Old wives tales

Feed a cold, starve a fever

Or is it starve a cold and feed a fever? It really doesn’t matter, since both are wrong. Whether you’re burning up or nursing a cold, good, ample nutrition always aids in the healing process.

Put butter on a burn

Twaddle. This is silly and dangerous, as the greasiness holds the heat inside the skin, deepening the burn and making it more severe. Cool (not cold!) running water will effectively reduce the heat and minimize damage.

A high fever is dangerous

Drivel. While the disease that causes the fever may indeed be dangerous (and worth investigating), the fever itself is not. The only exception to this is in the case of heat stroke, where the body’s sweating mechanism is malfunctioning, and the high temperature becomes a danger in itself. During a fever, don’t allow yourself to get so cold as to shiver, that simply raises your internal temperature and will make you feel worse.

Don’t share cutlery with an aids sufferer

Baloney. HIV is not even in saliva, and there is no risk of HIV infection through casual contact. Ironically it’s not a highly infectious disease unless you come into contact with fresh blood or body fluids during a sexual encounter.

Reading in dim light will damage your eyes

Hogwash. Reading in a dimly lit room won’t do any harm, however, good lighting can help prevent eye fatigue and make reading easier.

If you go outside with wet hair, you’ll catch a cold

Balderdash. Cold weather, damp hair and chills don’t cause colds â€? viruses do. In winter the air is drier, which decreases natural resistance, and people tend to migrate indoors, which facilitates viral spread. Most infections are droplet spread (coughing) and very few germs survive any length of time once they’ve left their host. So Mom was at least right about the one meter rule… keep your distance from people with a cold or the flu.

As for the Old Wives mythical cures, there’s only one way to treat the common cold � with contempt!

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