Health Buzz: Holiday Myths Debunked and Other Health News

College

Maybe you can get a brain...

These weren't students, but professors. Although they used google when evidence was not available in the medical literature the sugar myth is backed by 12 double blinded randomized controlled trials and the others are legitimate sources as well. It is interesting to see how people react when their commonly held beliefs are questioned. Trying to match anecdotal evidence to population based scientific research. Even MDs fall into this trap.

Night eating is indeed a myth

I found out myself about the myth that eating before you go to bed adds on weight. This is only true if you are adding on additional calories as most actually would. But as long as one is taking in their alotted amount and no more, it does not matter when you consume them nor does it matter in how many or few meals you consume them.

After realizing this, I consumed most of my daily calories in one sitting right before bed. It allowed me to finally lose the 120 lbs I needed to lose..

College

Wow. I was worried and a little bit stressed about getting back into college for a master's degree. But now I have hope, aparently you can be an academic and get published now days just by searching on google and not finding enough evidence to support someone else's hypothesis. Thank God. I'll be looking into this university in Indiana - maybe I can get a masters in 3 weeks.

Studies: fair and balanced

Three Mile Island nuclear accident was white-washed the same way. The big players in this debacle avoided the bullets by shipping the kids with leukemia to hospitals in other states to keep the records clean near the fallout zone. A study conducted by our wonderful EPA by a bunch of human cockroaches, showed no significant increases in radiation exposure injuries. The researchers didn't break the rules, they just worked around them. A friend who photographed the scene died in Iowa City, so Pennsylvania didn't take the hit. Iowa City has a large medical center and bone marrow transplant unit. If Iowa was required to ship the statistics back to the origin, Three Mile Island would have been second only to the Chernobyl hell.

Take a second to read

The point is, they are saying there is not enough evidence to support these beliefs either way. If you truely read it, then you would see almost straight in the beginning that they were just looking up pre-existing information to see if it supported it, and most articles and documents they found did not support it. They are not saying either way that it is completely false or true, but merely looking for something to back up the claims.

In no way did they claim this was a scientific study conducted in a lab with 1000 volunteers or anything like that. besides, I can believe most the things they say, and I agree that there probably isn't enough data to say either way. The point is perception has a lot to do with everything... think about how often doctors prescribe placebo pills

I think it's funny that people seem outraged by this article... just goes to show the average IQ isn't that high in the world.

Myths Debunked

Is there a way to sue these morons for making this kind of ridiculous studies? And also the media that eagerly publish the results with sensational headlines?

You don't have to cover your head and ears in winter because they don't lose any extra heat than any other body part!?

These people deserves to be sent to jail or at least sentence them to not make any other studies in their entire lifetime.

Bogus doctors trying to get on the news

If you believe these two, then stop wearing your hat and earmuffs. Their study showed the head loses heat equally to the rest of the body. You're still going to get an ear ache if you don't cover your head and ears.

It's also a well known, scientifically documented fact that sugar increases activity. And that suicide increases during the holidays. These are not old wives tales.

Just another moronic attempt to get on Oprah. Looks like it's working, they're on the news.

Look a Little Closer

It's easy to take pot shots but a little more difficult to pay attention and get our facts right, huh?

Regarding sugar making children hyperactive: "There have been more studies on this than on many drugs," said article author Dr. Aaron Carroll of the Indiana University School of Medicine, "all of which show there is no link between sugar and hyperactivity."

Dr. Carroll is obviously not a college or high school student.

"Parents may think their kids become more chaotic after candy and other treats but "it is in their heads," said primary author Dr. Rachel Vreeman, also of the Indiana University School of Medicine. She pointed to a study that told parents their kid was slurping a sugar-loaded beverage, when the drink instead was essentially water. The parents reported the child going bonkers when objective observers thought otherwise, she said.

That makes sense to me because most of the parents that I know are certainly not objective about their children's behavior. Just think about the parents that you know personally!

I wish supposedly scientifically minded people would take the time to realize that "proving" that some hypothesis is not supported by current literature is absolutely NOT the same as proving the hypothesis is false. At best you've proven that maybe we don't know.

And as mentioned previously they didn't exactly "study" or prove any dang thing anyway. I hope by "students at the university" they really meant "high school freshmen at a summer camp at the university".

This article itself is evidence that what you read on the internet should never be used for scientific reference.