8 Misleading Health Rumors: Drink White Wine When You Feel Cold?

The lingering haze has also spawned a bunch of folk remedies for clearing the lungs. One of the most eye-catching claims is that eating black fungus regularly can clear the lungs. The evidence seems to be conclusive: because wood ear is rich in cellulose and plant gum, it has the effect of moistening the lungs and clearing the intestines and stomach. However, experts say this statement does not have sufficient theoretical basis.

There are black and white fungus. The black fungus we often eat in our daily life. Yang Baolin, chief physician of the emergency department of Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, reminds us that according to traditional Chinese medicine, white fungus enters the lungs and black fungus enters the kidneys, so black fungus has nothing to do with clearing the lungs. Perhaps eating white fungus is better for the lungs.

More importantly, the so-called "lung-clearing foods" such as pears, rock sugar, white fungus, and radish also clear the "lungs in traditional medicine." In traditional medicine

"Clearing the lungs" generally refers to alleviating symptoms related to the respiratory tract, such as coughing, excessive sputum, etc.

The damage that smog causes to the lungs mainly lies in the fact that pollutants in the air enter the alveolar ends in the form of small particles, damaging the lungs and causing inflammation. When the ancients prescribed "lung-clearing diet" or "lung-clearing prescription", they probably were not aware of the existence of air pollution. Therefore, it is nonsense to say that “lung-clearing” foods can clean “lungs polluted by air”.

Improving one's own immunity, staying at home as much as possible on smoggy days, and not opening windows for ventilation are the basic ways to combat smog, said Director Yang Baolin.

If you feel cold, drink white wine

"Come, have a drink to warm yourself up," several people shivering in the cold wind passed the bottle of white wine around, each taking a sip, and then exhaled a breath of hot air with satisfaction. This is a scene that often appears in movies, and in real life, drinking white wine to ward off the cold is also very common.

"Drinking liquor alone to ward off the cold is not advisable and even has certain risks." Wang Yan, a nutritionist at the Nutrition Department of Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that drinking liquor can make the body feel warm because the alcohol in it can dilate blood vessels, accelerate blood circulation, and cause blood stored in the liver and other parts of the body to flow to the surface of the body. Only the skin surface feels warm. Moreover, the heat lost due to the accelerated heat dissipation of the body is greater than the heat provided by alcohol, and people will feel colder. This is what people call "feeling cold after drinking".

After drinking, the body surface becomes hot and the pores open, making it easy to be attacked by cold air. The alcohol in liquor also paralyzes the nerves and reduces people's sensitivity to cold. If you are outdoors in the cold, you are prone to accidental injuries such as frostbite.

Wang Yan suggested that in winter, we should strengthen our physical fitness through moderate exercise and have a balanced diet. We can eat more warming foods, such as lamb, red dates, longan, etc., which are more appropriate ways to warm up the body.

Cramps are caused by calcium deficiency

A TV commercial says: "Backaches and leg cramps are your body's reminder that you are calcium deficient!" Is this true?

Li Jianmin, chief physician of the Department of Traditional Chinese Orthopedics at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, told reporters that the statement that "leg cramps are caused by calcium deficiency" is too general. Although calcium deficiency can indeed cause cramps, this situation often occurs in middle-aged and elderly people and pregnant women with osteoporosis. If other people have symptoms of cramps, don't rush to supplement calcium. It is more accurate to understand what type you are first.

In addition to calcium deficiency, the following are some common causes of frequent cramps:

Muscle tension caused by long-term walking or standing forces the muscles to compensatory behavior, and rapid contraction leads to twitching reactions. In this case, cramps can be relieved by stretching exercises and supplementing with salt water.

When it is cold, muscles will contract due to lack of heat. We feel cold and shiver, which is a natural reaction of muscles to keep the limbs warm through twitching. Therefore, when it is cold outdoors or at night, people who are prone to cramps should pay attention to keeping warm and reduce stimulation.

After muscle injuries, such as strains or collisions in the thigh or calf, the muscles are more sensitive and prone to cramps. During the muscle recovery period, the injured person should immobilize the injured part, massage the painful area appropriately, promote blood circulation, and exercise gradually until recovery.

There are also many young people who do not exercise regularly and also suffer from cramps. Director Li Jianmin suggested that young people should exercise more, increase muscle elasticity, improve physical fitness, and pay special attention to improving cold resistance and endurance. However, do not engage in strenuous exercise when you are not in good physical condition, especially when you are tired or hungry.

When cramps suddenly occur, don't be nervous. Usually, the pain can be relieved by simply pulling the spasming muscles in the opposite direction to stretch them. If the cramps last for a long time, you can use hot or cold compresses to relieve the pain, or locally spraying or applying some muscle relaxant and analgesic lotions or ointments are also effective.

Pregnancy makes you stupid for three years

Being forgetful, forgetful, and slow to react, when pregnant women have these problems, people always joke that "pregnancy makes women stupid for three years!" "It is true that many women will have problems such as inattention, forgetfulness, and postpartum depression during pregnancy, but this phenomenon of appearing to become stupid does not mean a decrease in intelligence," said Cao Zeyi, vice dean of Tsinghua University School of Medicine and honorary dean of the Air Force General Hospital. Many scientific studies have also confirmed this. For example, in 2010, Helen

Christensen et al. published an article in Br J Psychiatry entitled Cognition in pregnancy and motherhood:

prospective cohort

An article in the Prospective Cohort Study on Cognitive Function During Pregnancy and Maternity stated that there was no significant change in women's cognitive function during or after pregnancy, in the short or long term.

Being pregnant and having a baby is not an easy thing. Many pregnant women will inevitably be a little more nervous than usual during pregnancy. For example, they worry that the baby will be unhealthy or that they have no help to take care of the baby. After the baby is born, especially in the first two years, the mother has to become a jack of all trades, feeding, changing diapers, coaxing the baby to sleep, etc., which makes the pregnant woman's attention completely shifted to the baby. Other trivial matters become no longer important, so it is natural to forget them easily. This may be the origin of the saying "one pregnancy makes women stupid for three years".

A woman's body will undergo tremendous endocrine changes after pregnancy. Estrogen, thyroid hormone, progesterone, etc. will filter all the cells in the body from the head to the organs. Only after going through this process can a woman be considered mature and have the true performance of a woman. "It can be said that women will not become stupid after giving birth. On the contrary, they will become smarter, more beautiful, more intelligent, and more charming. Women who have not given birth or have never given birth often enter menopause early, are prone to aging, and are also prone to disease," Cao Zeyi explained. "So the consensus in our medical community is that a woman must have a child, and it is best to complete it before the age of 30."

Looking at green can protect your eyes

Since we were young, our teachers have told us that we should look at green plants in the distance after reading or writing for a while to prevent myopia. Now our colleagues are reminding us that changing the computer wallpaper to green is the best way to protect our eyes. In response to this statement, Yang Yingxin, director of the Department of Ophthalmology at Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, explained that cyan and green have moderate absorption and reflection of light, and have relatively little stimulation to the human nervous system, cerebral cortex and retinal tissue, so they can give people a feeling of coolness and calmness, but this does not mean that it can fight visual fatigue and prevent myopia.

When looking at the computer for a long time, contrast is one of the important factors that determine whether your eyes are easily fatigued. From experience, the contrast of black text on a white background is the most obvious, but it can easily make you feel tired after a long time. Light green is softer. Changing your computer wallpaper to a soft green color only makes the screen brightness less glaring, but it has no effect on dry eyes caused by rapid tear evaporation due to insufficient blinking, or visual fatigue and neck and shoulder pain caused by problems such as sitting posture and distance from the screen.

Looking at the green plants in the distance to relax tense eyes is a reliable way to prevent myopia and relieve eye fatigue. However, it should be noted that this does not mean that green itself is good for the eyes. It means that the action of "looking into the distance" and focusing on the distance can relax the ciliary muscles and give the eyes a rest.

If you look at things within 30 centimeters, such as green plants next to a computer, it will not be good for your eyes. Therefore, Director Yang Yingxin reminded that it is better to look out the window more often than to believe that green can protect eyesight well.

Strong tea can sober you up

There have been constant rumors about strong tea being able to sober up, and they have been repeatedly dispelled and spread.

"The tea alkali in strong tea has a strong diuretic effect. Drinking too much will increase the number of times you go to the toilet, so many people think that the alcohol they drink can be excreted promptly," said Wu Tao, chief nutritionist of the Nutrition Department of Beijing Tongren Hospital. In fact, this is an illusion. In fact, strong tea cannot help you sober up in time, and drinking a lot of strong tea after drinking alcohol can damage the heart and kidneys.

The main component of wine is alcohol, namely ethanol, which can accelerate blood flow and heartbeat. The caffeine in strong tea can also excite the heart. Drinking them together will enhance the stimulation to the heart. In addition, when ethanol enters the blood, it is first converted into acetaldehyde in the liver, then converted into acetic acid, and finally decomposed into carbon dioxide and water and excreted from the body. The main sour substance in vinegar is acetic acid, which itself is harmless to the human body; but acetaldehyde is very harmful to the human body. After drinking, symptoms such as flushing, dizziness, nausea, and body aches are all caused by the accumulation of acetaldehyde in the body. Drinking strong tea after drinking alcohol will cause the diuretic effect of the alkali to cause acetaldehyde that has not yet been converted to enter the kidneys prematurely, thereby affecting kidney function. Therefore, drinking strong tea after drinking alcohol frequently can easily damage the kidneys. As early as 2007, the International Agency for Research on Cancer's report clearly stated that acetaldehyde produced in drinking can cause esophageal cancer.

"Eating some staple food and vegetables before drinking, drinking more water while drinking, and drinking some honey water after drinking can dilute the alcohol concentration and relieve the irritation of alcohol to the stomach, but alcohol damage to the liver is still inevitable." Therefore, Wu Tao said that the best way to reduce the damage of alcohol to the human body is not to drink or drink less.

Flat shoes are best for your feet

With the arrival of the cold wave, flat snow boots seem to have suddenly become a beautiful landscape on the street. The reason why it is popular among men, women, young and old is not only because it is warm, but also because of the deep-rooted idea in people's minds that wearing flat shoes is best for the feet. But is this really the case?

Dr. Sun Yang from the Sports Rehabilitation Department of Beijing Sport University introduced that compared with high heels, flat shoes can indeed make the feet enjoy more optimized force and are more comfortable and convenient to wear, but they are not suitable for everyone. For example, flip-flops and sandals that are common in summer and snow boots worn in winter are all flat shoes. However, for people who are born with improper force conditions on their feet (such as ankle valgus and flat feet), it is not suitable to wear flat shoes with soles that are too thin, too soft, or have low heel support.

For some special groups of people, such as those with existing foot deformities, diabetics, the elderly, and flat feet, it is best to consult a professional foot orthotist. A pair of orthopedic insoles may be more suitable to balance the force on the sole of the foot and thus reduce the pain caused by the force.

Homemade facial masks can beautify your skin

Many fashionable women like to apply fruit on their faces, saying that the fruit contains fruit acid, which helps with beauty and skin care, such as removing freckles, whitening, and anti-wrinkle. But in fact, the nutritional value of vegetables and fruits mainly comes from the nutrients they deliver to the body through blood vessels after being digested by gastric acid. The barrier function of our skin makes it difficult for such water-soluble substances to be absorbed when applied on the face, let alone have any nutritional value, said He Zhixin, deputy chief physician of the Department of Dermatology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

It is generally believed that the reason why many skin care products containing fruit acid ingredients can improve some skin indicators, such as exfoliation, is related to the small size of the fruit acid molecules. When small molecule fruit acids penetrate the skin and seize the calcium between keratinocytes, they break the connection between cells and accelerate the shedding of keratinocytes, thus achieving the purpose of "exfoliation". "The ingredients of homemade masks are very natural and have not been processed by any scientific technology. The molecules are too large and cannot achieve such an effect at all," said He Zhixin.

If you really want to find "small molecule fruit acid" in your life to make a facial mask, it is not impossible. For example, sugarcane and yogurt contain glycolic acid and lactic acid, which are much smaller than the fruit acid molecules in fruits.

However, the fruit acid content of these "natural sources" is not that high - if you apply yogurt directly on your face, the lactic acid content is only about 5%. Even if it is "effective" for ladies to use it on their faces, the effect is limited and basically has the effect of a placebo. It is only good for improving mood and entertainment.