There are some myths that we’ve believed to be “facts.” Some of these myths have been followed for decades. These common myths and misconceptions have made our lives a lot harder. We take unnecessary precautions and stress and are careless where we need to be cautious. We’ve seen our forefathers following some myths, and we do the same without gaining much knowledge. It becomes hard to distinguish fact from fiction when we’ve spent our entire life hearing them again and again. Here are 10 annoying myths people still believe to be true.

1 Myth: You can “detox” your body from toxins and parasites by drinking certain teas or taking some weird medication.

Truth: Detox teas and medications do more harm than good to your body. Most of them are only designed to give energy and can make you urinate frequently.

It’s a myth that most people blindly believe and follow. They do more harm than good to your body. Although some detox teas contain harmless tea leaves, others can have laxatives, powerful herbs, medications, high levels of caffeine, and illegal chemicals like ephedra.

The ingredients present in detox teas are only made to give you energy. They might also make you run to the toilet frequently. With an empty bladder and colon, you may end up losing a little weight. What you actually lose is water, not toxins. Detox teas aren’t a safe way to lose weight and can cause heart attacks, seizures, and strokes.

Moreover, detox medications can lead to drug toxicity. Some weird detox medications can cause constipation, diarrhea, cramps, coating on the tongue, rashes, stomach pain, and bronchospasm. (1, 2, 3)

2 Myth: a lot of people still believe MSG (monosodium glutamate) is harmful.

Truth: MSG is no more harmful than regular salt. However, a person can experience some symptoms if he/she is highly sensitive to MSG. 

Among these common myths and misconceptions, the ones about MSG aren’t new. People have been using it to flavor foods for hundreds of years, and for six decades, everyone was doing fine with it.

However, in 1968, a doctor reported that he experienced palpitations and numbness in his neck after consuming Chinese food. He mentioned in the letter that the symptoms might have risen from several ingredients present in the food.

These ingredients can include alcohol from the cooking wine, sodium, or MSG. People stressed over MSG and named the condition “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.”

From that day, MSG has been seen from a whole new perspective. It was linked to a long list of symptoms like chest pain, numbness, sweats, headache, nausea, tingling, facial flushing, burning, palpitations, and bowel pressure. Then, a great number of scientists started researching and concluded that MSG is safe.

Still, highly sensitive people should avoid MSG as they may indeed be vulnerable to experience the above-mentioned symptoms. However, the symptoms are not as dangerous as everyone has made them be. It was also noticed that they are short-lived.

These symptoms might appear 20 minutes after consumption and clear up within two hours. Also, this only happens when you consume MSG in large amounts. (1, 2, 3)

3 Myth: It is commonly believed that if you go out with wet hair, you will get sick.

Truth: There is no scientific evidence supporting this idea. However, your hair might suffer when you go out on cold winter nights.

Getting sick due to wet hair is another belief among the common myths and misconceptions. Wet hair has never been a cause of the common cold, viruses are. Therefore, you will not get sick by going outside with wet hair, as wet hair doesn’t harbor germs.

People mostly relate the common cold with going out with wet hair because viruses are more commonly found outside. In reality, the truth is far from that. The common cold is caused when a sick person coughs, sneezes, or blows his/her nose.

However, going out with wet hair in winter can have a negative effect on your hair. Your hair is at a greater risk of getting damaged in winter because the strands are more vulnerable when wet. In cold weather, water molecules present in the hair can expand, which makes them easily breakable. (1, 2, 3)

4 Myth: Caffeinated tea or coffee can lead to dehydration.

Truth: Although caffeine is a bit diuretic and makes you urinate frequently, you don’t lose excess water. Your body absorbs as much fluid as it needs and expels the rest.

Among these myths and misconceptions, dehydration due to caffeine is another belief.  Although caffeinated tea and coffee are mild diuretics, meaning they cause your kidneys to flush more sodium and water from the body.

If you’re intaking caffeine and urinating frequently, it’s common to believe that you’re becoming dehydrated. However, it’s far from the truth.

When you drink a cup of tea or coffee, you’re intaking a lot of fluid along with caffeine. Here, you don’t lose much liquid by urinating because your body absorbs as much fluid as it needs and flushes out the rest.

In addition, if you experience headaches or other symptoms, your morning coffee isn’t the culprit causing dehydration. It’s only your sensitivity to caffeine. (1, 2, 3)

5 Myth: The rainbow has seven colors.

Truth: There are a million colors that aren’t visible to the human eye. The seven colors we see are just the colors of the visual spectrum.

Our teachers have always told us that the rainbow has seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These are the colors of the visual spectrum.

Red consists of the longest wavelength, and violet has the shortest. However, these seven colors aren’t the only colors we have in the world. What about pink, coral, brown, etc?

Besides the seven colors, there are more colors in the rainbow that are invisible to the human eye. Rainbows contain upward of one million colors in a much broader continuum than the seven measly ones that we already know.

The Sun emits about 40% of its energy in the form of photons that fall in the part of the light spectrum and are visible to the human eyes. The wavelength of the colors in the visible spectrum helps us see them. (source)