Speaker 1 0:03

Welcome to the healthy matters podcast with Dr . David Hilton, primary care physician and acute care hospitalist at Hennepin healthcare in downtown Minneapolis, where we cover the latest in health healthcare , and what matters to you. And now here's your host, Dr . David Hilton.

Speaker 2 0:20

Hey everybody . Welcome back to the podcast. This is episode 10, where we're gonna tackle the myriad myths of medicine. Can I go swimming right after I eat just chewing gum, stay in your stomach for seven years. I'm gonna be joined by my producer and guest John Lucas. We're gonna tackle those and many more on this episode. Here we go.

Speaker 1 0:39

All right , let's get to it. So one that we've heard quite a bit is that we only use about like 10% of our brains. Is there any truth to that? I mean, is it , is the rest pretty much just empty, gray matter?

Speaker 2 0:50

So the , the short answer is no, we use all of our brains, although we might wonder that sometimes, you know, yeah .

Speaker 1 0:57

On the highway, is that really what's going on? Exactly.

Speaker 2 0:59

Uh , you know, where did this one come from? A lot of people think it was Albert Einstein who was supposed to have said something like I'm smarter than all you guys. Cuz I use more than the 10% of my brain that you use. And, and others think that it's maybe because of the self-help industry, way back in the thirties, the Dale Carnegie or Carnegie, however you say it, who did the how to win friends and influences people. He was trying to motivate people to their full potential. And, and so things like, well, you're not using all your brain. If you did this, that, and the other thing you could use your whole potential. And although there's truth to that, we all have more potential than maybe we do. It is not true that we're only using 10% of our brains. Why is it the case that somebody with just a mild concussion, mild brain us , it might lead to 5% damage to your brain causes such huge problems. Did you ever see any of these movies, John ? Because I have not. I wanna see if anybody else has , did you ever see the movie Lucy with Scarlet Johansen?

Speaker 1 1:52

You know, I haven't, I I know of the movie. I have not seen it. It's

Speaker 2 1:55

Supposed to it's like a sci-fi thriller. Well , apparently Lucy was this character played by Scarlet Johansen who injected some chemical or got chemical into her blood for the purpose of, I think it was an accident, but it suddenly, it mobilized the 90% unused part of her brain. And she instantly learned Chinese. She was able to , uh , have super powers and I guess the whole movies based on that. And then it was another one with Bradley Cooper also, which I haven't seen, but that one was called limitless in 2011. And I like Brad . I actually like scar Johan . These are good actors, but I haven't seen

Speaker 1 2:28

'em of course. But yeah, that , that ability to be able to like dunk all of a sudden, cuz you take the serum, I don't know . I'm

Speaker 2 2:32

Curious exactly. It is sort of like a , a , a sci-fi thriller thing, but it it's the same premise, but it's not true. The medical science does say that in, you know, in MRIs, in pet scans, you're using all of your brain all the time, even when you're sleeping. And here's an , here's an interesting thing. If someone loses a limb, the portion of the brain that was formerly controlling, that limb gets repurposed to something else. Hmm . So your brain is so much in use that it even repurpose portions of the brain for another use when it's no longer needed for the previous use. So our brains are amazing things. And indeed, regardless of how dumb you think your spouse is or your best buddy <laugh> I don't think they can blame that. They're not using all of their ,

Speaker 1 3:13

They're still firing on all cylinders.

Speaker 2 3:15

I think they're still , maybe they're just not the , the brightest bald , but it's not because they , they need to use more of their brain. Gotcha . That's a

Speaker 1 3:21

Myth. All right . Well that , that's fascinating. Fascinating, cuz I'm sure we've all heard that one before. Let's go to another one that we've all heard before too. Okay. So again, you touched on it a little bit, right in the intro. So the half an hour rule after eating, before you can swim, right? It's like, that was like some magical, you know, arbitrary thing that somebody threw out there and they , everybody said , Hey, that's sounds that sounds wise any wisdom to

Speaker 2 3:41

It. That's a myth too. You can here . Here's the good news. You can eat something and jump in the pool right away. You don't have to wait now don't get drunk and drunk in the pool or don't, you know , uh , do stupid things. But it , it is a myth. Okay.

Speaker 1 3:55

All right .

Speaker 2 3:55

Do well , you told that growing up.

Speaker 1 3:57

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think every kid was, you know, I mean there again, it was like a half an hour or 45 minutes. I think it was whatever mom was doing at the time. Uh, and wanted to finish before she had to keep an eye on you . It was like, you can't go in the pool until you yeah.

Speaker 2 4:07

I wonder if that was it. I wonder if this is a parenting hack. I mean, if, if , if it was a parenting tips , Nope. Can't go in the pool cuz I can't watch you. Whatever. I think it started, I dunno if this is true, but I was a boy scout. Yeah . Proud , proud Eagle scout back in the boy scout handbook of like 1908 or 1912 or something it said do not go swimming for an hour. If you do, you could drown and it'll all be your fault. You know, the boy Scouts were kind of into shaming. It'll all be your fault. Can't do that. But the, the theory, I think I, it , it rolls from when you eat something, blood goes to your intestines, it goes to your stomach to digest. Yep . And I think the theory was that, okay, all the blood went to your stomach. So therefore there's not enough blood left over for your muscles and you're gonna get tired and you're gonna drown because you're , you're flailing out there with weak muscles. Right . When the reality is , uh , some blood does go to your stomach to digest food. It's not like this massive transfer of all your blood supply to your stomach and there's nothing left for your muscles. It isn't that much. That doesn't happen.

Speaker 1 5:12

Okay.

Speaker 2 5:12

It's okay to go

Speaker 1 5:13

Swimming. Okay. Technically, I mean, yeah. You could drown on an empty stomach too, right? Totally.

Speaker 2 5:17

You could get tired on an empty stomach. So if, I don't know if there's a lot of kids listening there, there's a lot of parents listening there. Uh, uh , I don't think you can use this

Speaker 1 5:25

One. All right . Okay, cool. We're getting wise here. All right . Excellent. And uh , moving on, we got uh , okay. The eight glasses of water a day thing, right? I mean, it's like, it's probably not a bad idea. I mean, I'm sure there's a ton of benefit to it. Um, should, you know, I mean, maybe it's not a myth entirely, but where , uh , where's the , uh , where's the wisdom there?

Speaker 2 5:41

I , right. It is a good idea to stay well hydrated. So let me start out with that. It's a good idea to stay well hydrated, but I think we sometimes take it a little bit too far. There is no scientific evidence that you have to drink eight glasses of a ounces a day that eight by eight equals 64 ounces a day of water. That's a complete myth. Now that doesn't, it doesn't change the fact that you have to stay well hydrated, but, but the, the, your body is really capable of monitoring its own fluid intake and you get fluid from a lot of things. 20% of the fluid comes from the food you eat. Other other liquids have loads of fluid milk does juice does believe it or not. So does coffee and beer, those all contribute to your water intake for the day . I like that answer. Yeah . Yeah. So, so I do too, cuz I would say, well, people will tell me, well, caffeine, that's gonna make you urinate more. That's actually a negative water intake that is not born out by the facts . I , what you need to do with your fluid intake is drink. When you're thirsty, your body does have a built in almost foolproof mechanism for keeping your in the right fluid balance. And that is called thirst. It's there for a reason. Water is a good option. Don't get me wrong. It's better to drink water than a sugared pop or extra year or even coffee. Water is probably the best thing to drink. And, and when you're thirsty drink till you're not thirsty anymore, that is what we generally tell people. There's there's benefits to staying well hydrated. You probably lose weight. If you drink water before eating, you probably have a little bit of appetite suppressant. So it's probably a good idea to fill your stomach with some water. It's probably will be better for physical performance. So if you're a runner or an athlete, of course you need to be well hydrated. There's some evidence that , uh, being well hydrated adds two to 4% to your physical performance. And so there's all those things. It reduces constipation. It reduces headaches. It reduces kidney stones. It's a good idea to stay well hydrated. That part is true. There's a res and physician who works with me. His name is Seth. I won't, I won't embarrass him more by saying all of his name, but he walks around with one of those Yeti things. You know those Yeti pots. Yes .

Speaker 3 7:46

But his is like , he's the size of Iowa. It's this huge joke .

Speaker 2 7:51

And I'm thinking, dude, that's a little bit over to the top. Isn't I barely, it's gonna be a long day. I can't even lift that thing. It's so heavy in your GA carrying around a gallon enough water and well, the guy's well hydrated

Speaker 1 8:02

Kind of impressive.

Speaker 2 8:03

I'll tell you that. Here's a , here's a fun fact. I , I heard from somebody, I don't know where I heard it. Watermelon is 91% water. Hmm . Eggs are 76% water. So you get water through all these other things. The point being foods and your regular diet are at quit . Use your thirst as your guide. And I think you'll be

Speaker 1 8:22

Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. All right . Cool. And uh, let's try another one here. Um, so hair and fingernails continue to grow after death. Is that true? Is this a myth? Okay,

Speaker 2 8:32

So I've heard this, but I never believed that one. In fact that one I think is kind of an older one, but I have heard that, that people think, okay, you die, your fingernails. Keep growing.

Speaker 1 8:42

I mean, I've seen thriller, you know, they all had long hair and did they were , they were , you know , wild and a bunch of hippies. Exactly.

Speaker 2 8:47

Right. Their hair's outta control and their fingernails are long. And I , I had to look up , look into this one a little bit, way back in the novel from like the twenties or the early thirties. All quiet on the Western front. Yeah. There's a novel about world war I . Yep . Yep . They made a movie. One of, yeah . They made a movie at it . One of the soldiers in that is thinking about his fellow soldiers dying. And I , I wrote it down. He , he wrote one of the lines when the book says the soldiers REM thinking about his Hise comrade. And he says, it occurs to me that those fingernails will go on getting longer, long after Keric has stopped breathing. I can see them before my eyes twisting like cork screws. Okay. So this has been around a long time. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and that exactly does not happen. <laugh> all right . Now I , I think it is good fodder for horror movies and sci-fi thrillers and horrors and great fiction, but it does not occur. So what doesn't happen is that you put , uh , your loved one in a casket and they're six feet underground. And you're wondering if, if those fingernails and hair are still growing, most definitely. They're not. What does happen is that in the immediately after death, you know, it's a little gruesome, but we can talk about it. Um, your skin and your body, the fluids dry up mm-hmm <affirmative> and that your skin kind of shrinks a little bit. It , it Tris up a little bit. And so the skin around your fingernails might retract a little bit. The skin around your hair follicles might retract . So it might look like your , a little shaggy or , or your fingernails are a little a longer, it's an illusion. They're not, your skin is alive. Your fingernails and your hair are made of proteins and keratin. They do not continue to grow after you , after you've died. It makes for good Hollywood. Yeah , absolutely . Makes a good Hollywood sort of like the , the 10% of your brain one .

Speaker 1 10:30

Totally. Okay. And this is, this is one that we've all thought about, at least at one point does shaving hair cause it to grow back faster, darker or coarser . Everybody's thought about this at one point, I

Speaker 2 10:41

Thought , I think I maybe believe this one. I did. It's not true. We'll talk about it a little bit. But I think even I believed this one just a little bit, but it's not true when a man or a woman shaves and , and they've studied this, they actually had people shave one leg and not other. And , and you know, I , I hope the , you know , they probably didn't wear bare shorts or skirts or anything. They're probably wearing pants, but they did it for a long time . Right ? Exactly. And they, they did it come back faster or darker or coarser. And none of that happens. Okay. Your hair follicles don't increase in number simply by shaving them. And so you, if you don't increase the number of hair follicles, you'd, don't increase the number of hair. So you don't get thicker hair. You don't get faster growing hair. When you shave, you're cutting off the dead part of the hair. It's a protein. The live part of your hair follicle is underneath the skin and that doesn't get touched. So it doesn't grow any faster. Okay . Doesn't grow darker there . Do you think it does, do you think?

Speaker 1 11:37

I don't know . I mean, like, I guess I never would've shaved. Right? <laugh> it's like , it has been an easy way out.

Speaker 2 11:42

Yeah. This one actually seems to be a little bit true, but your hair indeed does not get lighter or darker. When, when you shave, what happens is that your hair might be including your beard or your leg hair might be slightly bleached by the sun. Hmm . It might be a little bit lighter so that when you cut it off at the base, the new ones coming in are your natural color. And it might look a teeny darker than the beard. You just shaved off. But the beard, you just shaved off has been exposed to the sun for a day or two or

Speaker 1 12:13

Three. So fallout and everything else is probably just , uh , just giving us a nice little tent. Okay .

Speaker 2 12:17

Exactly. That's it doesn't come back coor . That's the other thing, you know , people, what about stub? Every guy who shave knows that in a lot of women who love them , uh , uh , like a little stub . Well, what happens is that your hairs are naturally tapered . They taper off to the end. When you shave, you cut it off at the root. And so your hair, that little stub is a thicker little stump that doesn't, that has a blunt end microscopically, but a blunt end. And it's not like the natural pointed hair that you normally would have. So it comes across coarse and Stuby, and that might be something you're actually after. But if it grows out long enough,

Speaker 1 12:52

It's all gonna end up looking. If

Speaker 2 12:53

You look like Santa Claus, it's

Speaker 1 12:54

Gonna look the same. Gotcha. Okay. Right .

Speaker 2 12:56

Definitely a myth. And we're gonna get to more of those right after the break.

Speaker 1 13:01

You're listening to the healthy matters podcast with Dr . David Hilton, have a question for the doctor, become a part of our show by reaching out to us@healthymattersathcanded.org . Or give us a call at six one, two eight seventy three talk. And now let's get back to more healthy conversation.

Speaker 2 13:19

And we're back looking at the myriad myths of medicine and let's take on another one, John.

Speaker 1 13:24

Okay. How about this one? Eating Turkey makes people especially drowsy trip . Tofa Turkey. We've all heard about the connection. What's the

Speaker 2 13:33

Truth. I think I fall asleep EV every single year at Thanksgiving dinner. Every single time. If I'm lucky.

Speaker 1 13:38

Yeah ,

Speaker 2 13:38

Exactly. I don't care. What's going on. Maybe it's my excuse to get out of doing the dishes. I don't know. And I think that happens to a lot of people. So everybody thinks it's the Turkey. And indeed El trip to fan is a substance in Turkey and El trip to fan is known to promote sleep. And frankly, else's also known to promote a good mood because it works through serotonin. Hmm . So people feel better. They feel drowsy. They go to sleep. When you take alri . Tofa in fact, it's even in a pill form for that very purpose. But here's the rub about Turkey. Yes, it has. RIFA in it. So does a pork chop . So does soybeans , so does cheese nuts. They all have trip tofa except, and no one's blaming soybeans for their sleepers .

Speaker 1 14:18

Right,

Speaker 2 14:19

Right. They're blaming the Turkey. Right . So it's probably not the RI fan in the Turkey. What it probably is when you're eating all that turkeys that you also ate a pound of mashed potatoes.

Speaker 1 14:29

Yeah . You had half a bottle of

Speaker 2 14:29

Wine and you had a half, a bingo, John, you had half a bottle of , of wine. Exactly. And so it's all that you've had all these car, you've had way too many calories. You've had a little bit of wine, you're socializing and that's when most people say they get the Turkey thing. Now, if you went out and had a Turkey sandwich at your local deli , I doubt you're gonna , you're gonna get into that big problem with , uh , with sleepiness

Speaker 1 14:52

And you got a day off. So, I mean, I'm sure that's

Speaker 2 14:54

Exactly.

Speaker 1 14:55

So the brain is wired for that too.

Speaker 2 14:56

Exactly. And , and L trip to fan . Apparently I don't take it. I don't take hardly any supplements, but , uh , well , any, I don't take any, but an L trip tofa supplement for those who use it for sleep aid works best on an empty stomach. So clearly it is nothing to do with the food portion of the Turkey. It's , uh , a lot more about absorption and some other factors. So go ahead, blame your Turkey if you want. But then you also have to blame your soybeans, your cheese, your nuts, your eggs,

Speaker 1 15:21

Every that's a slippery slope. It is . All right . Okay.

Speaker 2 15:23

Turkey's innocent.

Speaker 1 15:24

Okay. We're running with that. Um, okay. How about this one? Um, reading and dim light ruins your excite .

Speaker 2 15:31

And this one seems to make some sense because it , I think it came actually out of a, sort of a unfair character, characterization of nerdy kids, which I take personally, cuz I know it's hard to believe John , but I was a bit of

Speaker 1 15:45

A nerd. I don't buy it. You don't

Speaker 2 15:46

Believe I know I wasn't

Speaker 1 15:48

Engineer and then a doctor, but

Speaker 2 15:49

Never a nerd,

Speaker 1 15:50

A boy scout too . I

Speaker 2 15:51

Was a boy scout. It's hard to believe. I , I know I don't have any of the risk factors for nerdiness. No , no . I I'm like the poster child for being a nerd. But you think of, what do you think about in that very stereotypical thing about nerds? The kid with the glasses on that are like Coke bottles, looking six inches away from a book and squinting to read. And so the thought is all that deans making his or her eyes bad. And that's not the case. Your eyes do not get affected by what you're doing with reading. Your long term . Vision is not made worse by squinting. Even at a , even at a computer screen, you , what you can get is eye strain, okay? Your muscles , uh , you can get more headaches. You can get your, your eyes are run by muscles. Mm-hmm, <affirmative>, there's little bitty muscles that, that move your eyeballs. And you can, th those, you can get strain when you're squinting. And so you can get a headache and, and you might not feel good, but it's temporary. It goes away. It is not permanent. You are not damaging your , the , the , the , the bits of your eye, the important parts of your eye by squinting. There's other reasons why it's not good to be inside squinting that , but, but reading in the dark is not problem . A little bit of

Speaker 1 17:02

A stretch.

Speaker 2 17:03

It is , uh , you can go for it.

Speaker 1 17:04

So keep reading, basically. We can't , we can't blame reading for this

Speaker 2 17:07

Exactly .

Speaker 1 17:08

Yet. Again, we should all be reading more. Yep .

Speaker 2 17:09

We should read. Read more.

Speaker 1 17:10

Okay. Cool. All right . Um , mobile phones, everybody loves to , uh , mobile phones create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals, true or false.

Speaker 2 17:19

That is false. That's an interesting one because it affected my life. And if you were a patient in the hospital in the last 20 years, you maybe were asked to turn off your cell phone . Yep . You are still asked to on an airplane, you know , I'm not an expert on, does it do anything with the navigation systems of

Speaker 1 17:33

Airplane? I think it might just be to keep the peace .

Speaker 2 17:35

Yeah . I , I wonder because here's the thing about cell phones . We used to tell people to turn them off around medical devices and what's a hospital except a place full of medical devices, including your own pacemaker. So like, if you have a pacemaker, theoretically, your cell phone , which gives off electromagnetic radiation could mess around with the circuitry of your pacemaker, similarly with the cardiac monitors or your infusion pumps in the hospital. So for decades, well, and since cell phones were invented for a couple of decades, until about 10 years ago, we told people, turn your cell phones off in hospitals because you're, it's gonna accidentally give somebody the wrong dose of something, cuz your cell phone's gonna have messed around with the circuitry. And it turns out none of that's true. Okay. Um , it is true that cell phones give off a little electromagnetic radiation. So the data aren't clear about what does that mean? If you carry it in your pocket, for instance, for 30 years, does that lead to ovarian? Do you , do you get

Speaker 1 18:29

That butter razor or cell phone shape tumor in your brain? Exactly . Exactly .

Speaker 2 18:33

Exactly . That's exactly it . And, and uh, is it really bad for you to have it next to your heart? Probably not, but we don't know all of that stuff. It is not problematic for most medical equipment. We do tell people who have a pacemaker, which is usually implanted in your chest wall up by your, your collarbone, usually on the left. Maybe use the other ear when you're talking on your cell phone and don't store your cell phone in your pocket, right above your pacemaker because within a few feet of your cell phone , there's something and it could mess with the circuitry and uh , uh , the magnetics of the pacemaker. So maybe a , the biggest problem about cell phones in hospitals and around medical equipment is they carry germs. Yeah, not that they're messing with the circuitry, but they're like cesspools of germs. That's your problem.

Speaker 1 19:19

Okay. Let's take on a couple more. Um, while we got time here, so is the five second rule a thing and believe me, it's been baked into my childhood. Uh ,

Speaker 2 19:29

Can you drop something on the floor? As long as it's been there, less than five seconds, eat it. You know this one isn't so cut and dry. Okay. The short answer is no, it's not a thing. Um , food can pick up bacteria instantly in less than a second on the floor. So if you're a concerned person, a little bit of a germaphobia the answer is no there , you can't eat stuff. That's been on the floor for any length time. How ever in reality, a normal adult , uh, who , uh, can probably get away with it with a normal immune system. If you drop your pretzel on the carpet, you can eat that pre I do. Okay . You know , I think that's guilty . Yeah . But, but , but people with compromised immune systems, older adults, children, you should be careful with your children, their immune systems. Aren't all there cracked up to be and use the kind of common sense. If you drop a wet mushy thing on a tile floor, mm-hmm <affirmative> think a piece of watermelon. No , it's done. That's not a good idea. The wetter it is and the harder the surface. So if you drop food on a carpet yep . And it's dry food, you're probably. Okay. All right . The spur of bacteria from that carpet to the food is relatively little. If it's like I dropped the pretzel on a carpet, but something wet on a tile floor, a stainless steel floor, a wooden floor. I think you should , uh , maybe not eat that.

Speaker 1 20:44

All right . Okay. Grab another slice. Move on.

Speaker 2 20:45

Grab another slice. Yep .

Speaker 1 20:47

Sweet. Okay. Um , now this one's kind of curious with some right around the quarter , a base tan prevents sunburn,

Speaker 2 20:54

Right? That is not true. That's a myth. And uh, it makes some sense because you think if you get a little base tan , what you're doing is you're giving yourself a little bit of UV protection and indeed you are like

Speaker 1 21:06

A little micro exposure.

Speaker 2 21:06

Exactly. A little micro exposure. It probably is equivalent to putting on an SPF one or two , uh , sunscreen. Gotcha.

Speaker 1 21:15

Okay .

Speaker 2 21:15

But one or two sunscreen is it's

Speaker 1 21:17

Not gonna bail you up

Speaker 2 21:18

Worthless. That's completely worthless. You should be using 15 or more, preferably 30 or more sunscreen and you should avoid getting tanning altogether. Now one wants to hear that. I know no one wants to hear. I have to stay pasty white. I want to get a tan you're far better off simply wearing sunscreen and avoiding that altogether. If you're a young adult, you're a teenager on spring break and you're getting tan. You have immediately increased your risk for future levering of your skin.

Speaker 1 21:45

Yeah . Put the baby oil down there .

Speaker 2 21:46

Exactly. Put baby . I don't get the 30 sunscreen. And if you want the tan use a spray tan. I , I know that sound . I've never done this once in my life. Yeah . I know. Every single person, especially someone who's heading for spring break is only

Speaker 1 21:58

Orange.

Speaker 2 21:59

Right. I'm doing that. <laugh> spray. Tans are healthier.

Speaker 1 22:03

Fantastic. You heard it here. Yep . Okay. Um , can a toothbrush make you, that's another one that you kind of think like it's got bacteria, you know? I mean it's like it lives in the bathroom. Yeah .

Speaker 2 22:13

It actually

Speaker 1 22:13

Can. It can. It's real .

Speaker 2 22:15

Yeah. But that's a , it's a little bit of a , um, I wouldn't worry about it too much, but think about it. You're , here's a , here's an actual fact. Um , somebody studied how many bacteria are on your average toothbrush? It's 1.2 million bacteria. Oh my God. Disgusting. But here's the problem . Here's the thing. Yes. Your toothbrush is literally a cesspool of bacteria. You know, what's a worse cesspool your mouth, right ? So , so you're putting a bacteria Laden thing into your bacteria Laden , right ? Mouth. It's not that big a deal. Uh, but if you're immunocompromised or if you're taking really higher risk toothbrush is like sharing toothbrushes. Not a good idea, cuz that bacteria is different than yours. Don't put your toothbrush next to the toilet. This is a gruesome thing. This is a gruesome thing, but I'm not worried about you dropping it in the toilet. What I'm worried about is that every time we flush the toilet, we put into the air. Right.

Speaker 1 23:05

Bacteria , how it makes sense. You're

Speaker 2 23:06

Supposed to, you're supposed to close the lid on the toilet when you flush it. I don't, I don't know if anybody does

Speaker 1 23:10

That. Right . Well, good practice. Most men don't even don't even put the

Speaker 2 23:13

Seat down much less. The

Speaker 1 23:15

Lid . This is a pretty big ask here, man. It

Speaker 2 23:17

Is a pretty big , but so don't store your toothbrush next to the toilet. Let it dry before using it, bacteria will generally die. Then if you really, really, really wanna be careful use two toothbrushes and alternate every other day. So the one you're using is always dry, but I , this is not one I tell people to worry too much about, but it's, it is possible

Speaker 1 23:34

Not a huge call for alarm, but uh , but , but you know , nonetheless some validity to that myth, right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> mm-hmm <affirmative> cool. Um, alright . Let's see. I think we got two more here, but let's jump on a big one because people talk about this. I mean, there are schools of thought on this and I don't know if it's, you know, I mean it's probably worth addressing so vaccines and autism. It's, it's a thing, you know? I mean like love it or not. It's like, it's something that people either huge. There , there there's some, some pretty , uh , strong opinions about this one. What is the what's what's the truth? What's the knowledge that we have. Yeah,

Speaker 2 24:03

It is John. This one , one's a huge one. And it's the one that I I'm dead serious about this one. There's not much , uh , lightheartedness in the vaccine story. So full stop. The vaccines for measles do not cause autism or any other vaccines. The one that everyone's worried about is the MMR, the measles mumps rebel vaccine that we give to children. And there is no evidence whatsoever, none full stop that it causes autism, but it's, it's a V it is one of the most dangerous things I would call this. Maybe the most dangerous myth of all in healthcare . There was a guy and I'm gonna come right out and say his name. His name was Andrew Wakefield. He was a , a researcher in great Britain back in the nineties. And he published a study of 12 children. There were 12 kids, eight of whom got autism. And he made this connection to the fact that they had gotten the MMR vaccine. And therefore said that it's dangerous. Eight kids out of 12. And that got published in Lancet, which is one of the world's preeminent respected journals. If I got published in Lance, I'd be dancing , a happy dance. It's a huge journal. And they published this thing and later found out it was entirely a fraud there's it was a fraudulent study. The guy Dr. Wakefield was, was cited for ethical misconduct. He was being paid by attorneys for families who had a stake in the game. It was only 12 kids. He did not make the connection on a scientifically based manner. And , uh, the whole thing was basically a fraud. And then he did another study later, these two studies have done more to harm the human race <laugh> or human beings than almost anything because , um , they have likes, it was a minor little thing, but it was in a huge journal and okay . The population of great Britain and then the rest of the world started vaccinating their children less because they're , they're rightfully worried about autism. They should be right.

Speaker 1 25:58

Makes sense. But yeah,

Speaker 2 25:59

Kids are getting the MMR vaccine at the same time. They're getting autism. That's just what happens. And by you, it is expected that some children will get autism. It is , um, and it is expected that some kids will happenstance get autism. At the same time, they got their MMR vaccines. It doesn't mean they were related. And there have been more than a 10 studies since then that have disproven. It they've found no evidence that there's any connection between vaccines and autism. Your kids are far more at risk from a measles outbreak than they are from any vaccine. Gotcha . So I would encourage people to get all your childhood vaccines , uh, and um, that this one is a myth 100%

Speaker 1 26:36

Cool. Yeah. Cuz we have a tendency to kind of believe that first thing we hear and then just run with it and never circle back to retest it or, or to go back and figure out if anybody's changed their mind since then. And the

Speaker 2 26:44

Interesting thing about science people say, well, it was published in a scientific journal. It was a science isn't truth. Science is the seeking of truth. Uh, sometimes the current state of the fairs is not correct. And that little brief study they did was trying to seek the truth, but it was fraudulent. It was UN and fraudulent and 10 of the authors withdrew their name from it. The journal that published it later, retracted it retracting a journal article means it never happened. It is not part of the scientific literature. You can't say, well, it was, it was accepted at one point. No, when it's retracted, it means it's gone. It was never , uh , a legitimate thing. So excellent. That's

Speaker 1 27:23

Well, thanks for clarifying. Clarifying that one. That one's definitely a ,

Speaker 2 27:25

That's

Speaker 1 27:26

A big one. A hot topic. Yep . Okay. Uh , I think we've got time for one more. And um, this one it's been around since I was a kid. Does chewing gum stay in your stomach for seven years? That

Speaker 2 27:35

One kind of freaks me out to even think about it. The answer to that's it's

Speaker 1 27:38

Creepy. It's

Speaker 2 27:39

No , it's no , if that's the case, every one , like we'll be planet would have a few of them in there. So no chewing gum is not digestible. That's true, but neither is a quarter and a quarter doesn't stay in your , if you , if you swallowed a quarter, it comes out the bottom end eventually. And so chewing gum is basically rubber. Uh , the initial chewing gum was made out of something called I think it was Chile or Chile . Okay. Which is, I , I bet you the origin of the , the chewing gum chicklets yep . That basically natural rubber and no that didn't get digested, modern, chewing gums are synthetic. Um , so they can put flavors and all that in it, but it's also not digestible. So if you swallow a piece of chewing gum, it's gonna move through your intestines, just like everything else. Um, the only caveat to the whole thing about the chewing gum is that if you who do have a child who has got a habit for whatever reason of swallowing, a lot of it, you could block things up simply from a mechanical, it's just like a plumbing problem. It'll it'll block it. So don't let your child swallow lots of gum. But if, if they swallow one piece or if you as an adult too , don't worry about it. That would be kind of a freaky thing. But indeed it is a myth. The gum doesn't stay in your gut for seven years, regardless of what your mother told you.

Speaker 1 28:48

And she told me a lot. So , uh , and there's no shortage of these myths and I'm hoping that we're gonna be able to do another show like this. Great

Speaker 2 28:54

Chatting with you, John, you know, there's a lot of medical myths out there. I hope this was helpful for a few people. And I hope to do a lot more of these. This will be a show that maybe we could do more of in the future and talk about some of the myriad myths in meta . And if you who are listening today, have a question about something. Is this true? Is it not , uh , is it a myth, send it into us, drop us a line and hopefully we'll get to it on a future episode. I appreciate everybody listening. I hope you'll learn something today and I hope you'll join us for the next episode of the podcast and in the meantime, be healthy and be well.

Speaker 1 29:26

Thanks for listening to the healthy matters podcast with Dr. David Hilton, for more information on healthy matters or to browse the archive, visit our website@healthymatters.org . And if you have a question or comment for the doctor, email us at healthy matters, H C HCM E d.org , or give us a call at six one two eight seven three . Talk. The healthy matters podcast is made possible by Hennepin healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Please remember we can only give general medical advice during this program. And every case is unique. We urge you to consult with your personal physician. If you have more serious or pressing concerns until next time, be healthy and be well.