Conventional wisdom
People in general tend to ask their family members or friends for help in the event of small injury or mild illness, rather than consulting a doctor, in accordance with the Arabic principle
“Ask the experimenter not the physician”
In this article I’m going to share some of the most common Medical fantasies I hear regularly.
Upon starting my third year of Medicine, I had to take a subject called Biostatistics and present a little research to the head of department in order to pass.
Therefore, my colleague Rawan Katramiz and I came up with a nice idea for a statistical study, where we decided to find out the impact of the curriculum of the faculty of Medicine, University of Damascus, and the cultural level of the mother on the faith of the students in medical myths.
Our questionnaire was distributed to two groups of students, ones who were still studying basic sciences (and thus considered to have little medical knowledge) and students in their final years of Medicine. Questions were also asked about the cultural level of the mothers since they, in our opinion, are mostly responsible for passing on the following myths.
- Staying out in the cold and wind will give you a cold (true or false?)
-False-
Everyone has heard the phrase “Bundle up or you’ll catch a cold!”
You can get a cold from anything touched by a person who has a cold: your door knob, your pencil, your phone, desk, spoon, table cloth, or anything else but Not from cold air.
The two reasons that people get more colds in winter are that viruses are more active during this season, and that people tend to stay indoors more often and therefore more susceptible to infection.
- Drinking tea after a meal reduces Iron absorption and is Anaemic (true or false?)
-False-
Drinking tea after meals does slow down iron absorption .However; people who are well nourished and have normal blood Iron will not become anaemic because of that. But, people with low Iron levels must be careful.
- Spinach contains a large amount of Iron and is beneficial for people who have anaemia (true or false?)
-False-
Spinach has a lot of positive things going for it but iron is not one them. As its Iron is non organic and slowly absorbable so that the body does not benefit from it.
It is better to try and get iron from a range of foods such as oysters, meat, poultry, and fish.
- Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight (true or false?)
-False-
Suboptimal lighting only causes fatigue to the eyes due to the reason that it slows down the rate of blinking and thus dries the eye; it also can create a sensation of having difficulty in focusing.
The important thing is that this state will only be temporary and that reading in dim light will not cause permanent damage to the eye function or structure.
- To stop nosebleeds (epistaxis) you must tilt your head backwards while pinching your nose (true or false?)
-False-
This common practice will not stop the bleeding and will cause blood to run into your throat which can make you cough or choke.
The right way to do this is to tilt your head forward and pinch your nostrils together just below the bony centre of your nose, Keep pressure for a full 10 minutes. Avoid the temptation to check to see if the bleeding has stopped, as this can cause the bleeding to reoccur.
- Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser (true or false?)
-False-
If it did those going bald would be shaving afflicted areas to encourage regrowth of what they are loosing...
Recent studies confirm that shaving does not affect the thickness or rate of hair regrowth, especially that all of the hair we can see on our bodies is already dead. The living hair is buried deep under our skin in the hair follicles. How can your hair grow back thicker when you shave, when it is already dead?
Shaved hair lacks the finer taper seen at the ends of unshaven hair, giving an impression of coarseness. Similarly, the new hair has not yet been lightened by the sun or other chemical exposures, resulting in an appearance that seems darker than existing hair.
After the two groups of students answered our questionnaires that contained these questions we calculated the results in a statistical method and came up with the following results:
Studying Medicine changed the belief of students in the following myths:
- Spinach is beneficial in the treatment of anaemia due to its high Iron content
- Tilting head backwards to stop nosebleeds
- Shaving hair causes it to grow faster
Studying Medicine did NOT change the belief of students in the following myths:
- Colds being caused by staying out in a windy cold weather
- Drinking tea after a meal can cause anaemia
- Reading in dim light causes eyesight damage
Conclusions:
Since the effect of the mothers’ educational level did not really affect the students’ beliefs in myths, Medical curriculum must be enhanced more with corrections of all the traditional wisdom passed on from family and friends. In addition to more focus on first aid methods.
More awareness raising campaigns to all members of the family might as well be supportive to prevent some dangerous traditions such as the old way of nose bleeding blockage.
Our final recommendation was to all Medical students, and stated that it’s crucial for all of us to question any weird or nonscientific practice and correct it by researching.
Dr. Sarah Rikabi
Dr. Rawan Katramiz
6th year Medical student
Faculty of Medicine
University of Damascus
