Have an apple

11 Common medical misconceptions you probably once believed

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Medicine is complicated, and it's easy for folklore, memes, and half-remembered advice to creep their way into our collective subconscious. Some of these myths are harmless, others are misleading, and many are downright dangerous. Let's take a look at 11 medical misconceptions that have endured over time, and that you've probably believed at one time or another.

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..keeps the doctor away, right? Apples are healthy. They are full of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. But, as you probably know, they aren't enough to ward off disease on their own. The phrase originated in 19th-century Wales as "Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread." The rhyme is charming, but fortunately, doctors still get plenty of bread.

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That satisfying pop comes from collapsing gas bubbles in the fluid of your joints, not from your bones grinding to dust. Decades of peer-reviewed research show no link between knuckle-cracking and arthritis or bone deterioration. It might be irritating for those around you, but not bad for your joints.

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It does feel that way, but it's only an optical illusion: the new growth feels blunt and coarse when compared to a tapered hair tip. However, the follicles themselves are unaffected by shaving. Your hair’s growth rate and thickness are determined by genetics.

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This one is nothing more than a parental scare-tactic propaganda. Gum is indeed indigestible, but it doesn’t remain trapped inside you forever. It passes through your digestive tract quite efficiently, just like corn or sunflower seeds. Certainly in days, not 7 years.

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Although carrots are good for overall eye health, the myth that they have the power to give you night vision stems from a little bit of British World War II propaganda. The British Royal Air Force claimed that their pilots had uncannily good night accuracy because of their carrot-heavy diets. In reality, it was a cover story to conceal their use of radar technology.

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Neither black coffee nor cold showers can accelerate the rate at which your body metabolizes alcohol. Ask any doctor for a recipe to sober up quickly, and they will tell you the sad, sad truth: it's impossible.

Plenty of people claim to have found a trick to solve this problem. However, no matter how many freezing showers you take, they will only make you cold, wet, and awake, but still drunk.

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Well, it depends on who you ask. There’s a long list of home remedies: hold your breath, drink water upside down, have a friend scare you, and so on. While some of these techniques might help by resetting your diaphragm, the truth is that most hiccups fade on their own within minutes. And if they don’t, you’re better off seeing a doctor than cycling through an endless number of folk cures.

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In reality, apple seeds contain amygdalin, which the body can convert into toxic cyanide (not arsenic). However, the amount of amygdalin in apple seeds is tiny: you would need to crush and eat over 150 apple seeds to get anything close to a dangerous dose. Or you could simply avoid eating the seeds altogether.

In any case, apples are far better at keeping the doctor away than they are at poisoning you.

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If you do, you'll catch a cold. Or that's what this myth would have us believe. In fact, wet hair in chilly weather will just make you uncomfortable.

As we know, colds are caused by viruses that get into our systems. Being cold or damp doesn't conjure viruses out of thin air. That being said, lowering your body's temperature might weaken your immune defenses slightly, but the real culprits are still unequivocally the germs.

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A Hollywood myth that has crawled deep into our collective imagination. While the exact origin of the phrase is unclear, it is often associated with the lectures of Harvard psychologist William James, who told audiences that we only tap a fraction of our full potential during the 1890s. The idea then evolved and spread through self-help and motivational literature, eventually becoming the widely believed claim we know today.

Scientific research has thoroughly debunked this notion. While the inner workings of much of our brain are still unknown to us, we do know that virtually all of it has a function, and we use 100% of it.

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A Thanksgiving classic, people like to blame their festive drowsiness on the turkey. There is some scientific basis for this: turkey does contain tryptophan, an amino acid that promotes sleep.

However, the amount in turkey is minimal and no greater than that found in chicken or beef. The real culprits behind your post-dinner nap are the carb overload, extra drinks, and day-long festivities—not the turkey itself.

10 weird historical events that no one has been able to explain (yet)

Image: Walters Art Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Who doesn't like a good mystery? And if the mystery isn’t a work of fiction but the result of a true story, even better! The great unsolved enigmas of history are absolutely fascinating. Some have been solved over time, but there are still many old secrets for which neither scientists nor historians have found an explanation—yet. Time-travel with us as we uncover 10 of the biggest historical mysteries that will probably never be cracked!

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Bermeja Island is mentioned in navigation texts written by European travelers and appears in cartography from the 16th to 19th centuries. Old maps place it off the north coast of the Yucatán Peninsula; however, multiple searches over the years have yielded no concrete evidence of its existence.

So, what happened to Isla Bermeja? Was it a cartographic error? Did it sink due to a tidal wave? Because of its geopolitical significance, some have even suggested that it was blown up by the CIA! A 2009 study by the Autonomous University of Mexico concluded that Isla Bermeja does not exist today, nor were any traces found at its supposed coordinates. Yet, it will forever remain a mystery that will surely keep many entertained.

Image: Credit: Big Ear Radio Observatory and North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1977, Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope, used in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, detected a signal now known as the Wow! signal. While reviewing the data, astronomer Jerry R. Ehman noticed a sequence represented as "6EQUJ5." Baffled by the anomaly, he circled it and wrote "Wow!" in the margins.

The signal lasted 72 seconds and, unfortunately, has never been repeated. To this day, no one can fully explain the phenomenon, although some suggest it may have come from a man-made source. Still, the Wow! signal remains one of the strongest candidates for potential extraterrestrial contact ever detected.

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How is it possible for an entire village to vanish without a trace? Believe it or not, this is said to have happened nearly a century ago. According to lore, a small Inuit village in Canada was well known among fur trappers who visited regularly to trade. But in 1930, something very strange supposedly occurred.

A hunter named Joe Labelle claimed he visited the village one day and couldn’t find a single person. Reports said there were guns and food left behind, and even claims that the graves in the cemetery were empty. A thorough investigation, however, found no conclusive evidence of what happened to the villagers. Some witnesses from nearby towns even reported seeing a huge green light. Theories ranged from mass migration to extraterrestrial abductions. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has since dismissed the case as an urban legend. Some still believe the story to be true.

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We know thousands of shipwreck stories, but this one is quite unique. The MV Joyita, designed to be nearly unsinkable, was found adrift in the South Pacific, practically unharmed, but the crew had disappeared completely.

In October 1955, the American merchant vessel left the port of Apia in Samoa with 16 crew members and 9 passengers bound for the Tokelau Islands. After days without news, a rescue mission was launched. Five weeks later, the Joyita was spotted more than 600 miles west of its intended route. The vessel was partially submerged, and there was no sign of the passengers or crew. Four tons of cargo and all three life rafts were missing. They were never seen again.

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Do you know where one of the best-preserved mummies was found? Hint: not in Egypt. Xin Zhui, the Marquise of Dai during the Western Han Dynasty in China, was discovered in her tomb at Mawangdui 2,000 years after her death, along with hundreds of valuable documents and artifacts.

What makes this mummy so extraordinary is how well-preserved her body is. Her organs and veins remain intact, and she still has hair and even eyelashes. Scientists analyzed the fluid present in the coffin and discovered it was acidic and contained salt and magnesium. They believe this mysterious liquid may have been responsible for preserving Xin Zhui so well. What they don’t know is whether it was intentionally poured into the coffin or came from the body itself.

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The United States has its fair share of presidents who died while in office, but none of our 45 presidents have ever disappeared without a trace. Did you know that this actually happened in The Land Down Under?

Harold Edward Holt was the Prime Minister of Australia from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He loved the ocean and spearfishing. During a weekend trip with friends, Holt visited the remote Cheviot Beach to take a swim. Rough sea conditions that day caused him to be swept away by the waves, and he never reappeared. Despite an intensive search, his body was never found, which has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories. Ironically, Australians built the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre in Melbourne in his honor.

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Many famous criminals have managed to remain unidentified for decades, but the D.B. Cooper case is something else entirely. In 1971, Cooper boarded a flight from Portland to Seattle. Shortly after takeoff, he showed a flight attendant a device he claimed was a bomb and demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in cash.

The crew landed to meet Cooper’s demands in exchange for the passengers and then took off again. As the plane flew over southwestern Washington, Cooper jumped into the cold, rainy night carrying his haul. His whereabouts and true identity were never discovered, although it is likely he didn’t survive the jump. In 1980, some of the ransom money was found near the Columbia River. Although the FBI officially closed the case in 2016, amateur sleuths continue to try to crack it.

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Can you imagine an epidemic where the main symptom is uncontrollable dancing? Sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it? Yet this really happened during the Middle Ages. In 1518, a dancing plague struck Strasbourg, Alsace, in what is now France. This strange condition affected up to 400 people, making them dance frantically for weeks. It is said that some even died of heart attacks, exhaustion, or strokes.

Doctors and authorities tried all kinds of measures to stop the spread. They even banned music for a while! To this day, scientists are not certain what caused this bizarre condition: it may have been food poisoning from toxins in the ergot fungus, or perhaps a case of stress-induced mass hysteria.

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The Voynich manuscript is a codex written roughly 500 years ago in an unknown language and writing system by an anonymous author. Known as Voynichese, the manuscript was named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish bibliophile and antiquarian who purchased it in 1912.

Radiocarbon testing has shown that it dates to the early 15th century. Many cryptographers and codebreakers have attempted to decipher its roughly 240 pages without success. The manuscript contains diagrams and illustrations of unknown plants and astrological symbols. Some believe it may be a made-up language, a secret code, a work of fiction, or even a hoax. If you think you can solve this mystery, the Voynich manuscript is available for viewing at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Image: Bernhard

Similar to the Voynich manuscript, the Phaistos Disc is a fired clay disc believed to have been created during the Bronze Age. It was discovered by an Italian archaeologist in the basement of a palace in Crete, Greece, in 1908.

What makes this disc fascinating is that it contains a mysterious message. Stamped into the clay is a set of signs, forming a text that many scientists have tried to decipher—without success. It is considered an early attempt at printing, a technological innovation that would not become widespread for several centuries. While enthusiasts still hope the enigma can be solved, this is unlikely unless other documents are discovered to provide context.