old doctors' tales

From Shari Rudavasky in the C-J (hat tip: Susan Astroff), reporting on IU research-- that doctors often fall prey to urban health legends...

Drink eight glasses of water a day.

Turn on the light to read so you don't permanently damage your eyesight.

Don't use your cell phone in the hospital, lest it throw off the medical equipment.

Believe any or all of these?

Turns out not a single one has any medical evidence to back it up.

But take heart. You're not alone. Many medical experts espouse these and other equally specious beliefs.

Hoping to set the record straight, two Indiana University School of Medicine doctors debunked seven of the most common medical myths in last week's issue of the British Medical Journal.

The idea is not to make fools of their colleagues but to highlight the fact that popularly held medical beliefs are not always true.

"In this article, we wanted to remind physicians that in order to stay current and practice medicine, we need to look at what's in our head and apply good scientific questioning to things," said Dr. Rachel Vreeman, a fellow in the division of children's health research at the IU school.

"Plus, it's fun," she said.

The idea for the piece originated when a colleague, Dr. Aaron Carroll, heard an expert on the radio caution parents to inspect their children's Halloween candy to make sure no one had tampered with it.

Carroll, director of IU's Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, knew that the only children ever known to have been poisoned at Halloween were the victims of relatives, not strangers.

"That really got me going," said Carroll, an assistant professor of pediatrics and an affiliated scientist at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis.

He mentioned this to Vreeman, and before they knew it, they had compiled a list....Soon they had amassed about 120 medical myths, most of which are widely believed among the general public as well....

Vreeman's pet peeve -- that eating sugar makes children hyperactive -- also was not included.

Still, the article is just the start. The two hope to publish a book in the future that will examine these and many more mistaken beliefs.