"Letting Scabs Dry Out To Heal Faster Is A Myth" — 15 Lies About Health That We've All Been Taught To Accept

"Cyanide and anthrax are natural, I'm not about to stir them into my porridge."

Recently, u/imadepyramids asked "what are the most accepted health myths?" and we decided to round up some of the best answers that deal with the biggest misconceptions:

1. "'All natural' implies it's healthy."

ABC

u/frankduxvandamme

"Cyanide and anthrax are natural, I'm not about to stir them into my porridge."  

u/sandersonprint

2. "'You're too young to have...' I feel like people under the age of 40 are told this so often."

u/DumpsterPuff

3. "Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. It does not."

Image Source / Getty Images/Image Source

u/GaryNOVA

According to Harvard Health, "The 'pop' of a cracked knuckle is caused by bubbles bursting in the synovial fluid — the fluid that helps lubricate joints. The bubbles pop when you pull the bones apart, either by stretching the fingers or bending them backward, creating negative pressure." 

4. "Detox programs."

u/TooBald

"Not to be confused with medical detox for substance use."  

u/Azsunyx

"Ask what 'toxins' are being targeted. No one ever seems to have an answer."  

u/advocatus_ebrius_est

5. "The Food Pyramid we were all taught in school."

Colematt / Getty Images

u/flotsam_knightly

“6-11 servings of bread/cereal/rice/pasta per day”

u/icanttho 

UAB Medicine Diabetes and Nutrition Education Clinic Supervisor Barbara Roberts explains: "Because of the bread and grain focus, even if you ate within calorie limits, you still missed out on the vitamins, minerals, and fibre you needed to stay healthy."

6. "Essential oils cure illnesses. Too many people die because of this misconception."

u/Duckbutterdrawers

"Smells can make you feel uplifted, some can clear your nose, help with a headache a little. But they don’t cure stuff."

u/media-and-stuff

7. "If you shave a lot your hair grows back thicker."

RKO Radio Pictures

u/snobbishboy17221

"This one makes me so irrationally mad. As a teenage girl I had peach fuzz on my lip and begged my mom to let me wax it because I was being bullied for it. She told me under no circumstances was I allowed to remove it because the hair would grow back thicker and I would have a legit moustache." 

u/Sooty_Brayton

8. “MSG is bad for you.”

u/spindle_bumphis

"I always laugh when I see something like, 'We are an MSG free restaurant' on a menu. Like, that's not a flex. You're basically saying you hate flavour."

u/essmithsd

9. "Fat makes you fat. The tide is turning and this isn't as prevalent as it was, but people still believe this to be true."

u/pablo_the_bear

"Twizzlers is a 'fat free food'... It's 19g of sugar for four pieces."

u/MatCauthonsHat

10. "Tilting your head back if you have a nosebleed. Do not do this, the blood could drain down your throat and make you sick or into your airways and obstruct them."

Paramount Pictures

"Instead you should sit upright, hold a tissue under your nose, tilt your head slightly forward, pinch the soft part of your nose just forward of the bone, and keep pinching for 10-15 minutes."  

u/foodio3000

11. “Ulcers are caused by stress. Nope, the vast majority are caused by a quickly curable bacteria."

u/_artbabe95 

12. "GMOs are bad. No, GMOs don't mutate you or mess with your body's balance. They mean we can feed more with less and crops are more resilient to natural disasters. It also means less pesticides that do cause harm."

Diy13 / Getty Images

u/siggy1986 

13. "Targeted weight-loss. Like doing sit-ups to target the belly fat."

u/sumuji 

"The body stores fat wherever it wants and where it stores is unique to every person."  

u/Doki_Literature

14. "Letting scabs dry out to heal faster is a myth."

"Keep it covered and clean, usually a plaster is fine. It should be moist on its own. It helps your body eat up the dead stuff. There's no cell motility on a dry scab."  

u/Bearacolypse

15. "Addiction being a lack of willpower couldn't be further from the truth. Addiction is a very complex process."

Liudmila Chernetska / Getty Images

u/SensationalSasquatch

"Similarly, I used to think that panic attacks were able to be just 'snapped out of'. Then I had some for the first time in my life a few years back, and yeah, no, that shit is involuntary."

u/ruffsnap

H/T to u/imadepyramids and AskReddit for having this discussion!

Note: All submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

Do you have anything else to add? Let us know in the comments below.

Additional thumbnail credits: Fox / Paramount Pictures / Getty Images