10 Misconceptions About Your Body That Aren’t True

10>You can sweat out toxins:
             

Sweat consists of water, salt and electrolytes. Because your sweat glands are superficial and only found in your skin, that is all that your sweat will ever consist of. There is no way for any mysterious “toxin” to be released through your sweat.

9>Going out in the cold, especially with wet hair, makes you sick:
                                                                      

This is wrong. You get sick because of viruses. Viruses do not care about the temperature. Furthermore, your immune system is not significantly affected by the cold because your body maintains a core temperature of about 37C (98.5F). If this drops by even a couple degrees you will get hypothermia and die. The reason more people get sick in winter is because you are likely to stay indoors and around other people, which is exactly where all the viruses are.

8>Sugar makes kids hyperactive:
                                                        

It doesn’t. Studies have shown that when a child is given a placebo (what the parents think is sugar water), then the parents will consistently rank the child as being more hyper. Maybe your kids just get excited about candy, but there is no chemical effect of sugar on hyperactivity.

7>If you swim less than 30 minutes after eating you'll get a cramp:

                                                       

                                                          If your mom every told you not to swim after eating because you’ll get a cramp and drown…well, she’s wrong. You might get a cramp, but it will have nothing to do with when you ate.

6>Don’t have milk when you're sick because it makes more mucus:

                                              

Milk can thicken mucus, but not make more of it. At any rate, this won’t set you back much on the healing process.

5>You should never wake up a sleepwalker:

                                                

According to the myth, if you wake a sleepwalker it can give them a heart attack or send them into shock. While that won’t happen, it is probably best just to guide them back to bed because if you wake them up they’ll probably be really, really groggy.

4>You become resistant to antibiotics:
                                              

It is not you that becomes resistant to antibiotics, it is the bacteria.

3>Hair grows back thicker:
                                          

It doesn’t. When it grows naturally, it grows tapered. When you shave it, it has a blunt tip. This blunt tip may make your hair appear to be thicker but it’s not. The thickness of your hair is determined beneath the skin by the root, over which your razor has no say.

2>Drowning people flail:
                                                     

     
Hollywood is wrong on this one. As every lifeguard will tell you, drowning people are hard to spot because they don’t make much of a racket. Drownings are usually extremely silent with not much going on at the surface of the water.

1>Vaccines cause autism:

                                               

Although the study that started this rumor has been debunked as a fraud, everybody still seems to believe. No, vaccines do not cause autism any more than driving cars cause diarrhea.