14 health myths even doctors believe

When experts comb through the research, they can find no evidence that supports this claim. The best advice for staying hydrated is to drink frequently throughout the day, even if you’re not thirsty.

Check out these ways your body changes when you start drinking enough water.

Doctors still hand out this advice – but it’s been decades since bed rest was prescribed for back pain. The Australian Government Department of Health now recommends that doctors and patients should treat low back pain with non-drug therapies like heat, massage, tai chi, yoga, acupuncture, or spinal manipulation (chiropractic), and over-the-counter pain meds and patients should try to stay active.

Don’t miss these sleeping positions to ease lower back pain.

Yeah, no: shaving hair doesn’t change its thickness, colour, or rate of growth, according to the Mayo Clinic. Shaving facial or body hair gives the hair a blunt tip. The tip might feel coarse as it grows out, which can make it more noticeable or appear thicker or darker. But it’s not.

Although an amino acid in turkey called tryptophan is known to cause drowsiness, turkey doesn’t contain any more of it than chicken or beef does. In fact, nuts and cheeses contain more tryptophan than turkey. The reason you’re nodding off on the couch has more to do with the quantity of food you just ate.

OK, there’s a grain of truth to this one: hospital mobile phone use hasn’t caused a death as far as anyone knows, but the devices have set off alarms on monitors, triggered false readings on cardiac monitors, and caused malfunctions in infusion pumps. In one study, researchers found that mobile phones interfered with about 4 per cent of medical devices – but only when the phone was within one metre. But another study involving 300 tests in 75 hospital treatment room detected no interference.

Read on to find out how your mobile phone affects your body and mind.

Advice in the early 2000s for pregnant women to avoid eating nuts may have been not only misleading but at odds with the benefits for the offspring.  Research posted in Jama Paediatrics has found that children could be less likely to develop nut allergies if their mothers eat nuts during pregnancy. So, as long as you aren’t allergic to peanuts, studies have found that there’s no reason to avoid them during pregnancy.

Not so fast: recent research suggests that while tubes do help hearing and ease pain – providing much-needed relief for children and worried parents – the tubes don’t make a difference in a child’s ability to develop speech, hearing, or language.

A 2016 study of New Jersey hospitalisations published in the Journal of the American Heart Association reveals that the incidence of stroke has more than doubled in people between the ages 35 to 39 over the last decade. A 2017 study in JAMA Neurology found the highest increase was among women between 35 and 44 – the group suffered a 42 per cent jump.

Check out which foods can reduce your risk of stroke.

Everyone’s heard this one, but it’s flat wrong: we use all of our brain, and most of our mind is active throughout the day, says Scientific American – even when you’re sleeping.

Check out these ordinary things you don’t realise are messing with your brain.

Dim lighting has no effect on eyesight, according to Harvard Medical School. But, it will tire your eyes more quickly. The best way to position a reading light is directly over the page; just make sure you position it to avoid a glare.