If you trust the source, you're most likely going to trust the information. That's what makes the following medical myths so hard to discredit -- you usually hear them first from Mom, Dad, or someone else you trust -- but it is nice to know the truth.
1. Chocolate and fried foods give you acne
Some speculate that this myth dates back to the baby-boom generation, who had worse acne than their parents and also more access to chocolate and fried foods. Wherever this idea came from, it's wrong. Pimples form when oil glands under the skin produce too much of a waxy oil called sebum, which the body uses to keep skin lubricated. But when excess sebum and dead skin cells block pores, that area of the skin gets irritated, swollen, and turns red--the telltale signs of a pimple. It is unknown why sebaceous glands produce excess sebum, but hormones are the prime suspects, which explains why teenagers are affected more than others. Stress and heredity may also be factors, but chocolate bars and onion rings are off the hook.
 Chocolate consumption has no direct cause on acne. Instead, point the finger at stress, heredity, and hormones. |
2. Coffee will sober you up
If you've had too much to drink, no amount of coffee, soda, water, or anything else is going to sober you up. The only thing that will do the trick is time. The liver can metabolize only about one standard drink (12 ounces of beer, 6 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor) per hour, so if you're drinking more than that every 60 minutes, you'll have alcohol in your system for some time. The idea of coffee's sobering effect may have started because caffeine acts as a stimulant, counteracting the sedative effect of alcohol to a small degree. However, it has no effect on the amount of alcohol in the blood. So if you've been drinking, spend your money on a cab rather than a cappuccino.
On the next page you will find more medical myths and learn the truth about knuckle-cracking.
