Old Wives' Tales - True or False

In this article I will discuss some favorite old wives' tales and then tell you if they are true or false.

Remember as a kid you would cross your eyes or make a strange, funny face and you were told if you kept doing it then your eyes and your face would permanently freeze that way? Well, by now you know that old wives' tale is false but it sure did scare most of us as children.

Were you ever told that you can catch poison ivy from touching the rash of someone who has it? Well, this is false too. You can only get a rash from the oil of the poison ivy plant. This oil is called urushiol and the only way you can contract the poison ivy rash from someone else is if they haven't washed the oil off of their skin and you can only contract a rash from the oil of the plant if you are allergic to it.

How many times were you told not to sit too close to the television or not to read in a dim light because you can ruin your eyesight? This too is false. The only way you can damage your eyes by using them is if you use them to stare at direct sunlight for any period of time.

It is said that hair and fingernails grow after death. This is false and is just an illusion. The skin around nails and hair retracts so it looks like the hair and nails are growing when actually they aren't.

How many times were you told not to crack your knuckles as it would cause arthritis? Well, this is another false statement. When you “crack your knuckles”,you are not actually cracking the bones. You are actually “popping” air pockets that gather over the knuckles and there is no medical eveidence to substantiate the arthritis myth.

They say that drinking warm milk will help you sleep. This is true because like turkeys, milk carries the chemical tryptophan. A chemical that induces sleep.

I was always told as a kid that swallowing your gum would sit in your stomach for seven years and would harm your digestive system. Well, as it turns out...This is false as well. Gum moves through your digestive system quickly but doesn't break down so it looks pretty much the same leaving your digestive system as it did when it entered it.

These are a few of the old wives' tales that we heard as children and even pass down to our own children. Stay tuned for future articles about more old wives' tales and if there is any truth to them.