Health Fads | NonStop Natural

Grandmothers everywhere have been giving us their advice regarding what is good to eat, what isn’t good, what is safe, what will stop stomach aches, headaches, and what will downright kill you.

Well, we don’t mean any disrespect, but grandma’s are not always right.

In the same way that your grandmother gave you her grandmother’s best biscuit recipe ever, (and we don’t doubt that it is excellent), but some well meaning advice also gets passed down from generation to generation with no questions asked. If grandma said it, it must be true, right?

This always reminds us of a story we once read where a woman was making her grandmother’s famous pot roast recipe. The recipe started off by saying that you needed to cut the end off of one side. The woman began to wonder why this was. Was it meant to make the piece more juicy? To allow the sauce to permeate the meat better? She calls her mother and asks why she should cut the end off the meat. Her mother doesn’t know, so the woman calls her grandmother to find out. “Oh, that,” her grandmother said, “it’s because I used MY grandmother’s roasting pan and it was very small, so we cut the end off of the roast so it would fit.”

We are going to debunk 10 of the most common old wives tales around so that you can stop cutting the end off of your roasts.

Green or Sprouted Potatoes Kill

Well, while green potatoes or sprouted potatoes may not kill, they could make you sick. Your potatoes sprout because of the warmth of your home. Exposure to light will hurry the process along and cause the potatoes to make chlorophyll, which is why they look a little green. Now, chlorophyll and solanine can make you pretty sick, so if you see some leaves starting to form or if the potatoes are green, it is best not to eat them to be safe. However, small little “eyes” just starting out should be no problem. Just pop them off and cook as usual.

An Apple a Day

Everyone knows this old saying. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? While apples are super nutritious, full of vitamin C and pectin, not to mention being a great source of fiber, we can’t go so far as to say that eating an apple each day will prevent things like diabetes, arthritis, or cancer.

Eat Carrots and You Will Never Need Glasses

There is no denying that carrots are very good for our eyes, they won’t actually fix vision problems. Carrots are loaded with antioxidants, beta-carotene, and other good things that will help maintain a healthy eye, but true vision problems will need to be corrected with glasses or contacts.

Cracking Your Knuckles Causes Arthritis

Every grandma on the planet has said this at one time or another! We know ours certainly did, but is this true? Despite the annoying sounds, studies have found that those who crack their knuckles, even on a regular basis for decades, found absolutely no difference between knuckle crackers and non-knuckle crackers when it came to arthritis. Take note, however, that this study did find that knuckle crackers had weaker grips later on.

Don’t Go Swimming for 30 Minutes after Eating

This one is actually some darn good advice from grandma, so listen up! Autopsies on drowning subjects found that a full 80 percent of swimmers still had food in their stomachs. It’s believed that blood is diverted from the legs to the stomach for digestion, causing severe cramps for some persons. Just to be on the safe side, lie back and take a snooze after eating before you hit the pool.

Reading in Low Light Damages the Eyes

While reading in poor light might give you a headache, it won’t cause long lasting damage to the eyes. To avoid eye strain and the headaches it causes, use a good reading light.

Chicken Soup Cures a Cold

Grandma’s chicken soup, no matter how good it is, may not “cure” a cold, but it certainly will help the body’s immune system fight it off. Chicken soup reduces inflammation as well, so this is one piece of advice you can take to bed with you next time you catch a cold.

Sweating Removes Toxins

Your body removes any waste or toxins via the kidneys and liver, not by sweating. We hate to break it to David Wolfe fans, but the detox craze is just that. A fad. There is no scientific evidence behind it whatsoever. Sweating is your body’s means of cooling itself, nothing more.

Sugar Makes Kids Hyper

This is another age old myth that just refuses to die. There is absolutely no evidence that kids somehow get “hyped up” on sugar. None. Sorry, grandma, give the kids their suckers, they won’t go crazy, we promise.

Don’t Sit Too Close to the TV

While this might have been true in the 1950’s and 1960’s, it certainly isn’t true today. Before 1968, televisions released some fairly high energy radiation that probably wasn’t so good for the eyes. Televisions made after 1970 are perfectly safe, however, so if your kid likes to sit close, it won’t hurt him. That being said, sitting too close to the TV can cause eye strain and headaches, so it’s better to watch it from a reasonable distance. If your child says he can’t see unless he sits close, it’s time to head to the eye doctor for a checkup.

If you are like us, you are watching the Olympics and enjoying these superb athletes compete against each other. Then Michael Phelps comes on the screen and you wonder “WTH is wrong with his skin? He’s covered in purple/red splotches! Is that pepperoni or what?”

It’s called cupping and it’s been around for eons. It’s said to help relieve aches and pains, relieving those painful muscle knots.

We know what you are thinking, does this actually work? Is it safe? Is it cool or just plain crazy? We are going to tell you the facts so you can make up your own mind.

What Exactly Is Cupping and How is it Done?

There are two methods to cupping. The original, old fashioned method, developed thousands of years ago by the Chinese, is to heat the inside of a glass “cup” with the flame from a candle, then immediately put the cup on the skin. This draws the skin up inside the cup, heating it, and causing those red spots.

A newer method involves a tiny suction pump that is built into a special glass “cup”. The cup is placed on the desired spot, then the suction pump is used until the skin is drawn up into the cup. This is much more intense than the candle method and involves more intense bruising to the skin. This appears to be the method that is being used by most of the Olympic athletes.

Cupping isn’t new. It’s been around for centuries, but has recently gained the world’s attention because of the appeal that goes along with the idea that if professional athletes do it, it must be great, right?

Does it Actually Work or is This Just Woo?

This is the $64,000 question that doesn’t really have a definitive answer. While some scientific studies have found that it help with a few problems, such as herpes zoster, acne, and facial paralysis, other studies have found that it did nothing more than turn the skin red.

Ancient Chinese medicine didn’t actually use this as a means of muscle recovery, or even to relieve sore muscles, but to restore the flow of “qi”, which is something like the “life force” that flows through everything.

There have been a few studies done which found that cupping relieved pain in cancer patients and for those with lower back pain, however, these were two small trials that had limited conclusions.

More Facts

There are numerous types of cupping, with the most common method being called Dry Cupping, which is the type that the Olympic athletes appear to be using. Although repeated cupping effects over a long period of time have not yet been studied, at least in most cases, this practice appears to be safe.

The problem with testing the effects of cupping is that it is impossible to get a control group. In tests with substances, you can give people a sugar pill and they won’t know if they are receiving the real thing or not. With cupping, it’s impossible to tell someone they are getting cupping when they aren’t. So it is unknown how much of the “results” patients report are due to the placebo effect.

Athletes Love Woo

Most professional athletes are willing to try just about anything if they feel it will improve their performance. If you remember, at the London games of 2012, the rage was Kinesio tape. Most athletes wore blue or red tape over certain parts of their bodies, believing that it either helped muscles recover faster, or that it would prevent injury. After the games, the tape fell out of favor because it proved to do neither.

This will probably be the case with cupping, but if it returns to the 2020 games, it might be that cupping has some type of benefit!

There Can Be Dangers, However

While cupping, in general, appears to be safe, if not done properly, by skilled practitioners, it can be dangerous.

Cupping is designed to be a quick therapy. If left on too long, cupping has resulted in second degree burns and infections. In one case, a Chinese man, living in Australia, received third degree burns after repeated cupping treatments to cure his frozen shoulder.

While complaints are rare, they do happen. Never attempt to do this at home with friends and never allow someone who is not experienced to perform this on you.

The Bottom Line

While some studies show that cupping can work to improve some skin issues, such as acne or herpes zoster, there are no studies showing that cupping actually does anything at a deeper level. We need more studies done in this area before we can reach a definite conclusion.

If you have had cupping therapy, we would love to hear your experiences.

Top 10 Old Wives Tales Debunked

Cupping: Crazy or Cool? We Set the Facts Straight!