Reading in dim light won't damage your eyes, you don't need eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy and shaving your legs won't make the hair grow back faster.
These well-worn theories are among seven "medical myths" exposed in a paper published on Friday in the British Medical Journal, which traditionally carries light-hearted features in its Christmas edition.
Two U.S. researchers took seven common beliefs and searched the archives for evidence to support them.
Despite frequent mentions in the popular press of the need to drink eight glasses of water, they found no scientific basis for the claim.
The complete lack of evidence has been recorded in a study published the American Journal of Psychology, they said.
The other six "myths" are:
* Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
The majority of eye experts believe it is unlikely to do any permanent damage, but it may make you squint, blink more and have trouble focusing, the researchers said.
* Shaving makes hair grow back faster or coarser
It has no effect on the thickness or rate of hair regrowth, studies say. But stubble lacks the finer taper of unshaven hair, giving the impression of coarseness.
* Eating turkey makes you drowsy
It does contain an amino acid called tryptophan that is involved in sleep and mood control. But turkey has no more of the acid than chicken or minced beef. Eating lots of food and drink at Christmas are probably the real cause of sleepiness.
* We use only 10 percent of our brains
This myth arose as early as 1907 but imaging shows no area of the brain is silent or completely inactive.
* Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
This idea may stem from ghoulish novels. The researchers said the skin dries out and retracts after death, giving the appearance of longer hair or nails.
* Mobile phones are dangerous in hospitals
Despite widespread concerns, studies have found minimal interference with medical equipment.
The research was conducted by Aaron Carroll, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, and Rachel Vreeman, fellow in children's health services research at Indiana University School of Medicine.
12/23/2007
Risky sex returns syphilis to Europe
Syphilis is back: The sexually transmitted disease long associated with 19th Century bohemian life is making an alarming resurgence in Europe.
"Syphilis used to be a very rare disease," said Dr. Marita van de Laar, an expert in sexually transmitted diseases at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. "I'm not sure we can say that anymore."
Most cases of syphilis are in men, and experts point to more risky sex among gay men as the chief cause for the resurgence. But more cases are being seen among heterosexuals, both men and women, too.
Syphilis was the sexual scourge of the 19th Century, and is believed to have killed artists like poet Charles Baudelaire, composer Robert Schumann, and painter Paul Gauguin. But the widespread use of penicillin in the 1950s all but wiped it out in the Western world.
In the last decade, however, syphilis has unexpectedly returned, driven by risky sexual behavior and outbreaks in major cities across Europe, including London, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin.
• In Britain, syphilis cases have leapt more than tenfold for men and women in the past decade to 3,702 in 2006, according to the Health Protection Agency. Among men in England, the syphilis rate jumped from one per 100,000 in 1997 to nine per 100,000 last year.
• In Germany, the rate among men was fewer than two per 100,000 in 1991; by 2003, it was six per 100,000.
• In France, there were 428 cases in 2003 — almost 16 times the number just three years earlier.
• In the Netherlands, cases doubled from 2000 to 2004. In Amsterdam, up to 31 men per 100,000 were infected, while the rate was much lower in other regions.
Similar trends have been seen in the United States.
In 2000, syphilis infection rates were so low that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention embarked on a plan to eliminate the disease. But about 9,800 cases were reported in 2006.
In Europe, Van de Laar said syphilis' reappearance was so surprising that many doctors initially had trouble diagnosing it.
Though these days it mainly affects urban gay men, experts worry that the disease could also rebound in the general population if stronger efforts to fight it are not taken soon.
In 2005, British authorities reported that syphilis was spreading across the entire country, and that more heterosexual men and women were being infected.
"These increases may lead to increases in diagnoses of congenital syphilis over the coming years," said Kate Swan, a spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency.
Pregnant women with syphilis can pass it on to their babies. Nearly half of all babies infected with syphilis while they are in the womb die shortly before or after birth.
Syphilis is a bacterial disease causing symptoms that include ulcers, sores and rashes. In extreme cases, it can result in dementia or fatally damage the heart, respiratory and central nervous systems. Syphilis is treatable with antibiotics if caught early.
Once there are more than just a few isolated cases, containing the disease is difficult.
Advances made in treating AIDS may have inadvertently boosted syphilis' spread.
"The evidence points to an increase in unsafe sexual behavior since anti-retrovirals for AIDS came along in 1996," said van de Laar.
After decades of being instructed to use condoms and to limit the number of sexual partners, some people are probably suffering from "safe sex fatigue," van de Laar said. The Internet has also allowed people to find sexual partners more easily than before, and some experts link the rise of dating Web sites to the jump in syphilis cases.
For some men, the Internet connections can be especially dangerous.
"Networks of HIV-positive men to find other positive men have sprung up on the Internet," said Jonathan Elford, an AIDS epidemiologist at London's City University.
Some men who have the AIDS virus are seeking condom-free sex with other men who are also HIV-infected. However, they aren't protected against syphilis and other sexually spread diseases. Among gay men who have syphilis in Britain, nearly half have HIV, Elford said.
Amid this resurgence, some officials are now attacking the epidemic online.
Every day, health workers at the Terrence Higgins Trust, Europe's largest AIDS charity, log into chatrooms on a popular British gay dating Web site to spread safe sex messages and answer questions.
"We know that men are arranging hook-ups for sex online," said Mark Thompson, the charity's deputy head of health promotion. "So we decided to tap into cyberspace to try reaching them before unsafe sex might happen."
"Syphilis used to be a very rare disease," said Dr. Marita van de Laar, an expert in sexually transmitted diseases at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. "I'm not sure we can say that anymore."
Most cases of syphilis are in men, and experts point to more risky sex among gay men as the chief cause for the resurgence. But more cases are being seen among heterosexuals, both men and women, too.
Syphilis was the sexual scourge of the 19th Century, and is believed to have killed artists like poet Charles Baudelaire, composer Robert Schumann, and painter Paul Gauguin. But the widespread use of penicillin in the 1950s all but wiped it out in the Western world.
In the last decade, however, syphilis has unexpectedly returned, driven by risky sexual behavior and outbreaks in major cities across Europe, including London, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin.
• In Britain, syphilis cases have leapt more than tenfold for men and women in the past decade to 3,702 in 2006, according to the Health Protection Agency. Among men in England, the syphilis rate jumped from one per 100,000 in 1997 to nine per 100,000 last year.
• In Germany, the rate among men was fewer than two per 100,000 in 1991; by 2003, it was six per 100,000.
• In France, there were 428 cases in 2003 — almost 16 times the number just three years earlier.
• In the Netherlands, cases doubled from 2000 to 2004. In Amsterdam, up to 31 men per 100,000 were infected, while the rate was much lower in other regions.
Similar trends have been seen in the United States.
In 2000, syphilis infection rates were so low that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention embarked on a plan to eliminate the disease. But about 9,800 cases were reported in 2006.
In Europe, Van de Laar said syphilis' reappearance was so surprising that many doctors initially had trouble diagnosing it.
Though these days it mainly affects urban gay men, experts worry that the disease could also rebound in the general population if stronger efforts to fight it are not taken soon.
In 2005, British authorities reported that syphilis was spreading across the entire country, and that more heterosexual men and women were being infected.
"These increases may lead to increases in diagnoses of congenital syphilis over the coming years," said Kate Swan, a spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency.
Pregnant women with syphilis can pass it on to their babies. Nearly half of all babies infected with syphilis while they are in the womb die shortly before or after birth.
Syphilis is a bacterial disease causing symptoms that include ulcers, sores and rashes. In extreme cases, it can result in dementia or fatally damage the heart, respiratory and central nervous systems. Syphilis is treatable with antibiotics if caught early.
Once there are more than just a few isolated cases, containing the disease is difficult.
Advances made in treating AIDS may have inadvertently boosted syphilis' spread.
"The evidence points to an increase in unsafe sexual behavior since anti-retrovirals for AIDS came along in 1996," said van de Laar.
After decades of being instructed to use condoms and to limit the number of sexual partners, some people are probably suffering from "safe sex fatigue," van de Laar said. The Internet has also allowed people to find sexual partners more easily than before, and some experts link the rise of dating Web sites to the jump in syphilis cases.
For some men, the Internet connections can be especially dangerous.
"Networks of HIV-positive men to find other positive men have sprung up on the Internet," said Jonathan Elford, an AIDS epidemiologist at London's City University.
Some men who have the AIDS virus are seeking condom-free sex with other men who are also HIV-infected. However, they aren't protected against syphilis and other sexually spread diseases. Among gay men who have syphilis in Britain, nearly half have HIV, Elford said.
Amid this resurgence, some officials are now attacking the epidemic online.
Every day, health workers at the Terrence Higgins Trust, Europe's largest AIDS charity, log into chatrooms on a popular British gay dating Web site to spread safe sex messages and answer questions.
"We know that men are arranging hook-ups for sex online," said Mark Thompson, the charity's deputy head of health promotion. "So we decided to tap into cyberspace to try reaching them before unsafe sex might happen."
FDA warns of deaths from fentanyl patch
Improper use of patches that emit the painkiller fentanyl is still killing people, the government said Friday — its second warning in two years about the powerful narcotic.
Some of the deaths came after doctors prescribed the patches to the wrong patients, the Food and Drug Administration said.
The drug is only for chronic pain in people used to narcotics, such as cancer patients, and can cause trouble breathing in people new to this family of "opioid" painkillers. Yet the FDA found cases where doctors prescribed it for headaches or post-surgical pain.
The FDA said patients also accidentally overdose by using the patches wrong, such as putting on more than prescribed, replacing them too frequently or getting them too hot.
"While these products fill an important need, improper use and misuse can be life threatening," said FDA pain chief Dr. Bob Rappaport. "It is crucial that doctors prescribe these products appropriately, and that patients use them correctly."
The FDA first warned about improper patch use in 2005, when it announced it was investigating 120 deaths.
Although FDA has investigated the new reports for several months, Rappaport refused to say Friday how many additional deaths the agency has learned of since that first warning.
He called the number of reports small but concerning because "they are preventable."
Friday, the FDA said it had ordered patch makers to create special medication guides that will come with every box, spelling out proper use in easy-to-understand language.
What kind of mistakes are happening?
The consumer advocacy Institute for Safe Medication Practices highlighted some cases last summer. One patient died after being given a patch for post-surgery pain despite having pneumonia and being new to narcotics. Two others survived, an elderly man taken to the emergency room after being given a patch together with painkilling pills and an elderly woman who became delirious while wearing several patches at once.
The FDA's main message Friday: Do not prescribe fentanyl patches to anyone new to opioids, the painkiller family that includes morphine. Absorbing fentanyl through the skin is a powerful way to deliver the potent drug, and thus poses serious risk to anyone not already opioid-tolerant, Rappaport explained.
Doctors who aren't specially trained in pain management may not know that. But Rappaport said FDA isn't considering curbs on prescribing because there is a great need for the patches among the millions of chronic pain sufferers, few of whom get care from pain specialists.
Among the warnings:
_Fentanyl patches can cause severe trouble breathing. Get emergency help if you have trouble breathing or extreme drowsiness with slowed breathing; feel faint, dizzy, confused; or have other unusual symptoms. They can be signs that you were prescribed too high a dose or took too much.
_Fentanyl patches are only for round-the-clock pain that is moderate to severe and expected to last for weeks. They are not for sudden, occasional or mild pain, or pain after surgery.
_The patches should not be your first narcotic painkiller.
_Ask your doctor how often to apply the patch, whether to reapply one that has fallen off and how to replace it. Doing any of that wrong can cause an accidental overdose.
_Do not use heating pads, electric blankets, saunas or heated waterbeds, take very hot baths or sunbathe while wearing a fentanyl patch. Heat may increase the drug's absorption, causing a life-threatening overdose. Call a doctor right away if body temperature becomes higher than 102 degrees while wearing a patch.
The patches were first approved under the brand name Duragesic in 1990, but generic versions are sold by other manufacturers.
Some of the deaths came after doctors prescribed the patches to the wrong patients, the Food and Drug Administration said.
The drug is only for chronic pain in people used to narcotics, such as cancer patients, and can cause trouble breathing in people new to this family of "opioid" painkillers. Yet the FDA found cases where doctors prescribed it for headaches or post-surgical pain.
The FDA said patients also accidentally overdose by using the patches wrong, such as putting on more than prescribed, replacing them too frequently or getting them too hot.
"While these products fill an important need, improper use and misuse can be life threatening," said FDA pain chief Dr. Bob Rappaport. "It is crucial that doctors prescribe these products appropriately, and that patients use them correctly."
The FDA first warned about improper patch use in 2005, when it announced it was investigating 120 deaths.
Although FDA has investigated the new reports for several months, Rappaport refused to say Friday how many additional deaths the agency has learned of since that first warning.
He called the number of reports small but concerning because "they are preventable."
Friday, the FDA said it had ordered patch makers to create special medication guides that will come with every box, spelling out proper use in easy-to-understand language.
What kind of mistakes are happening?
The consumer advocacy Institute for Safe Medication Practices highlighted some cases last summer. One patient died after being given a patch for post-surgery pain despite having pneumonia and being new to narcotics. Two others survived, an elderly man taken to the emergency room after being given a patch together with painkilling pills and an elderly woman who became delirious while wearing several patches at once.
The FDA's main message Friday: Do not prescribe fentanyl patches to anyone new to opioids, the painkiller family that includes morphine. Absorbing fentanyl through the skin is a powerful way to deliver the potent drug, and thus poses serious risk to anyone not already opioid-tolerant, Rappaport explained.
Doctors who aren't specially trained in pain management may not know that. But Rappaport said FDA isn't considering curbs on prescribing because there is a great need for the patches among the millions of chronic pain sufferers, few of whom get care from pain specialists.
Among the warnings:
_Fentanyl patches can cause severe trouble breathing. Get emergency help if you have trouble breathing or extreme drowsiness with slowed breathing; feel faint, dizzy, confused; or have other unusual symptoms. They can be signs that you were prescribed too high a dose or took too much.
_Fentanyl patches are only for round-the-clock pain that is moderate to severe and expected to last for weeks. They are not for sudden, occasional or mild pain, or pain after surgery.
_The patches should not be your first narcotic painkiller.
_Ask your doctor how often to apply the patch, whether to reapply one that has fallen off and how to replace it. Doing any of that wrong can cause an accidental overdose.
_Do not use heating pads, electric blankets, saunas or heated waterbeds, take very hot baths or sunbathe while wearing a fentanyl patch. Heat may increase the drug's absorption, causing a life-threatening overdose. Call a doctor right away if body temperature becomes higher than 102 degrees while wearing a patch.
The patches were first approved under the brand name Duragesic in 1990, but generic versions are sold by other manufacturers.
France prepares to stub out smoking in cafes
Smokers in France are enjoying their last leisurely puffs on a cigarette over coffee or a glass of rouge before cafes, restaurants and nightclubs join a nationwide ban on smoking on January 1.
Eleven months after smoking was outlawed in workplaces, schools, hospitals and shops, the ban is extending to bars and bistrots, with some owners predicting the demise of France's lively cafe culture.
When some of the 13.5 million French smokers return home from their New Year's revelry, they will not be able to pop into their local cafe and light up over a cup of espresso, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot warned last week.
"The ban has been ready for a year and everyone knows that it is going into effect. No one can say they were taken by surprise," said Bachelot, who has vowed a "zero-tolerance" approach toward offenders.
While the ban kicks in on January 1, police say they are in no hurry to hand out fines to smokers hours after they ring in the New Year, suggesting that the ban will be gradually enforced.
Supporters of the anti-tobacco drive point to France's smooth transition to smoke-free workplaces in February as a sign that the country has become more health-conscious.
But some business groups representing cafe and restaurant owners are up in arms, demanding that restrictions be eased, especially in the countryside where banning smoking at the local "bar-tabac" is tantamount to an attack on the French lifestyle.
"It's going to be a real mess," said Rene Le Pape, a cafe owner in Brittany who is also president of the Confederation of Tobacconists, which represents about 30,000 members.
"What are we supposed to do? Call the gendarme when a loyal customer of 30 years lights up a cigarette?" said Le Pape. "This law is inapplicable."
Last month Le Pape led a march by thousands of cafe and restaurant owners in Paris to protest the smoking ban, but the government has stuck to its position that it will go ahead without exemptions.
Laurent Sotty, vice president of the main industry group UMIH, said many of 80,000 cafe, restaurant and bar owners that he represents fear they will lose a large part of their clientele accustomed to a daily dose of nicotine and coffee.
"Lots of businesses are worried, they fear that they will have to shut down," said Sotty, who owns a nightclub in northeastern France.
"People will probably change their habits, especially in small rural establishments," he said.
"A friendly game of cards may not take place in the bar any more, but at someone's house. People just won't be going to the bistrot," said Sotty.
France's latest smoking ban comes six months after Britain decided to make its pubs smoke-free and nearly four years after Ireland became the first European country to take a tough stance on outlawing smoking in public places.
Under the French ban, smokers who light up in a public place can be fined up to 450 euros (645 dollars) while business owners may face penalties of up to 750 euros.
Staring down opposition from some cafe and bar owners, the government says it is tackling a major public health challenge and hopes the ban will encourage smokers to kick the habit.
Tobacco is the leading cause of avoidable death in France, with more than 5,000 deaths per year from second-hand smoke and an additional 66,000 from smoking directly, according to the health ministry.
Despite the dire warnings, Gerard Audureau, president of the association for the defence of non-smokers' rights, predicts French mourning of the smoke-filled cafe will be short-lived.
"The new awareness about the dangers of smoking far outweighs all of these cultural notions about smoking," said Audureau.
In Paris's chic Latin Quarter, Christian Azzopardi declared his Coupe Chou restaurant smoke-free last year and said the move caused very few ripples among his clientele.
"It really turned out to be nothing extraordinary," said Azzopardi. "Some people sulked for a bit, but they got used to it."
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