Urban Health Legends

Learn the truth about everything from cat litter to your office desktop

CREEPY NO MORE
We’ve all heard this one before and have been very freaked out: people’s hair and fingernails don’t stop growing even after their death. Thankfully, it’s not true. What happens is that dehydration after death causes the skin around hair and nails to retract, so it looks like there is an increase in the nail and hair length. That’s a relief, but we’re wondering who actually had the patience and inclination to figure that one out.

IT HAPPENS
It looks dirty on your car, but did you know that the pigeon excreta has worse fallouts? Highly acidic, pigeon droppings are capable of corroding surfaces. But that’s the mildest side-effect. Apparently, even dried dropping contain fungus and can cause flu-like symptoms. In extreme cases, they cause lung infections and rashes that require treatment. Ouch.


CATS CAN CARRY
If you have a cat, it would probably be a good idea
to wear gloves and cover your nose and mouth while cleaning up after it. Cat litter can cause toxoplasmosis through infectious cysts shed in the stool. In normal adults, toxoplasmosis causes mild flu-like symptoms that resolve quickly, but it is extremely dangerous to pregnant women.


THE ‘KEY’ TO GOOD HEALTH
The next time you turn up your nose at a loo sans toilet paper, remind yourself that your ‘clean’ keyboard might actually be responsible for giving you more infections. Studies say that most ENT and stomach infections could actually be coming from the 10 million or so bacteria on your workstation. Apparently, that’s 400 times more than the average office lavatory. We don’t know about you, but disinfectant suddenly figures in our to-buy list.


EYE SPY IN THE DARK
It may strain your eyes, give you headaches and tire you, but reading in the dark will definitely not weaken your vision. Most ophthalmologists agree that family history, above all else, determines your eyesight and the quality of your vision. So there you have it. Reading in poor light can cause fatigue or temporarily blurred vision at best, but it’s not going to give you glasses in a hurry.


WATCH YOUR BACK
How you sleep can determine how old you look. According to a London-based plastic surgeon, the best posture for avoiding wrinkles is sleeping on your back. According to her, sleeping face down puts enough pressure on the face to wrinkle it, especially around the laughter lines and the line that runs from the nose to the mouth. Great. So even crashing after a hard day is now complicated!


STRESS CUTS DEEP
If you’ve been worrying a lot and have persistent cuts or bruises on your skin, the two might be related. A study at Ohio State University, USA, found that psychological stress increases the time it takes for injuries to heal. Doctors gave women who were caring for chronically ill relatives small forearm wounds. Despite receiving the same treatment, the caregivers’ wounds took, on an average, nine days longer to heal. So don’t panic the next time you cut yourself. It’ll slow down the healing.
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