Medical Myth # 1: Cold weather makes you miserable

The first medical myth is that cold temperatures can make you sick. It may cause you pain, but if you are not exposed to infectious diseases such as “cold” virus, you will not get sick. Cold season is the most active season for cold and influenza virus. Because I spend more time in a poorly ventilated room. This is why if you have a potential medical problem that worsens a bad flu case, you will consider flu vaccination. Vaccination against novel coronavirus may also be considered.

Error 2: Hair and nails continue to grow after death

No, they don’t. But dehydration that occurs after death causes the soft tissue to contract and appear to be growing. The dead heart no longer provides the nutrients needed for tissue survival and growth.

Error 3: Expired drugs are no longer useful.

Sometimes… some expire faster than others, but the expiration date is somewhat arbitrary. The US Food and Drug Administration has established the expiry date since 1979. They must choose a date until the expiry date of the drug can be guaranteed. The probability of using drugs that cannot be used by tablets on the selected date is very low. The Ministry of Defense had a large stockpile of drugs in wartime, and they were interested in knowing how long they could last. If 50 million tablets are still good, it will be meaningless. They found that many products are valid for more than 5-15 years. Some will last for 25-50 years! In a word, if there are only expired drugs recently and they are needed, they can be safely taken if there is no sign of deterioration in the actual refining, capsules or containers. High temperature and humidity may be more harmful to the drug. But all bets on liquid drugs have been lost. For safety reasons, write a new prescription as soon as possible.

Error 4: What your doctor hid from you

In this era of joint decision-making, this is highly unlikely. Tabloid shouted “Five things your doctor didn’t tell you”, which was designed to attract your attention. Check, task completed. The best way to help doctors is to answer their questions honestly and frankly. They may not understand the condition or treatment you want to know. To get a direct answer, ask this question directly. Doctors are doing better and better in this area, but they often do not know the cost of X-ray, surgery or drugs.

Stain 5: Women have less heart disease than men

Wrong, but they often die at the first heart attack. Once women have passed menopause, they will lose the heart protection of estrogen, which is when heart disease starts to rise. Women also have more “atypical” symptoms of heart disease, mainly because “typical” symptoms were initially defined when studying men.

Things don’t always look that way. Return here to see more Myth Destroyers, search directly or submit questions to the Contacts tab.

For your health,

Kevin McCurry, MD