Top Seven Health Myths

the myths discussed here are very true and factual. Reasons or justification gven against these myths are very sciectific and easy to understand logic. thanks dkdwivedi@yahoo.co.in

You can catch a cold in winter months because of cold weather. Check out the New York Times article:(Study Shows Why the Flu Likes Winter By GINA KOLATA Published: December 5, 2007)
"The answer, they say, has to do with the virus itself. It is more stable and stays in the air longer when air is cold and dry, the exact conditions for much of the flu

I agree with doc Pearce about this article, the water issue in peticular. By even making the suggestion that you could get your recommended water amount through your daily soda intake is irresponsible and naive. I wish that MSN would take a moral stand and start releasing articles which are actually helpfull to the populus. Dr Pearce comment about people sayinging they have diabetes in the family and using that as an explanation for their condition instead of their sugar intake is dead on. So many people today dont even consider that what their eating or drinking is tainted with all sorts of artificial ingredients. These ingredients, in peticullar the sugars in soda, are a direct link to diabetes. The FDA wouldn't say that of course, they would never hear the end of it from the the food lobby in washington. You would never hear the FDA say that there is a cure for diabetes, and that people have been cured. No, theres too much opposition from the drug companies and their lobbiests in washington to keep that under wraps. Too much money to be made. We as american are being spoon fed crap in every way figuratively and metaphoriclly. MSN furthers this disinformation by pandering to their big money interests and printing half truth articles like the one we're discussing. I think today im going to change my home page from MSN to something else. Oh and by the way, MSNBC...Chrs Mathews is a right wing tool, it's so obvious its disgusting.

Did the writer of this article ever study the local news or newspapers? Did they ever seek advice from a nutritionalist? Obviously not. As to the poisoned candy, how can an x-ray machine detect poison in candy anyway? The whole reasoning behind having the candy x-rayed is to detect sharp objects and metal inside the candy. Just this halloween, a chlld in Orlando found a piece of candy lying on the sidewalk on halloween night with a razor blade inside of it. This is not a myth people!!! This writer should be fired. Further, regarding water intake, any nutritionalist or doctor will tell you to hydrate your body with fluid by drinking eight glasses of water per day. They did not say that you should include 2 cans of soda along with that! Please Newsweek, hire some intelligent people who actually research the subject before writing!

You are doing a disservice in your reporting of #2 about the cell phones. I am a Neonatal Nurse in an Intensive Care Nursery and cellular phone use does cause interference in some of our more specialized equipment used for some of our more critical babies. Much as when you place your cell phone next to your computer and can get interference when a call comes in, the cell phone DOES, I repeat DOES cause an effect on specialized equipment in Intensive care units. You should actually check with experts in the specific fields of study on this before you publish.

Reading in dim light in FACT does create vision problems as the pupil does not constrict and provide increased depth of field and therefore, less stress on the individual's accommodative (focusing) system. "Going Blind" is a catch phrase that non-ophthalmic practitioners may throw around inadvisably, but if you continue to read inthe dacrk or in dim light you will wear down your accommodative system before its' time.

Carl A. Boeck, O.D.
Santee, CA

I just want to say that as a health care professional, thanks a lot. It is hard enough to get people to trust the doctors and follow hospital rules, ie. no cell phones in hospitals, as it is. This article just puts more doubt in peoples minds for no reason. My husband is a cardiologist, too. He went to college for 14 years and you want people to question his knowledge? People need to respect doctors and their opinions, feel free to get a second one, as they devote their lives for their patients!

I think the point of the 1.2% is that is statistically insignificant. You can never completely remove other factors besides what you are testing for so the 1.2% could have been testing error, or even solar radiation flux. I think in case of an error they would - um simply retest. Add that to the fact newer cell phones are less powerful and emit less EMF radiation, thus the 2007 study had nothing to report.

In reading the comments I was most taken with "I read", "I heard", "I know" statements. If you didn't personally experience, it is myth by default. A news media article does not count as scientific evidence. Nor does someone relating a ???possible??? recount - not every agency of authority exist to tell lies and deceive. Even worse, were those that defied the report or tried to discredit it with personal statements- how laughable!

I would personally rather be blissfully unaware of an infinitesimal unlikely yet possible event then paranoid to the point of dellusional terror about it actually happening but ???to each their own!???

My brother died of poisonous halloween candy given him by a stranger. He may have lived, but phone inteference at the hospital caused some problems with the equipment. At first we were not sure how he died, but later we exhuned him to find his hair and nails were very long and sure enough he'd died of the poison. If he had only used more than 10% of his brain he'd been more careful. I now want to make sure I live long so I am drinking my 8 glasses of water daily and preventing early onset eyestrain by keeping lots of lights on in my room.

To h3nurse: I was so glad my family had cellphones while my father was dying from cancer. We were able to call all of our family members and my dad's close friends so that everyone could come say goodbye. It's not crass to have cellphones in hospitals; it's a modern convenience that I'm sure many people wish they could have had when they lost loved ones years ago.