The more you sweat the more weight you lose

MYTH

I have often heard that you should sweat as you are excercising. So I was wondering, does the actual act of sweating cause you to burn more calories? Or is it just a way to measure how hard you are working?

The fact is that sweating itself does not burn any calories, such as sitting in a sauna. This merely makes you perspire, but not burn fat. The exercises you do when you sweat are which burn calories, but the sweat itself has nothing to do with it.

The sweating is merely a process of homeostasis, your body reacting to and attempting to keep the body cool when either you are in a hot environment (e.g. the sauna) or are being active both will cause a rise in a body temperature.

We should remember that the loss of weight through excess sweating as experienced in the sauna/steam room is not fat but water. Such weight returns immediately you consume fluid. Consequently if you lose say two and a half pounds in a session in the steam bath you will replace it with approximately the next two pints of water drunk (one pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter).

However and obviously more worrying is that if the fluid loss is replaced by a high calorie drink you may end up gaining fats because of your weight loss attempt.

Humans use only 10 per cent of ther brains

MYTH

 

Here are good news for all those who ever had a teacher or a parent say, 'If you would just apply yourself, you could learn anything! You are only using 10 percent of your brain!'

Actually, all those people were wrong. According to director at the University of Washington, Eric Chudler, 'If we did use only 10 percent of our brains we’d be close to dead, 'when recordings are made from any type of brain scan, there’s no part of the brain just sitting there unused.'

Where did the myth come from? Many sources point to an American psychologist of the early 1900s, William James, who said that 'the average person rarely achieves but a small portion of his or her potential.' Somehow, that was converted into only using 10 percent of our brain.

This seems really puzzling at first glance. Why would we have the biggest brain in proportion to our bodies of any animal if we didn't actually use all of it? Many people have jumped on the idea, writing books and selling products that claim to harness the power of the other 90 percent. Believers in some psychic abilities (such as ESP) point to it as proof, saying that people with these abilities have tapped into the rest of their brains.

Here's the thing, though; it's not really true. In addition to those 100 billion neurons, the brain is also full of other types of cells that are continually in use. We can become disabled from damage to just small areas of the brain depending on where it's located, so there's no way that we could function with only 10 percent of our brain in use.

Men can drink more alcohol than women

FACT

The thing is that men are biologically better equipped to drink more than women. Doctor Oz says, 'It is true not just because men are bigger but because they own an extra enzyme in the lining of their stomach and that enzyme, when it sees alcohol, begins to metabolize it immediately. So only about half the alcohol which they drink gets into the bloodstream.'

Comparatively, women do not have as much of that enzyme in their stomachs. So more of the alcohol gets into the bloodstream and they get drunk faster.

That gender difference is even more problematic, because while overall drinking trends are down over the past 20 years, many young women are drinking more than ever.

What seems crucial, the more a person drinks the more their body builds up a tolerance for alcohol. So aforementioned women actually begin to metabolize it faster.

'So women who are exposed to a lot of alcohol, begin to catch up to men in their ability to cope with the drinks', explains Oz. 

'FAT FREE' labeled products do not fat

MYTH

When standing opposite stacked shelves in markets, we can often notice products sticking out a mile with  the huge writing which states that they contain no fat. Unfortunately, we often fall for the cunning marketing trick. Namely, we believe that we do not put on weight after consumption of such fat-free products. However, we do not get fat only on fat but also on carbohydrates which are hidden in the products behind mysterious expressions such as fructose or sucrose. In reality they are the source of monosaccharides and the best ally with body fat.

Honey-sweetened tea is healthier

IT DEPENDS

Honey in its natural state is extremely beneficial! It is regarded as a superfood and a popular medicine not without reason. This unusual product is the result of the tremendous effort of busy bees (to product about 1 kilogram of honey, a bee has to sit down either on a flower or leaf about 4 million times in order to gather the appropriate amount of pollen) and makes for decline of blood pressure, improves blood circulation, has preventative influence on a liver as well as strong antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. However, after heating honey up to 40 degrees Centigrade, it loses the huge amount of its major nutrients and almost all healing properties, becoming the valueless mixture of fructose and glucose. Honey in such state still remains tasty, but it is no longer our ally in the battle against diseases.


The same accuracy concerns a lemon. Tea with a slice of lemon is healthier only when we add lemon to cool or at least tepid drink. It should be noted that, however, this one which we drink in winter evenings with addition of lemon which has to equip us with ascorbic acid is generally hot. Unfortunately, ascorbic acid is a compound which moulder in high temperatures.

Mixing alcohol and antibiotics is hazardous

FACT

Drinking alcohol doesn't bring the effectiveness of most antibiotics down. Nevertheless, alcohol  disadvantageously affects the gastric mucosa, liver and reins what can intermediately lead to changes in the metabolism of many medicines including antibiotics.
'Excitation of liver enzymes as well as renal excretion, caused by alcohol, may speed up removal of medicaments what pares down its efficacy. What is more, alcoholic drinks bring about intensification of side effects of taking antibiotics, such as heartburn, stomachaches, nausea or sleepiness. In some cases there can appear a disulfiram effect that is an allergy to alcohol', says Dr Paweł Grzesiowski from the Institute of Infection Prophylaxis.
The expert adds, 'Symptoms are the same as these visible at a person who has an esperal in the form of an implant. After consumption even of small amounts of alcohol when taking antibiotics there may also occur fierce growth of blood pressure, acceleration of heartbeat, hot flush, nausea, vomit, dyspnoea and excessive sweating.'
It is worth emphasizing that the reaction can appear after any amount of alcohol, even so small as this concluded in drugs or the mouthwash.
To sum up, during treatment with antibiotics people ought to avoid drinking alcohol. Vodka, wine and beer should be also omitted some time after the treatment, since the last of medicaments can linger in human organism even three days after its discontinuation.

Hair and nails grow for some time after death

MYTH

This myth is in fact just an optical illusion. Indeed, nails and hair of the departed seem to be longer. The cause of it is not the fact that they have grown. Namely, after death human body dehydrates and the skin shrinks. In effect, the skin covering hands, feet and head "draws back" and exposes the better part of a nail plate than during life. The analogical process occurs on the head. To sum up, these are not nails and hair which grow, but the skin which slips off them. 

The most important garment in the wintertime is a cap

MYTH

This myth can be broken up into two more detailed myths. The first one says that most of the human body heat escapes through the head and another tells us that we can easly catch a cold in a frosty air.
First of all, the same amount of air escapes through the head as through any else part of our body. If this myth was true, we could run in the winter clothed in caps and short sleeves, and we would not feel cold. Furthermore, the cold is brought on by viruses which can be found both in the warm and cold air. There is even the theory saying that people more often are ill in winter, since they remain in closed buildings and infect one another. Thus, when spending time in the cool air, we have to beware of exosure rather than viruses!

Reading in dim light hurts our eyes

MYTH

Each and every one of us must have heard this just for once in life from parents, grandmother or anyone else when reading in a poorly lit room. Luckily for fans of reading by candlelight, the lack of suitable light does not cause any enduring effects for the eyesight. There can appear the eye fatigue or excessive desiccation of the eyeball bacause of limited incidence of blinking in dim light, indeed. Nevertheless, these afflictions are of short duration and dissapear as soon as we let our eyes relax. Despite appropriate testings which have been conducted, there are no prooves that reading in dim light can anywise affect the eyesight and cause irreparable changes in the structure of eyes leading to vision defect.