Don't Cross Your Eyes...They'll Get Stuck That Way!: And 75 Other Health Myths Debunked by Aaron E. Carroll Read Free Book Online Page A

bubbles in the drink, but perhaps the caffeine that led to problems in calcium in bones. Some people may have extrapolated this to mean that caffeine reduces the calcium available to your bones, which leads to bone problems, which leads to stunted growth. Case closed!
    Or not. When we follow coffee or caffeine drinkers over time in good prospective studies, we see that this really isn’t the case. Growing bones does require your body to use calcium. If caffeine prevents your body from absorbing calcium, then it seems feasible that caffeine would stunt bone growth. Science does not bear this out. In studies, caffeine did slightly limit how well the gut absorbed calcium. However, the studies also showed that the body compensates easily for this change in calcium absorption, by decreasing how much calcium it gets rid of in your pee over a twenty-four-hour period. The overall difference in calcium absorption is quite small. In fact, the study finding that calcium was not absorbed as well when you drink caffeine stated that whatever negative effects the caffeine had on calcium absorption could be overcome by drinking an extra one or two tablespoons of milk.
    Some posit that people who drink caffeine may be taking in less dairy or drinking less milk. That’s possible, but it’s a far cry from claiming that coffee stunts your growth.
    There’s more. Another study enrolled eighty-one girls between ages twelve to eighteen to see how caffeine affected their total body bone mineral gain and hip bone density over a six-year period. One group consumed less than 25 mg of caffeine per day, one consumed 25 to 50 mg of caffeine per day, and one consumed greater than 50 mg of caffeine per day. The researchers found that there were no significant differences among the three groups with respect to the bone health. Caffeine intake at various levels did not affect bone health or growth.
    Caffeine is a commonly used drug in the neonatal intensive care unit, where premature babies are cared for. We use it to stimulate them when their brains are immature; it helps them to breathe on their own. If there was any real evidence that caffeine would stunt their growth, we wouldn’t be using it there.
    There are, of course, plenty of reasons not to give kids caffeine. Unlike sugar, caffeine can affect their behavior and even their sleep. But it won’t stunt their growth.

Cancer
    Cancer is unpreventable
    Cancer is scary. Many people don’t like to talk about it at all because they fear it so much. A lot of the fear comes from a belief that there’s nothing you can do to prevent cancer. That’s totally not true. And getting over this myth could actually save your life.
    First of all, there are a number of things that people do that seriously increase their risk of getting cancer. Our advice: stop doing them. For instance, tobacco use is significantly associated with cancers of all types. The scary truth is that smoking cigarettes has been proven to be associated with cancer in the lungs, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, stomach, pancreas, and cervix. It can also cause certain types of leukemia. Studies have shown that about 30 percent of all cancer deaths occurring in the United States are caused by smoking cigarettes. Don’t do it. Not smoking in the first place or quitting smoking if you do is probably the very best way to prevent cancer.
    Another major cause of cancer is infection. Luckily, many of these infections are also preventable. For instance, human papillomavirus (HPV) is well established as the cause for cervical cancer. Luckily, there is now a vaccine for HPV, which can lead to a significant decrease in precancerous lesions. A vaccine to protect people against cancer is a great thing! Hepatitis B is also known to lead to liver cancers. There’s a vaccine for that too. Granted, some viruses that lead to cancer can’t be prevented by vaccine, but many types of cancer can be avoided by taking good care of your body.
    Radiation exposure