the human body is one of the most complex and advanced things devised by evolution and yet
we think we know everything about it thanks to misconceptions in the media and old scientific
beliefs many of us still believe a number of facts about our own bodies that have little to no basis
in science while it's perfectly fine to not know everything about everything these myths about the
human body cause real problems as an example a lot of drowning casualties occur because we think
drowning involves struggling and splashing around in reality drowning victims lose consciousness
making it almost impossible for rescue teams to know when someone is drowning in crowded
swimming areas here are 10 more misconceptions about our bodies and what happens to them
10. restarting a flatlined heart the belief that the heart can just be shocked back to life after
flatlining on the heart monitor makes for some excellent cliffhangers it has been used as a
convenient plot device by tv and movie writers for a long time as it's an easy way to create
suspense in an otherwise boring hospital scene thanks to them quite a few of us still believe
that it's entirely possible to bring a dead heart back to life by shocking it while shocking is a
real medical technique used to stimulate cardiac activity the heart should still have some pulse
for it to work once it's completely dead or flatlined there's no way to bring it back to
life 9. heart attacks allowed like drowning heart attacks are portrayed in movies and tv shows as
loud and overt they're also usually serious almost always resulting in a visit to the hospital if not
outright death most heart attacks in real life however are nothing like that any doctor
would tell you that it's fairly common to feel absolutely nothing during a heart attack as around
45 percent of them are silent because of this widespread inaccurate notion of what someone going
through one looks like many people don't realize they're having a heart attack and require urgent
medical care it's another one of those widespread misconceptions about our own bodies that causes
problems in real life thankfully heart attacks aren't as deadly as the movies make them out
to be either as ninety percent of victims end up surviving number eight sitting too close to the tv
can hurt your eyes we're often told while growing up that sitting too close to the tv or any big
screen really can be detrimental to your long-term health it's another one of those beliefs passed
down the generations at least since the advent of the television that we really never seem to
bother to confirm scientifically speaking there's no evidence to suggest that sitting close to the
television can damage the eyes in any way it may give you a severe headache and eye strain if you
do it for a long time though there are never serious long-term problems kids that repeatedly
sit next to the tv to watch it though may need glasses as it could be a sign of near-sightedness
7. the sugar rush it's a widely held belief that eating a lot of sugar makes kids hyperactive
it's not uncommon for parents to restrict their child's sugar intake to avoid that or even closely
monitor their behavior after a round of dessert in case they get too jumpy sugar is generally
considered to be something that can if taken in large amounts make you more hyper and alert a
phenomenon colloquially known as sugar rush if we look at the science behind it though there's no
evidence to suggest a relationship between sugar and hyperactivity among children or anyone else
for that matter we're not saying that eating a lot of sugar has no harmful effects by any means just
that according to science hyperactivity is not one of them 6. tilt your head back to stop a nosebleed
nosebleeds are fairly common and not usually a sign of something serious despite how often they
occur though most of us have a completely inaccurate idea of what to do to stop them
you'll often see people tilting their head back in the case of a nosebleed possibly working on
the assumption that if you send the blood back to where it came from it'll just stay there in
reality tilting your head back doesn't just not do anything to stop a bleeding nose it may cause the
blood to enter the throat and result in choking nausea diarrhea and vomiting the best way to stop
a nosebleed is to just sit straight and gently pitch the nostrils for about five to ten minutes
number five chewing gum stays in the system for seven years almost everyone has grown up thinking
that chewing gum is essentially indigestible and if you swallow a piece it can stay in the system
for seven years while it definitely helps to keep the kids away from doing so as swallowing it could
be harmful in other ways there's no evidence to suggest that it can stay in the system for seven
days let alone seven years the digestive system is capable of digesting almost all the ingredients
found in gum within a single day except for the chewy base at its worst that may take a few more
days to digest though that's nowhere near as long as seven years obviously this doesn't mean that
swallowing gum is completely harmless as it could still cause intestinal blockage in large amounts
especially in children number four drink eight glasses of water a day quite a few of you may
have heard of the eight and eight rule drink at least eight eight ounce glasses of water
every day to stay healthy we know that drinking water is good and eight glasses does sound like
the correct number of glasses of water per day it may even be a great goal to set yourself if you're
not drinking enough water according to scientists however there's no reason to believe that there's
a certain amount of water that you need to drink every day in fact you don't need to drink water
unless your body's inbuilt trigger demands it as it's pretty good at calculating the most optimum
time to get hydrated studies have shown that drinking water exactly when the body demands it
can even maximize endurance performance moreover all the food we eat throughout the day including
beverages other than water have a fair amount of water too the best advice really is to drink water
or whenever you're thirsty number three the tongue is divided into different taste zones
you may have heard versions of it depending on where you grew up though almost everyone has
learned that the tongue has different taste zones in school you may even remember the color-coded
diagram with the tongue divided into various taste zones with neat straight lines that's despite the
fact that there's no scientific reason to believe it's true it's actually one of those myths that
could easily be disproved just eat some salt and see if any part of the tongue is unable to taste
it the origin of this myth may be traced back to a dissertation written by german scientist david
pauly hanig in 1901. his study suggested that the taste buds of the tongue vary in sensitivity
in its different regions and it's possible that some regions may be better at tasting specific
flavors than others his diagrams however were widely misunderstood to mean that the tongue
can only taste certain flavors in certain places number two the brain can be trained
the belief that you can improve the brain's ability by training isn't new crossword puzzles
as one example are traditionally thought to be a great exercise for improving memory
today games that claim to sharpen your brain make up a multi-billion dollar industry often
claiming long-term benefits scientific backing and quick results in their ads is it possible to train
the brain like a muscle boat while it sounds intuitive that spending time on a game that say
challenges your cognitive abilities would improve your overall cognitive strength
there's no scientific evidence to back it up on the contrary multiple studies done on
online brain games prove that they do nothing to improve the brain in any way the whole idea that
you can exercise the brain by repeatedly doing certain tasks is a relic of ancient times when
we didn't understand it well enough to know that it's totally different from other parts of the
body that truly can be exercised number one make up for lost sleep over the weekend it's a common
belief that it's perfectly fine to eat into your sleeping hours during the work week as long as you
sleep in and make up for them over the weekend it works on the intuitive assumption that sleep
is something you can just add or subtract from its overall reserve according to science though
that's not how it works while it's true that you can make up for lost sleep it only works to an
extent sure if you didn't sleep for two hours a two hour nap at work would make up for it though
it doesn't work for longer hours moreover consistently undersleeping for multiple days
causes health issues like distorted metabolism and weight gain and no amount of sleeping in over the
weekend is going to make up for that so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did
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