Book: Don't Swallow Your Gum!: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health by Aaron Carroll MD and Rachel Vreeman MD
About: Doctors Vreeman and Carroll tackle common beliefs about health and the human body including the Five Second Rule, double dipping and how much water one should drink. The book is organized into six groups of myths: the body, diseases, sex and pregnancy, babies and children, what we eat and drink, and myths that spark debate and controversy.
Pros: Quick read, interesting, lots of myths tackled, well written, references in back.
A Few Things I Found Interesting:
- Yellow urine doesn't mean you are dehydrated, neither does being thirsty
- You can't "beat" a breathalyzer
- A mosquito's buzz is just the flapping of its wings
- Once the irritating oils are washed off, you can't get poison ivy from someone's poison ivy rash
- Putting butter on a burn is a bad idea
- Green mucus from your nose doesn't mean you need antibiotics
- Poinsettias aren't that poisonous. No people have died from poinsettia poisoning
- Vitamin C doesn't prevent colds
- Sugar does not make kids hyper
- Twins don't skip a generation