Festive medical myths

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2769

Published 17 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2769
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2769

Feature

Christmas 2008: Seasonal Fayre

Festive medical myths

Rachel C Vreeman, assistant professor of paediatrics, faculty investigator ¹^,2, Aaron E Carroll, associate professor of paediatrics, director¹^,2

¹ Children’s Health Services Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA, ² Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

Correspondence to: R C Vreeman rvreeman@iupui.edu

More medical myths hit the dust, thanks to Rachel C Vreemanand Aaron E Carroll

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the pursuit of scientific truth, even widely held medicalbeliefs require examination or re-examination. Both physiciansand non-physicians sometimes believe things about our bodiesthat just are not true. As a reminder of the need to apply scientificinvestigation to conventional wisdom, we previously discussedthe evidence disputing seven commonly held medical myths.¹ Theholiday season presents a further opportunity to probe medicalbeliefs recounted during this time of the year.

We generated a list of common medical or health beliefs relatedto the holidays and winter season and searched Medline for scientificevidence to support or refute these beliefs. If we couldn’tfind any evidence in the medical literature, we searched theinternet using Google.

While sugarplums may dance in children’s heads, visionsof holiday sweets terrorise parents with anticipation of hyperactivebehaviour. Regardless of what parents might believe, however,sugar is not to blame for out of . . . [Full text of this article]

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