"Yikes! Mom Was Right"
Well, at least once or twice. Here's the truth about 27 classic pieces of parental advice
1. Stop cracking your knuckles, you'll end up with arthritis.
Wrong. Not that you should do it. You won't get arthritis, but over time it will loosen your ligaments and tighten the muscles in your hands, making them work harder. Stick topopping bubble wrap.
2. Eat your liver.
Wrong. It's a good source of iron, but men get plenty of that, and too much is not a good thing. The body hoards iron like old magazines, and two Finnish studies suggest a link between excess iron and an increased risk of heart attacks in men.
3. Don't sit so close to the TV, you'll burn your eyeballs.
Wrong. The light's not intense or focused enough to do damage. But Mom and Dad should've worried when we had our noses in a book: A 1993 Israeli study of 870 teenagers found that Orthodox Jewish male students had a higher degree of myopia than other students, possibly because of sustained near vision from reading the Torah and from other study habits.
4. Big boys don't cry.
Wrong. This attitude creates a stoic whose only emotional expression is anger, says William Pollack, PhD, a Harvard psychologist and author of Real Boys in the US. A man who didn't cry as a boy will be disconnected and may try to numb his depression with alcohol, fast driving, and women. Great for a country song, bad for health. High levels of depression can lead to heart attacks. Crying slows the heart rate and reduces stress hormones.
5. Just cut the moldy part off the cheese. It's fine.
Right. Mold grows from the outside in, so if there's some on the surface, it's okay. If it's on the inside, it's been there a while, and the cheese is bad. Or it's blue cheese. In which case, break out the chicken wings.
6. Don't talk with your mouth full.
Right. You look disgusting. You swallow air and belch. And talking opens the trapdoor to your windpipe—so you could choke and turn purple and maybe die. None of which will get you a second date.
7. Forgive and forget.
Half right. Forgiving reduces anxiety and depression and helps you release anger, says Bob Enright, PhD, a professor of education psycho-logy at the University of Wisconsin in the US and author of Forgiveness Is a Choice. Studies show that anger contributes to coronary artery disease. Of course you won't forget that your ex-roommate set fire to your car. But forgiving lets you remember until you're really old.
8. Keep playing that video game and your thumb will fall off.
Wrong. There may be some risk of repetitive-stress injury. But writing is actually more damaging than an hour of Tekken 5—gripping a pen locks your joints and slows circulation. To keep your paws from turning into claws, rest and rotate your wrist and hand every so often, says Peter Evans, MD, PhD, a hand specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in the US.
9. Make sure you Cover your mouth when you sneeze.
Right. A good sneeze can infect anyone within 10 feet of your schnozz. And sneeze into your handkerchief (or the crook of your elbow), so your hand doesn't infect everything you touch.
» Guy Wisdom archive
Men's Health Philippines - June 2005 Issue
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That "hairy palms," "you'll go blind" stuff is dead wrong. And we have plenty of experience.
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