prefer to use the term fallacies myself rather than myth.
John
Mighty Cyberengines Spew Health Myths
By JANE E. BRODY
NYT, 0.5.30
When my sons were in the first grade, a rumor circulated through
New York City elementary schools that cockroaches often
contaminated canned tuna. Though the boys liked other fish,
including sardines, they refused to eat canned tuna in any form and
still avoid it more than 20 years later.
Like alligators living in the sewer, many urban myths assume a life
of their own despite a total lack of supporting evidence. The
alligator myth is more a source of amusement than a problem for
anyone, since very few of us venture into sewers. But when myths
involve health issues, they can result in needless anxiety,
avoidance behavior and inconvenience.
In years past, these unsubstantiated rumors about health hazards
lurking in our midst spread relatively slowly from person to person
by word of mouth, unless some radio or television program happened
to give them national airing. Now there is a new rapid-fire means
of transmitting misinformation nationwide, even worldwide, via
e-mail and the Internet. And since these communications appear in
writing, rumors about health hazards floating around cyberspace
seem to acquire an undeserved validity that makes them more likely
to be believed than any oral warning.
Of course, not everyone is equally gullible. Still, some people
react with fear, even panic, when a cybermyth about health appears
on their computer screens. Several of these "urban health myths"
are exposed for what little they are worth in the May issue of Mayo
Clinic Women's HealthSource, a newsletter published by the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minn. I have added one of my own, on aluminum,
that predates cyberspace but refuses to die.
MYTH: Cooking in aluminum pots causes Alzheimer's disease. The sick
brain cells of people with Alzheimer's disease have been found to
contain high amounts of aluminum. This prompted people to point a
guilty finger at aluminum pots and pans as a source of this element
that they believe damage brain cells, resulting in senility.
Countless people tossed out all their aluminum cookware, replacing
it with stainless steel and enameled cast iron.
But what those who panicked failed to realize is that sick cells
tend to accumulate toxic metals because they are unable to
eliminate them. Despite numerous investigations, there is no
scientifically reliable evidence that aluminum is the cause, rather
than the result, of a diseased brain.
MYTH: Antiperspirants cause breast cancer. A persistent Internet
myth is that since antiperspirants block sweat glands, those in the
underarm are unable to eliminate toxic substances, sending them
instead into nearby lymph nodes, where they cause genetic mutations
that result in cancer.
First, sweat glands do not eliminate toxins and are not connected
to the lymph system. Rather, toxins are processed through the liver
and kidneys. Second, breast cancer does not arise in lymph nodes.
It may spread to underarm nodes, but it starts within the breast
tissue, usually in milk ducts. Third, there is no evidence linking
breast cancer to not sweating. Fourth, no ingredient in
antiperspirants is known to cause cancer. Finally, among countless
studies of risk factors associated with breast cancer, not one has
pointed to antiperspirants as a remotely possible cause.
MYTH: Costa Rican bananas carry flesh-eating bacteria. Whenever a
frightening, mysterious illness gains widespread attention, myths
tend to abound as to its source. Hence the myth that touching the
skin of bananas grown in Costa Rica can expose a person to the
bacteria that cause necrotizing fasciitis, a potentially deadly
disease caused by bacteria that attack the flesh in science-fiction
fashion.
Necrotizing fasciitis is caused by various bacteria, including
Group A streptococcus that is found on people's skin and in their
throats. It is transmitted from through saliva or mucus or through
sores on the skin to another person who broken skin. The bacteria
cannot infect intact skin. Nor are they carried on bananas.
MYTH: Aspartame causes . . . you-name-it. According to the Mayo
Clinic, one woman is the source of the belief that the artificial
sweetener aspartame causes everything from obesity to manic
depression to multiple sclerosis. The woman maintains that the Food
and Drug Administration, in cahoots with commercial interests, has
suppressed evidence of aspartame's risks and that all the studies
indicating its safety are tainted because they have been financed
by the company that produces it.
One study published in 1997 linked aspartame to a rise in brain
tumors. But the increase in these tumors, which began in the
1970's, predates the introduction of aspartame into the food
supply. There are many factors that might account for the rise in
brain tumors, but none, including the use of cellular phones, has
been established with any degree of scientific certainty.
When aspartame was first introduced, there was a suspected link to
seizures and depression that also has not been substantiated by
further research. And the claimed link to multiple sclerosis has
been disputed by the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
In an indirect way, however, aspartame and every other sugar
substitute might be partly to blame for the rise in obesity. While
the sweeteners themselves contribute few or no calories to the
diet, they do help to perpetuate the desire for very sweet foods.
Since 1975, the per capita consumption of sugar and other caloric
sweeteners has sharply increased, by more than 28 pounds a year.
That certainly is no help to America's expanding waistline.
There are any number of other urban health tales now circulating on
the Internet that have been refuted by reliable sources with no ax
to grind, including the government agency most directly concerned
with the public's health, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Among the prevailing myths are that kidneys and other organs are
being stolen from live victims without their knowledge (the
National Kidney Foundation says no way!) and that a deadly spider
dubbed Arachnius gluteus lives under the seats of public toilets
awaiting a sumptuous derrière to bite. A report attributing the
deaths of three women to such a bite was supposedly published in
The Journal of the United Medical Association. However, as noted by
the Mayo newsletter, there is no such spider and there is no such
journal.
The moral of this story is don't be so quick to believe everything
you read on the Net or hear on a broadcast. Check the source and
evidence before you panic.
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