Five health myths you probably believe

1.  Coffee stunts your growth

http://kidshealth.org/teen/expert/nutrition/coffee.html

   Forget what your parents told you as a child. Coffee doesn’t actually stunt your growth. In fact, there’s no scientific proof supporting the theory. However, coffee does contain caffeine, which can lead to anxiety and heart problems.

2. Cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/musculoskeletal/question437.htm

   Whenever you crack your knuckles, bubbles of gas burst in between your joints, creating the all-too-familiar popping sound. These bubbles reappear in approximately twenty minutes allowing you to crack your knuckles again. The reality is that anyone is prone to arthritis whether you crack your knuckles or not. So, go knuckle-cracking to your heart’s content.

3. Shaving makes hair grow back thicker

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hair-removal/an00638

   Contrary to popular belief, hair doesn’t grow back thicker. The newly grown hair just seems thicker; unlike the hair that was there before, the follicles have not been worn down yet (making them thinner).

4. You only use a small percentage of your brain

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/nervous-system/10-brain-myths10.htm

   While it may be true that sometimes we do not use our brains to their full potential, it’s not true that we only use a small percentage of our brains. In fact, our brains are always active (even while we sleep), making each area of the brain important. If we didn’t use every area of our brains, we wouldn’t be able to function normally. 

5. It takes 7 years to digest swallowed gum

http://www.dukehealth.org/health_library/health_articles/myth_or_fact_it_takes_seven_years_to_digest_chewing_gum

   Remember – it’s not the stomach that does the digesting; it’s the small and large intenstines. So even though the human stomach cannot break down gum, it doesn’t stay in your stomach for years. Gum doesn’t have superpowers allowing it to stick to the walls of your stomach, so swallowing gum is actually harmless. It goes in one end and comes out the other just like anything else, though it takes intestines more work.

- By Claudia Preciado