Myths you probably believe about your body

shivam vaish 03-Jun-2016 Image Source

1. Swimming right after having food may cause you to drown

This myth perhaps got proliferated because of many kidâ€™s TV shows like Tom and Jerry being one of them. Nonetheless, as kids we were told that we shouldnâ€™t swim right after having a meal or weâ€™d cramp up losing control over our body and drown! Parents even today tell their kids not to swim at least for up to 30 minutes after having a meal. This is not at all true because first, food takes hours to digest not 30 minutes and second, although small cramps may be felt but these do not lead the concerned person to totally lose control over their limbs and drown.

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2. The veins in your limbs carry blue blood as they are not oxygenized

Many of us were even told that the blue blood inside these veins is actually impure and hence, the color! This is a very commonly believed myth as our eyes see the color blue. But havenâ€™t you wondered why in gory movies, characters that get their limbs cut off by another donâ€™t ooze blue blood but red? Actually these are iron-infused haemoglobin which is a red colored protein that binds with oxygen and the reason why these appear blue is that our skin filters wavelengths differently and reflects them back differently which your eyes perceive as a blue color.

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3. Swallowed gum stays in you for years while your stomach struggles digesting it

Perhaps this myth was created to discourage kids from having chewing gum in lots of amounts. And it is easily believable as chewing gums are sticky leading us to believe that it may get stuck inside us either in our stomach or our intestines. It was even put more precisely by some saying that it stays inside us for a total of 7 years! Bah! Myth! Chewing gums, although, are sticky and our stomach even may have problems digesting it, they do not get stuck anywhere inside us and leave the human body the same way as any other food does i.e. excretion.

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4. Shaving hair makes it grow thicker and quicker

It may seem true as we actually perceive that our hair is growing thick and quick after shaving. People often in their teenage time tend to shave much more so that they get a good looking set of beard and moustache and this is the same reason why females donâ€™t shave their legs much often and go for waxing.This myth was proven false in a study conducted dating back to 1928 as it showed that there was no change in either the growth rate or the thickness of the hair that grew back. The reason why we believe it so is because we are told so and get this idea embedded within our minds that it is actually growing thicker and faster!

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5. Sitting too close to a TV damages eyesight

Oh, tell me you werenâ€™t told so by your mother when you watched your favorite cartoons from as close as possible to the TV as a kid, and I would not believe it. The beginning of this myth may date back to the days when the television was recently invented and parents wanted their kids to stop being a blockage while they watched TV. Actually, thereâ€™s nothing to worry about as the moving images and the brightness does not affect the eyes in a way that ruins your vision.