- Most of us know a few old wives' tales that sound a bit bizarre. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them aren't true though they have some fascinating and unclear origins and explanations.
- If you pull out a gray hair two more won't grow back in its place, cats do not have a natural urge to smother and "suck the life out of" babies, and eating a seed won't cause a watermelon to grow in your stomach.
- And if you swallow gum it won't sit in your stomach for seven years.
- Visit INSIDER's homepage for more great stories.
Just about everyone is familiar with certain old wives' tales, which aretraditional beliefs that aren't based on facts. Oftentimes they're more of a superstition than anything else — and though some seem too bizarre to be true, others might sound like they could be based in fact.
Here are some popular old wives' tales debunked and explained.
MYTH: If you have wet hair and go outside in cold weather, you'll get sick.
This old belief possibly stems from the notion that people tend to get sick with colds or the flu more often during cold-weather months, but there's not much truth to this wet-hair tale.
Dr. Pritish Tosh, an infectious diseases physician and researcher at the Mayo Clinic, told the HuffPost that you generally need to be exposed to an "infectious agent" in order to get sick. Tosh added, "Going out with wet hair is not going to cause an infection. I think it more so just makes people uncomfortable."
That said, though going outdoors with wet hair won't cause the flu, it could damage your hair.
"Cold weather can exacerbate hair breakage in wet hair, causing strands to snap off," hairdresser Jason Collier previously told INSIDER.
MYTH: Hair of the dog gets rid of a hangover.
If you've been told to battle a rough hangover by drinking the "hair of the dog," also known as the alcohol that made you feel sick the night before, you aren't alone.
Per Oxford Dictionaries, this belief is said to be rooted in the false old-school idea that if you were bitten by a rabid dog, your rabies would be cured if you consumed a potion that contained some of the hair from the animal that had sunk its teeth into you or if you placed some of that critter's fur in your wound.
But this advice isn't true in terms of rabies or hangovers.
As Dr. Keri Peterson, an internist, told Self, having another alcoholic drink is likely only going to make you feel worse later on, explaining, "It merely postpones [your hangover] until later in the day."
MYTH: If you pull out a gray hair, two more will take its place.
If you notice a gray hair on your head and you want to get rid of it, feel free to pull it out— this old wives' tale isn't true.
As Dr. Shashank Kraleti, UAMS family and preventive medicine physician, explained, "Plucking a gray hair will only get you a new gray hair in its place because there is only one hair that is able to grow per follicle."
That said, a gray hair usually means your follicle stopped producing melanin, a pigment that helps your strands stay a certain color. You won't get any additional gray hairs unless your other follicles also stop producing the pigment.
MYTH: Eating carrots will drastically improve your eyesight.
This tale is said to have roots in a bit of military propaganda during World War II. Supposedly, in an attempt to trick German Nazis into thinking the British had superior eyesight, the British Ministry of Information created a propaganda campaign that included a tidbit that eating a lot of carrots help the British see in the dark, even during blackouts.
This popular old wives' tale is still popular today and though it's not entirely fact, we now know it could have a little bit of truth behind it.
According to Scientific American, carrots are full of beta-carotene, a pigment your body converts to vitamin A. Vitamin A can benefit your eyes, helping you see under conditions of low light or darkness and keeping your corneas functioning.
Although carrots can be great for you, they won't drastically improve your eyesight or give you night vision. Your body can only convert so much beta-carotene at a time and once your body has enough of it, it'll stop converting it to vitamin A.
MYTH: Sitting too close to the television will make you go blind.
This is another old warning that isn't totally true. Chances are it's rooted in parents' genuine concern that close exposure to the bright colors and lights of a television could harm their child's eyes.
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, sitting too close to the TV won't cause blindness. But it could cause temporary eyestrain, which commonly occurs when your eyes are tired after you've used them intensely for a prolonged period of time.
Per the Mayo Clinic, some symptoms of eyestrain include difficulty keeping your eyes open, burning or itching eyes, and a headache. That said, eyestrain can be caused by driving for long distances, being stressed, or even using the computer for quite some time — and it can also be caused by watching a lot of television from any distance.
Fortunately, eyestrain isn't widely known to cause permanent, long-term damage in children or adults (but if it's not going away, you may want to see a doctor).
MYTH: Shaving your hair makes it grow back thicker and coarser.
Shaving body hair doesn't make your hair grow back thicker or coarser.However, it's pretty common for people to feel like it does.
As licensed medical esthetician Jordana Mattioli of Complete Skin MD told Dermaflash, "Cutting or shaving slices away the tip of a hair, which is tapered at the end. Those short hairs, when they continue to grow past the surface of the skin aren't tapered anymore, so we perceive this temporary process to be that the hair is thicker."
MYTH: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Per Medical News Today, this phrase supposedly has roots in a decades-old saying from Wales that was originally, "Eat an apple on going to bed and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread." This saying implies that if you eat this fruit you won't get sick and it could have roots in the idea that apples are a fairly healthy food.
It's true that there are health benefits to eating apples (they contain lots of vitamins and can be beneficial to your heart's health), but not enough to prevent you from ever needing to see a doctor.
In 2015, a review published by JAMA Internal Medicine looked at national nutrition data collected from 8,399 people, 753 of which typically ate a small apple every day. It did not support the idea that eating an apple a day will "keep the doctor away" or stop someone from getting sick.
The study noted that the small fraction of US adults who eat an apple a day do appear to use fewer prescription medications but it's unclear if that has anything to do with fruit consumption. Plus, the research is limited.
MYTH: If you swallow it, gum stays in your intestines for seven years.
If you accidentally swallow your gum, don't stress: it won't actually stick around in your body for seven years. Chances are adults told you this as a kid just because they didn't want you to choke on gum (although it is quite rare, small children can experience health complications related to swallowing gum).
According to Yale Scientific, although you can't exactly digest gum (its base cannot be broken down by the body's digestion process), it's not going to sit inside your body for seven years — it likely won't even be there for seven days.
Dr. Lisa Ganjhu, who specializes in gastroenterology at NYU's Langone Medical Center, previously told INSIDER that, much like any other meal, any swallowed gum will pass through your body shortly after you consume it.
MYTH: Swimming less than an hour after you eat causes cramps and drowning.
Per New York Daily News, this idea likely came from an old Boy-Scouts handbook from the early 1900s— but there's no real truth to it.
Per Dignity Health, the original idea was that digestion diverts some of your blood flow from your muscles to your stomach and swimming might inhibit that blood flow, causing cramps that could cause you to drown. Others have suggested that if you eat and then go for a dip shortly after, your stomach diverts blood from your limbs, making it difficult for you to swim and thus putting you at risk of drowning.
But don't worry — your blood isn't diverted enough to cause any real risk of drowning. In 2012, the American Red Cross published a review stating, "Current available information suggests that eating before swimming is not a contributing risk for drowning and can be dismissed as a myth."
MYTH: Spicy foods can cause ulcers.
This old wives' tale likely has roots in the idea that spicy foods can sometimes upset or irritate one's stomach or mouth.
According to LiveScience, studies have shown that spicy food won't cause ulcers, although it can irritate existing ones. Ulcers are actually often caused by a bacterium called helicobacter pylori, not food with a kick.
MYTH: If you're pregnant and carrying high, your baby is a girl.
Some people have long believed that the way someone's pregnant belly looks will determine the gender of their baby. And although the origins of this tale are unclear, some have suggested if your baby bump is higher up on your body, it means your baby will be a girl.
Professor Steve Robson, the vice president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told HuffPost Australia that this isn't true.
He explained that the way someone carries "has nothing to do with their [baby's] genitals and everything to do with the way the baby is lying in the uterus."
MYTH: Cats have a natural urge to smother babies.
This old wives' tale encourages parents to keep cats away from their babies because of the idea that felines want to "suck the breath" out of infants and kill them. Unsurprisingly, this dark tale isn't true.
Per LiveScience, this idea may have roots in a 300-year-old case in which a child was supposedly found dead because of cat-related strangulation. This myth could also come from the idea that babies oftentimes have a milky breath from feeding and cats might smell it and be tempted by it.
But researchers have noted that cat-caused infant deaths are highly uncommon. And if a cat did smother a baby, it likely wouldn't be on purpose.
MYTH: Eating a watermelon seed means the fruit will grow inside of you.
The origins of this old wives' tale are unclear and the idea that eating a seed could grow a watermelon in your stomach just isn't true.
Per Spoon University, watermelon seeds will likely just pass through your body without being digested — they generally won't cause you any harm. And they definitely won't cause a watermelon to grow inside of you.
In addition, some studies have noted that, when prepared correctly (particularly if sprouted and shelled), watermelon seeds can actually be nutritious and loaded with protein.
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