Old wives' tale

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An old wives' tale is a wisdom much like an urban legend, supposedly passed down by old wives to a younger generation. Today old wives' tales are also common among children's peer sex education in school playgrounds. Old wives' tales often concern pregnancy, puberty and nutrition.

Some old wives' tales are true, and those that aren't often have roots in truth or are used to trick people into doing something.

Common old wives' tales

Eating carrots improves your night vision

Half-truth

Carrots do contain Beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the liver. Vitamin A helps to maintain healthy vision, but the carrots do not contain enough Beta-carotene to make any significant difference. This tale started in the Second World War when the British spread a rumour that their plane spotters were eating carrots to give them improved vision, concealing the truth about the invention of radar. Also the night fighter ace John Cunningham (21 kills) who was an early proponent of airborne radar in his Bristol Beaufighter, was nicknamed "Cat's Eyes" and alluded to have exceptional night vision because of his carrot eating.

Having sex standing up is a contraceptive

False

This is an example of an old wives' tale in peer sex education. It may seem somewhat logical to a virgin but is not true. Sperm are capable of swimming up the vagina, through the uterus to the fallopian tubes, where they may fertilize an egg, regardless of how a woman is positioned during or after sexual intercourse.

Chocolate causes acne

Half-truth

Chocolate does not cause acne in otherwise healthy individuals, but can have an effect if one is sensitive to a specific ingredient in chocolate, such as pasteurized milk or hydrogenated oil. This is an example of an old wives' tale used to discourage something (the large quantities of chocolate some children eat is unhealthy in other ways) by associating it with something that people are afraid of.

Masturbation causes blindness

False

Again, this is an attempt to discourage masturbation (usually among young males) by associating it with blindness. In men, it is also associated with hairy palms and mental illness. Masturbation in females is sometimes said to cause infertility; this is equally false. Masturbation by a man may reduce fertility in the immediate future by using up stored sperm, however this is not a long-term effect and should absolutely not be relied upon as birth control. The sperm will be replaced naturally over time. In fact, recent studies show that regular ejaculation, including from masturbation, may reduce risk of prostate cancer in men. [link]

The only correlation between the two is semen contains a large amount of zinc (as much as 0.25 milligrams of zinc to 1 mL of seminal fluid), and a deficiency in zinc (although nearly impossible to achieve solely by masturbating) will cause a decline in a person's vision.

Staying out in the cold without a coat causes pneumonia

False

Pneumonia is caused by bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae. Variations on this tale include that someone who stays out in the cold will catch a cold or the flu (which are both known to be caused by viruses).

This tale was not debunked until fairly recently. As public awareness of the cause of disease increased, the tale evolved to include a number of different pseudoscientific explanations. One popular explanation is that a low core body temperature negatively impacts the effectiveness of the human immune system. This intuitively makes sense, as we know fever, an elevated core body temperature, is one of the immune system's defenses against infection. However, studies have shown that there is no statistical correlation between lowered core body temperature and decreased immune response. Still, this old wives' tale, in its modern, pseudoscientific version, is still prevalent.

Stepping on a rusty nail causes tetanus

False

Tetanus is an anaerobic bacterium. It is not the rust on the nail that is contributory, rather it is primarily the nature of the wound and secondarily any dirt mixed with the rust. Any deep wound that closes over first at the surface can result in an infection protected from oxygen. Under such conditions the tetanus bacterium can flourish in a person not appropriately vaccinated. The tetanus bacterium is commonly present both on skin and in soil. Before the availability of vaccine for tetanus the best treatment would be to keep the wound open so that it would heal from the bottom up, thus preventing the anaerobic conditions that tetanus thrives in from arising.

See also: Correlation implies causation (logical fallacy)

Watching TV too much/up close will give you square eyes

False

The idea of this is illogical. The eye's natural shape cannot change. However, too much TV can damage your eyes, especially close up, the brightness of the light and altering colors.

Other old wives' tales

• Shaving/cutting hair makes it grow thicker than before. (In fact, it leads to a coarse appearance since the thicker middle of the hair is exposed at the end, and the lack of flexibility makes the short hair feel rough as it begins to grow back)
• Drinking coffee reduces body growth. (coffee is a stimulant and may increase body growth, or, more likely, may not have an effect at all. This old wives' tale was most probably begun by what is commonly known as "wishful thinking").
• Having a longer penis makes female sex partners feel better during sex or reach orgasm more easily. (common topic of e-mail spam messages; in reality, this is a matter of personal preference, and many women find a longer penis simply uncomfortable due to the tendency to hit the cervix, a sensation some women compare to a man getting struck in the testicles)
• Chewing gum, if swallowed, remains inside your body for seven years. This is not at all true as chewing gum is excreted just like any other undigested piece of food or stray object swallowed.
• Eating the crust of bread makes your hair curl.
• A pimple on your tongue means that you have lied.
• If your chin does not shine yellow when you hold a buttercup underneath it then you do not like butter. A variation of this tale is that if it does shine yellow, you'll be rich.
• Don't cross your eyes; they might stay that way.
• If you make a face and the wind changes direction, your face will stay that way.
• If you go swimming less than an hour after you've eaten, you'll get cramps.
• * However, some scientists do in fact advise not to swim - or engage in any physical activity - for some time after eating, as the parasympathetic nervous system will kick in and start digestion, overriding the orders of the sympathetic nervous system which brings the body into the mode for physical activities.
• * This was parodied in the third Lemony Snicket book, The Wide Window, where the Lachrymose Leeches would eat you if you had not waited an hour after eating to swim.
• If you smell dandelions, you'll wet your bed.
• * This may refer to the dandelion's well-known diuretic properties, but one would have to consume them; smelling would have no effect. Nonetheless, the idea that dandelions cause bedwetting is seen in the English folkname for the plant ("pissabed") and the common French name for it (pissenlit).
• If you touch a toad, you'll get warts. (Warts are caused by a virus, and the growths on the back of a toad or its related animals are naturally present)
• If you feel a burning in your ears, it means that somebody is talking about you. A variation on this is that if you hear a ringing in your ears, someone is thinking about you. In India, hiccups are a sign that you are being remembered by someone. In Japan, if you sneeze it means that somebody is talking about you behind your back.
• If you sneeze suddenly, someone is talking about you behind your back or thinking about you.
• If you have a stye, you must have read or watched pornographic materials.
• If your eyelids keep on blinking, something significant (either good or bad) is going to happen to you soon.
• If you feed chocolate to a dog, it will get intestinal worms. (In fact the result of testing this tale may well be worse; chocolate intended for human consumption could kill the dog; one component of chocolate, theobromine, is a mild stimulant in humans, but quite toxic in some animals, including dogs.)
• If you eat cold milk and cherries together, it is toxic. U.S. President Zachary Taylor was believed to have died because he consumed milk and cherries together.
• Eating apples with cherries increases penis size.
• Burying a chicken's foot in the garden cures common ailments.
• A crow making noise on your rooftop foretells the arrival of a guest. (Especially in Punjab) (In Norse mythology, the principle god is accompanied by two ravens who can foresee the future) However, Galliformes (game birds of the chicken family) predict death if perched on rooftops (especially in Northern Europe).
• If you take milk after eating rice, it can kill you.
• If you whistle at night, burglars will break into your house. (In many parts of Africa and Asia, this is usually modified with the nuance that evil spirits, ominous animals (such as snakes) or the angel of death may be drawn to the whistler. In parts of West Africa inparticular, this tale is modified to include high pitched singing by a female or child, or the playing of wind instruments.)

 

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