By ANNA MARIE BORIA
The silence is broken in the filled classroom by a heart-stopping sneeze, a hand-crippling crack and a terrifyingly loud gulp. Before the hand sanitizer goes flying, panic slowly fills the eyes of three students on a cold, stormy afternoon. The only thing scary about this series of events is that those students, plus millions of people around the world have been mislead about them for centuries.
“The main reason people have been obsessed with these myths for so long is because a lot of the time this false knowledge is passed down from generation to generation without having any good medical knowledge of germs,” school nurse Pamela Furman said.
Germ busters tackles five of the most common misconceptions roaming the minds of students.
Myth: Staying out in the rain will result in sickness
Not surprisingly, this myth seems to have dominated the minds of mothers since the beginning of time. The mothers blamed the cold, damp weather for getting their children sick which is where the expression getting “a cold” came from. This assumption was actually in a time before viruses and other contagion were even discovered. Even after achievements of modern medicine, this myth still manages to panic mothers all around the world.
Myth: Sneezing stops heartbeat
Believing sneezing stops one’s heartbeat began with the assumption that one’s heart stops when, in actuality, it only changes rhythm. Medical research shows the pressure a sneeze creates on a person’s chest causes a slight change in blood flow that can then cause the heart to change rhythm. Saying the heart skipped a beat or stopped was the only explanation for the sensation. With this myth busted, the only thing to worry about is what can happen if a sneeze is held in. A human sneeze can travel up to astonishing 100 mph, and stopping one can cause anything from burst eardrums to torn blood vessels and muscles within the head, according to medical professionals.
Myth: Gum takes up to seven years to completely make its way through the digestive system
This sticky myth has been haunting the minds of children for what seems like decades. The truth is, gum is very much digestible and can be fully digested like any other food since the first four ingredients are soluble, meaning they dissolve in the mouth as the person chews. The only truth in this myth is that it does take a slightly longer time to digest because of the gum base material which is a natural or synthetic indigestible rubbery substance depending on the brand but no where near seven years. This means it takes a maximum of one to two days to be completely digested. So the next time gum accidentally takes a trip down the esophagus, a miniature panic attack is not necessary.
Myth: Cracking knuckles causes arthritis
This over done yet slightly addictive habit has been accused of causing arthritis later in life. One study at the former Mount Carmel Mercy Hospital in Detroit compared 74 people who had been chronic knuckle crackers for decades with 226 others who abstained from the motion. No differences in possible arthritis were found between the two groups. However, there are still reasons to stop this nervous tic; the study did find knuckle crackers are much more likely to have a weaker grip strength and greater hand swelling than a person who did not crack his knuckles.
Myth: All bacteria are harmful
With dozens of products out there to kills these little creatures it is often believed that all bacteria are harmful and spread countless diseases. When in actuality only 30 percent of bacteria spreads diseases and is harmful, while the other 70 percent is harmless and are even helpful to a human body. E. coli and other bacteria, for example, help aid the digestive tract and also help produce vitamin K. Plus the human body needs to have a balance of good and bad bacteria to keep a healthy immune system, so over obsessing about the bad bacteria can even cause one to be more sick. In the end no person can avoid the quarter of a pound of bacteria that is on a person at all times. So the one thing to remember before the three pumps of unnecessary hand sanitizer is squirted, more helpful bacteria is getting killed than harmful.
With these myths busted students can be at ease when a common, not so ghostly, series of events happens again. After what seems like ages of misleading the public, these germy myths can be finally put to rest.