By Dr. Peter Kadile
The stuff that “people say” or “my mother would always tell me”…
Cold weather causes colds.
This is something my mother is still convinced is true. The reality is that colds are caused by a virus that you get from being infected from other people, not from cold weather. Colds may occur more commonly during cooler times of year because most people are indoors, thus interacting with each other, increasing the chances of the virus spreading.
You lose most of your body heat through your head.
“Peter, cover your head, you’ll catch a cold!” As I stated previously, you don’t catch a cold from cold weather. You also only lose approximately 10% of your body heat through your head. If you want to conserve body heat in cold weather, cover as much of your body as possible.
A Zpack will take care of that cold.
A Zpack is an antibiotic. Antibiotics only work against bacterial infections. A cold is caused by a virus. As I’ve said in the past, antibiotics DO NOT work against the common cold.
“I got the flu from the flu shot.”
The flu vaccine is meant to prevent infection from the influenza virus by stimulating antibodies for protection. The flu vaccine contains the dead flu virus, so injecting the dead virus will not give someone the flu.
Drinking eight glasses of water a day is good for your health.
There is absolutely no scientific evidence that exactly eight glasses of water is beneficial for your health. How big are the glasses? So eight glasses of water is equally beneficial for a 120lb man and a 280lb woman? Drinking water is very important for one’s health, but a good indicator of adequate hydration is the color of a person’s urine. The clearer one’s urine, the better they are hydrated. It may take more than eight glasses of water or it may take less.
