and what is only a myth.
The most common TV medical myths
White coat myth
Doctor’s uniform is one of the most common associations we have when we think of them. We
picture their garment always so white, clean and ironed. But, not that long ago, doctors were
wearing a black suite. Black attire was considered very formal, like tuxedos, so those
conservative societies trusted people dressed by the book. Doctors decided to wear white coat
about 100 years ago, because they considered white as a symbol of cleanness and science.
Still, not every doctor wears white coat. Pediatricians and psychiatrists avoid it and so do
physicians in some countries, like in Denmark and England. Some studies show that older
patients prefer doctors in white coats and the younger quiet opposite.
Nowadays, patients expect to get treatment from a person in white coat. Also, in almost every
medical school there is an act called White coat ceremony, in which doctors-to-be clocked
themselves as a symbol of embarking a medical career.
The Successful Resuscitation Myth
In almost every episode, in every TV medical drama we saw next scene: there is a question of life
or death, some little girl, or nice elder gentleman is struggling for their life, and hero-doctor sprint
into ER, with the swinging stethoscope around his neck. After few one, two, three, four five and
mouth-to-mouth procedure, he starts to use famous defib, the patient splutters and coughs back to
life.
In real life, Cardio-Pulmonary-Resuscitation (CPR) is rarely successful. Doctors are not usually
filled with adrenalin when they entrance in Emergency Room, especially in famous crash calls,
when they grab one or two hours to sleep why they are on twelve or eighteen hours long duty.
That is why in real hospitals most CPR would end up in failure. Even with the best equipment
and training only about 5-10% of hospital resuscitation attempts are actually successful.
The Defibrillator Rub Myth
This myth is very close with the previous. In most CPR scenes, we see doctors rub those
defibrillator paddles while it charges up. Real medicine seas that this can only make defibrillator
crashes. Only time someone should rub defibrillator paddles is for spreading conductive gel
across them. Nowadays, gel is rarely used. Instead of regular gel, self-adhesive 'gel pads' are
placed on the chest.
But, the machine is not enough for CPR. Defibrillation starts by exposing the chest, and
removing all metallic items ( jewelry, nipple piercings, etc.). Before the application of the
defibrillation pads, patient’s chests must be shaved to increase conductivity to the chest and
reduce the chance of burns. But, shaving the chest should only be performed if a razor is prepared
and will not delay defibrillation by more than twenty seconds. It is also crucial that you remove
any patches (especially nicotine) on the person's chest while wearing gloves to ensure the shock
will not be interrupted by having to go through these patches. Failure to remove nicotine patches
can result in a fire.
The Next of Kin Myth
Should we try to save Mary’s life, although she suffers so much?
We all heard such a dilemma in, at least, one season of every TV series. Doctor’s ethics and
Hippocrates oath commits him to save person’s life no meter what, but his soul sees that patient is
suffering, so he must find the closest relative to give him an advice what to do.
Reality in USA hospitals is quite similar to this, but in other countries it is not a case. In UK, next
to kin does not make decisions instead of the doctor. Doctors contact the closest and ask for their
opinion, but only they ( doctors ) are the one who decide whether they will give life-saving
treatment.
In most countries, medics have a legal responsibility to make decisions in the patient's best
interests.
The Flat-Line Myth
In the Emergency Room, a patient has been wheeled in from a car accident. Their blood pressure
is dropping, they’ve stopped breathing and the heart monitor shows a ‘flat line’. Everyone seems
to be panicking! Someone grabs a defibrillator and shouts “Clear!”
The patient jerks and is shocked back to life! Phew!
Truth is that flat line as we usually see on TV means that the machine is broke. Also,
defibrillators do send an electric shock to the heart but, unlike in the TV version, they certainly
don’t cause someone to jump out of bed in a complete body spasm. When a person is flat-lining
(a condition called asystole ). It works only in certain conditions, for example when the
heart monitor shows erratic trace.
The Doctors Do Everything Myth
TV series often shows doctors as God-given creatures, with the IQ higher than everyone else,
who is always there, ready and make mistakes only as a result of moral dilemmas. Reality is that
hospitals and clinics have a whole bunch of staffs that are more include in patient treatment than
doctors, like nurses, who are responsible for much of the care patients receive, and technologist’s
aides do a lot of the work, too.
The majority of people who work in hospitals are nurses, not physicians. Also, nurses are the
ones who typically use defibrillators to save a patient's life, not doctors. Nurses are usual the ones
who spend hours at the bedside getting to know the patient and the family, and investigating the
factors that brought the patient to the hospital. Television doctors also have a habit of running
machinery, such as intra-aortic balloon pumps and dialysis machines, that in real life is the
expertise of nurses. Also, in real life, nurses tend to be supervised by nurses, not doctors. And
while doctors make the high-level decisions regarding a patient's care, nurses have a lot of
independence and responsibility for treating the patient, as well.
People who are also very much involved in patient treatment and hospitals organization are
radiologist, lab technician, pharmacist, specialist surgeon, etc.
The most common medical myths from other Medias
Late-night snack will make you overweight
This is one of the classics. Our body does not really care what time it is. Only important thing is
that we need to enter in our organism amount of calories that we plan to burn in that particular
day ( or night ). If you it less calories than you burn, you will lose weight, if you it more, you put
on some weight. It is simple as that.
Routine of having three regular meals in our day has some advantages, but late-night snack is not
more dangerous than breakfast of afternoon bite.
Snapping fingers or joints will cause an arthritis later in life
Noise that we make when we snap our fingers and joints is caused by air balloons that are formed
in cavity in joints. So, when we snap finger, we usually hear You’ll get an arthritis!, but the worst
thing that can happened is that fingers could get weaker as the time pass by.
Arthritis is caused by the numbers of factors, but it is scientifically proved that the snaping finger
is not one of them.
You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
Origin of this myth goes back in 1945. when American government agency revealed that human
body needs at least eight glasses of liquids a day. It includes liquids from every food we eat and
drinks like tea and coffee. Somehow, as time passed by, word liquid was replaced by the word
water, and this is how the rumor started.
In reality, if you are thirsty – drink water. Our body reacts better on it than on some special
liquids that some pseudo-sciencenists recommend.
Blood sugar myth
Dr. Wreeman and Dr. Carol, both pediatrists in Rayle’s children hospital, say that in ,at least
twelve, random controlled studies, the scientists exam how do children react on food witch
includes different sources of sugar. None of these studies showed that children who eat more
sugar are more active than those who do not eat it that much. Studies included both natural and
artificial sources of sugar. Interesting thing in this research was that those parents who taught that
their children are overdosed with sugar were, actually, wrong. So, this myth is, probably, just in
parents heads.
Also, common story is that when you donate blood, you should eat something sweet immediately
to get better. Truth is that when you donate blood, your blood sugar level does not drop. Instead
of that, one should drink more fluids to prevent dehydration.
Carrot is good for eye vision
We all heard it so many times. Especially us with the bad vision and does not like carrots.
Actually, you can eat carrot as much as you want; your vision will not get better. There is only
one link between carrots and sight, and that is vitamin A, which is formed in a root of carrot. So,
if you have eat properly, there is no chance to have vitamin A deficiency, meaning that carrot will
not improve day vision or often used term night vision.
Chocolate will cause face spots
Although this could be good excuse for parents of teenagers to put their child away from
increasing wishes for chocolate ( caused by hormones ), it is still a myth. There has been numbers
of researches of this topic and every single one showed that the spots will just show or not, no
meter what you eat. Actually, only ingredient that might cause spots could be iodine. But, in fact,
only thing that infects growing acnes are hormones, bacterias, stress ( which also regulate
hormone level ) and unavoidable genetic.
Cold weather makes us ill
Air temperature has nothing in common with the viruses that can catch us in that period of the
year. When we catch a cold, usually we say to ourselves that it is because of the cold weather,
winter or something like that. Scientists have proofed that there is no any reason not to go out
when we have a cold. We catch cold in winter times easily because than we spend most of our
time in close space, so bacteria and viruses can pass on easily.
We use only 10 percent of our brain’s capacity
Doctors claim that people choose to believe in this myth, because it makes them better and they
don’t feel like it is their fault because they didn’t use all their capacities. Still, it is not truth that
we use that small part of our brain capacity. After watching brain activities, scientists are sure that
there is no notorious asleep side of our brain.
Chewing gum stays in our stomach seven years
Truth is that some ingredients of chewing gum are indigestible, but it doesn’t mean that it will
stay in or digest system for that long or forever. Sometimes, even food that we eat has ingredients
that are indigestible, like fibers. But our digest system is well prepared for everything, so those
materials that can digest, it just passes on.
Reading in dark and watching TV close up destroy eye vision
Of course we will have problems with our eyes if we watch TV closely or if we read in dark,
because than our eyes have to sprain. Still, there is no evidence that it will destroy our eye vision
for good. Myth about televisions probably comes from the sixties, when those devices had bigger
amount of radiation, but these days their quality is far more improves.
People should not swim at least one hour after a meal
There is no any real reason why shouldn’t people swim after a meal. Truth, if you eat more than
usual and normal, it will be hard to move your body in water or on dry place. Still, if you have
had a usual meal, there is no reason not to jump into a pool or sea. As for cramps, they can catch
you, no meter if you ate or not.
Fluorine prevents caries development
This is, actually, one of the biggest frauds in medical world, promoted by some national and
international institutions. It is scientifically proved that fluorine is carcinogen. In fact, fluorine is
not good for anything. Different researches proved that fluorine does not protect our teeth, but it
damages our bones, hair, nails and especially thyroid gland.
Cancer curing myth
Treatment is too painful and pointless, because it can not be cured? Wrong! This myth was
correct thirty years ago, but today it is just a modern myth. Developing of science have been
highly improved cancer treatments, which are far more effective than they used to be and cause
much less suffering for the patient. Just a few decades ago, 90 percent of children with leukemia
have been dying with that diagnose. Today, 80 percent of them survive this dangerous disease.
Many people think that cancer can’t be cured, because there is no one cure for everyone, but they
forgot to take under a consideration large number of people that have been fully recovered from
cancer. There are different kinds of medicines for different kinds of cancers and big numbers of
them are very effective. Cancer is dangerous disease – but not incurable.
Conclusion
While I was doing research for this work, some information I discovered were shocking to me.
But, if we want to live longer, we must be prepared to live in a certain way. It is very important to
make clear line between what is real, and what is not in medical world.
I think everyone could find at least one of the stories he/she believed in, which was scientifically
proved wrong. My favorite discovery is that carrot is overrated and, unlike my mother, one day I
will not torture my children to eat it if they wouldn’t like it.
In my childhood, I loved TV shows about doctors and my friends and I often play a hospital. We
were pretending to be doctors who help every patient and cure every illness. Funny thing is that
before this research, although I am 25 now, I was still believing in those stuffs I believed when I
was playing with my friends, in famous defib and flat line.
Medicine was always fascinating field for me, but fear of blood, death and needles stopped me
from dedicate myself to that area of life. And, although I realized that doctors and nurses are not
almighty, we should all have huge respect for those people, who have had courage to dedicate
themselves to this noble science.
Literature sources
http://realdoctorstu.com/2011/01/19/the-top-10-medical-tv-myths/
http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/whats-difference-between-392881.html
http://magazin.net.hr/zdravlje/prevencija/medicinski-mitovi-u-koje-svi-vjeruju
http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2007/04/mhst1-0704.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/First_Aid/Automated_External_Defibrillation
http://holtzreport.com/housemd/As_Seen_on_TV_Kirkwood%20EagleTribune_20070305_HR.htm
http://www.nadlanu.com/pocetna/zabava/zanimljivosti/Popularni-medicinski-mitovi.a205660.299.html
http://www.pansport.rs/tekstoteka/zdravlje/zanimljivi-medicinski-mitovi.html
http://atma.hr/sokantno-5-najvecih-medicinskih-prevara/
Introduction..........................................................................................................3
Most common TV medical myths...............................................................................4
White coat myth.................................................................................................4
The Successful Resuscitation Myth..........................................................................4
The Defibrillator Rub Myth.................................................................................5
The Next of Kin Myth..........................................................................................5
The Flat-Line Myth.............................................................................................6
The Doctors Do Everything Myth...........................................................................6
Most common medical myths from other medias............................................................7
Late-night snake will make you overweight...............................................................7
Snapping fingers or joints will cause an arthritis later in life...........................................7
You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day...................................................7
Blood sugar myth................................................................................................7
Carrot is good for eye vision..................................................................................8
Chocolate will cause face spots...............................................................................8
Cold weather makes us ill.....................................................................................8
We use only 10 percent of our brain’s capacity............................................................9
Chewing gum stays in our stomach seven years..........................................................9
Reading in dark and watching TV close up destroy eye vision........................................9
People should not swim at least one hour after a meal...................................................9
Fluorine prevents caries development.......................................................................9
Cancer curing myth...........................................................................................10
Conclusion.........................................................................................................11
Literature sources................................................................................................12
Introduction
Medicine is, maybe, one of the most important sciences for human kind. Since the ancient time,
people were trying to improve this field and almost fully succeeded. However, developing of the
medicine was often followed by the developing of pseudoscience and spreading false
information.
In late fifties and early sixties, when television started to be primer media, rumors about medicine
started to spread worldwide. Eighties and nineties gave us a whole bunch of medical TV shows,
series and films, which only enlarged number of medical myths. But, television world is not only
media that spreads false information about medicine. Newspapers articles were not immune from
this kind of disease.
In this era we live in, internet has become the primary source of information. Almost whole
human kind is online. That is why now we can find cure for every illness we type in our search
bar. Instantly, we can find a collection of blogs, articles and forum discussions of every topic that
interests us. But, did we really make that kind of progress? And, how can we be sure who is that
person that describe himself as a M.D., nurse or specialist?
On the other hand, this kind of popularity made medicine close to people and made them interest
for their own health. It made them aware of danger of living unhealthy lifestyle: drinking,
smoking, eating junk food ( explaining what junk food is ), etc.
Because of that, I think it is very important to make a clear line between what the real medicine is
and what is only a myth.
The most common TV medical myths
White coat myth
Doctor’s uniform is one of the most common associations we have when we think of them. We
picture their garment always so white, clean and ironed. But, not that long ago, doctors were
wearing a black suite. Black attire was considered very formal, like tuxedos, so those
conservative societies trusted people dressed by the book. Doctors decided to wear white coat
about 100 years ago, because they considered white as a symbol of cleanness and science.
Still, not every doctor wears white coat. Pediatricians and psychiatrists avoid it and so do
physicians in some countries, like in Denmark and England. Some studies show that older
patients prefer doctors in white coats and the younger quiet opposite.
Nowadays, patients expect to get treatment from a person in white coat. Also, in almost every
medical school there is an act called White coat ceremony, in which doctors-to-be clocked
themselves as a symbol of embarking a medical career.
The Successful Resuscitation Myth
In almost every episode, in every TV medical drama we saw next scene: there is a question of life
or death, some little girl, or nice elder gentleman is struggling for their life, and hero-doctor sprint
into ER, with the swinging stethoscope around his neck. After few one, two, three, four five and
mouth-to-mouth procedure, he starts to use famous defib, the patient splutters and coughs back to
life.
In real life, Cardio-Pulmonary-Resuscitation (CPR) is rarely successful. Doctors are not usually
filled with adrenalin when they entrance in Emergency Room, especially in famous crash calls,
when they grab one or two hours to sleep why they are on twelve or eighteen hours long duty.
That is why in real hospitals most CPR would end up in failure. Even with the best equipment
and training only about 5-10% of hospital resuscitation attempts are actually successful.
The Defibrillator Rub Myth
This myth is very close with the previous. In most CPR scenes, we see doctors rub those
defibrillator paddles while it charges up. Real medicine seas that this can only make defibrillator
crashes. Only time someone should rub defibrillator paddles is for spreading conductive gel
across them. Nowadays, gel is rarely used. Instead of regular gel, self-adhesive 'gel pads' are
placed on the chest.
But, the machine is not enough for CPR. Defibrillation starts by exposing the chest, and
removing all metallic items ( jewelry, nipple piercings, etc.). Before the application of the
defibrillation pads, patient’s chests must be shaved to increase conductivity to the chest and
reduce the chance of burns. But, shaving the chest should only be performed if a razor is prepared
and will not delay defibrillation by more than twenty seconds. It is also crucial that you remove
any patches (especially nicotine) on the person's chest while wearing gloves to ensure the shock
will not be interrupted by having to go through these patches. Failure to remove nicotine patches
can result in a fire.
The Next of Kin Myth
Should we try to save Mary’s life, although she suffers so much?
We all heard such a dilemma in, at least, one season of every TV series. Doctor’s ethics and
Hippocrates oath commits him to save person’s life no meter what, but his soul sees that patient is
suffering, so he must find the closest relative to give him an advice what to do.
Reality in USA hospitals is quite similar to this, but in other countries it is not a case. In UK, next
to kin does not make decisions instead of the doctor. Doctors contact the closest and ask for their
opinion, but only they ( doctors ) are the one who decide whether they will give life-saving
treatment.
In most countries, medics have a legal responsibility to make decisions in the patient's best
interests.
The Flat-Line Myth
In the Emergency Room, a patient has been wheeled in from a car accident. Their blood pressure
is dropping, they’ve stopped breathing and the heart monitor shows a ‘flat line’. Everyone seems
to be panicking! Someone grabs a defibrillator and shouts “Clear!”
The patient jerks and is shocked back to life! Phew!
Truth is that flat line as we usually see on TV means that the machine is broke. Also,
defibrillators do send an electric shock to the heart but, unlike in the TV version, they certainly
don’t cause someone to jump out of bed in a complete body spasm. When a person is flat-lining
(a condition called asystole ). It works only in certain conditions, for example when the
heart monitor shows erratic trace.
The Doctors Do Everything Myth
TV series often shows doctors as God-given creatures, with the IQ higher than everyone else,
who is always there, ready and make mistakes only as a result of moral dilemmas. Reality is that
hospitals and clinics have a whole bunch of staffs that are more include in patient treatment than
doctors, like nurses, who are responsible for much of the care patients receive, and technologist’s
aides do a lot of the work, too.
The majority of people who work in hospitals are nurses, not physicians. Also, nurses are the
ones who typically use defibrillators to save a patient's life, not doctors. Nurses are usual the ones
who spend hours at the bedside getting to know the patient and the family, and investigating the
factors that brought the patient to the hospital. Television doctors also have a habit of running
machinery, such as intra-aortic balloon pumps and dialysis machines, that in real life is the
expertise of nurses. Also, in real life, nurses tend to be supervised by nurses, not doctors. And
while doctors make the high-level decisions regarding a patient's care, nurses have a lot of
independence and responsibility for treating the patient, as well.
People who are also very much involved in patient treatment and hospitals organization are
radiologist, lab technician, pharmacist, specialist surgeon, etc.
The most common medical myths from other Medias
Late-night snack will make you overweight
This is one of the classics. Our body does not really care what time it is. Only important thing is
that we need to enter in our organism amount of calories that we plan to burn in that particular
day ( or night ). If you it less calories than you burn, you will lose weight, if you it more, you put
on some weight. It is simple as that.
Routine of having three regular meals in our day has some advantages, but late-night snack is not
more dangerous than breakfast of afternoon bite.
Snapping fingers or joints will cause an arthritis later in life
Noise that we make when we snap our fingers and joints is caused by air balloons that are formed
in cavity in joints. So, when we snap finger, we usually hear You’ll get an arthritis!, but the worst
thing that can happened is that fingers could get weaker as the time pass by.
Arthritis is caused by the numbers of factors, but it is scientifically proved that the snaping finger
is not one of them.
You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
Origin of this myth goes back in 1945. when American government agency revealed that human
body needs at least eight glasses of liquids a day. It includes liquids from every food we eat and
drinks like tea and coffee. Somehow, as time passed by, word liquid was replaced by the word
water, and this is how the rumor started.
In reality, if you are thirsty – drink water. Our body reacts better on it than on some special
liquids that some pseudo-sciencenists recommend.
Blood sugar myth
Dr. Wreeman and Dr. Carol, both pediatrists in Rayle’s children hospital, say that in ,at least
twelve, random controlled studies, the scientists exam how do children react on food witch
includes different sources of sugar. None of these studies showed that children who eat more
sugar are more active than those who do not eat it that much. Studies included both natural and
artificial sources of sugar. Interesting thing in this research was that those parents who taught that
their children are overdosed with sugar were, actually, wrong. So, this myth is, probably, just in
parents heads.
Also, common story is that when you donate blood, you should eat something sweet immediately
to get better. Truth is that when you donate blood, your blood sugar level does not drop. Instead
of that, one should drink more fluids to prevent dehydration.
Carrot is good for eye vision
We all heard it so many times. Especially us with the bad vision and does not like carrots.
Actually, you can eat carrot as much as you want; your vision will not get better. There is only
one link between carrots and sight, and that is vitamin A, which is formed in a root of carrot. So,
if you have eat properly, there is no chance to have vitamin A deficiency, meaning that carrot will
not improve day vision or often used term night vision.
Chocolate will cause face spots
Although this could be good excuse for parents of teenagers to put their child away from
increasing wishes for chocolate ( caused by hormones ), it is still a myth. There has been numbers
of researches of this topic and every single one showed that the spots will just show or not, no
meter what you eat. Actually, only ingredient that might cause spots could be iodine. But, in fact,
only thing that infects growing acnes are hormones, bacterias, stress ( which also regulate
hormone level ) and unavoidable genetic.
Cold weather makes us ill
Air temperature has nothing in common with the viruses that can catch us in that period of the
year. When we catch a cold, usually we say to ourselves that it is because of the cold weather,
winter or something like that. Scientists have proofed that there is no any reason not to go out
when we have a cold. We catch cold in winter times easily because than we spend most of our
time in close space, so bacteria and viruses can pass on easily.
We use only 10 percent of our brain’s capacity
Doctors claim that people choose to believe in this myth, because it makes them better and they
don’t feel like it is their fault because they didn’t use all their capacities. Still, it is not truth that
we use that small part of our brain capacity. After watching brain activities, scientists are sure that
there is no notorious asleep side of our brain.
Chewing gum stays in our stomach seven years
Truth is that some ingredients of chewing gum are indigestible, but it doesn’t mean that it will
stay in or digest system for that long or forever. Sometimes, even food that we eat has ingredients
that are indigestible, like fibers. But our digest system is well prepared for everything, so those
materials that can digest, it just passes on.
Reading in dark and watching TV close up destroy eye vision
Of course we will have problems with our eyes if we watch TV closely or if we read in dark,
because than our eyes have to sprain. Still, there is no evidence that it will destroy our eye vision
for good. Myth about televisions probably comes from the sixties, when those devices had bigger
amount of radiation, but these days their quality is far more improves.
People should not swim at least one hour after a meal
There is no any real reason why shouldn’t people swim after a meal. Truth, if you eat more than
usual and normal, it will be hard to move your body in water or on dry place. Still, if you have
had a usual meal, there is no reason not to jump into a pool or sea. As for cramps, they can catch
you, no meter if you ate or not.
Fluorine prevents caries development
This is, actually, one of the biggest frauds in medical world, promoted by some national and
international institutions. It is scientifically proved that fluorine is carcinogen. In fact, fluorine is
not good for anything. Different researches proved that fluorine does not protect our teeth, but it
damages our bones, hair, nails and especially thyroid gland.
Cancer curing myth
Treatment is too painful and pointless, because it can not be cured? Wrong! This myth was
correct thirty years ago, but today it is just a modern myth. Developing of science have been
highly improved cancer treatments, which are far more effective than they used to be and cause
much less suffering for the patient. Just a few decades ago, 90 percent of children with leukemia
have been dying with that diagnose. Today, 80 percent of them survive this dangerous disease.
Many people think that cancer can’t be cured, because there is no one cure for everyone, but they
forgot to take under a consideration large number of people that have been fully recovered from
cancer. There are different kinds of medicines for different kinds of cancers and big numbers of
them are very effective. Cancer is dangerous disease – but not incurable.
Conclusion
While I was doing research for this work, some information I discovered were shocking to me.
But, if we want to live longer, we must be prepared to live in a certain way. It is very important to
make clear line between what is real, and what is not in medical world.
I think everyone could find at least one of the stories he/she believed in, which was scientifically
proved wrong. My favorite discovery is that carrot is overrated and, unlike my mother, one day I
will not torture my children to eat it if they wouldn’t like it.
In my childhood, I loved TV shows about doctors and my friends and I often play a hospital. We
were pretending to be doctors who help every patient and cure every illness. Funny thing is that
before this research, although I am 25 now, I was still believing in those stuffs I believed when I
was playing with my friends, in famous defib and flat line.
Medicine was always fascinating field for me, but fear of blood, death and needles stopped me
from dedicate myself to that area of life. And, although I realized that doctors and nurses are not
almighty, we should all have huge respect for those people, who have had courage to dedicate
themselves to this noble science.
Literature sources
http://realdoctorstu.com/2011/01/19/the-top-10-medical-tv-myths/
http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/whats-difference-between-392881.html
http://magazin.net.hr/zdravlje/prevencija/medicinski-mitovi-u-koje-svi-vjeruju
http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2007/04/mhst1-0704.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/First_Aid/Automated_External_Defibrillation
http://holtzreport.com/housemd/As_Seen_on_TV_Kirkwood%20EagleTribune_20070305_HR.htm
http://www.nadlanu.com/pocetna/zabava/zanimljivosti/Popularni-medicinski-mitovi.a205660.299.html
http://www.pansport.rs/tekstoteka/zdravlje/zanimljivi-medicinski-mitovi.html
http://atma.hr/sokantno-5-najvecih-medicinskih-prevara/
