British Medical Journal takes on medical myths

[sarahmichigan]

This is mostly for my own reference since it includes a debunking of two often-repeated myths, a) that we only use 10 percent of our brain and b) that we all should be drinking 6-8 glasses of water per day.

There's nothing wrong with drinking water throughout the day, but it's practically a religion with some people...

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7633/1288

Comments

[lilpeace.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Thanks for that.

[tacit.livejournal.com]

In this day and age, who the hell still believes we only use 10% of our brains??!

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

New agers.

But seriously, I'm amazed at how often I hear people repeating old wives tales and myths that have already been thoroughly refuted. They die hard!

I've heard some on that list fairly recently (i.e. hair grows back thicker if you shave it) and the water thing is touted in health magazines and on health websites all the time, including the part about "caffeinated beverages actually DE-hydrate you!" which is patently false and has been disproved in clinical testing.

[sylo-tode.livejournal.com]

I had heard some time ago that the 10% myth was just a misunderstanding. Apparently, at the time, it wasn't that we only used 10% of our brain, we only knew what 10% of our brains did.