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There's a popular thread online where the topic starter, user u/Blotman, asks netizens: "What is the dumbest health advice you've heard people give out?" The author's original target audience was doctors and nurses, but it turned out that ordinary people with no connection to medicine had also witnessed incredibly strange "medical" advice.
Today, we present to you a selection of four dozen such pieces of advice, from the simply ridiculous to the downright harmful, so please feel free to scroll this list to the very end, and make sure to never follow any of the tips listed here!
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The volunteers were not health professionals, but were given worksheets and a clear list of talking points. They were also told that if they didn't know the answer to a question, they should have the patient submit it via e-mail where one of the volunteer nurses or physicians would answer it.
The worksheet basically walked them through diet and exercise advice, how to measure blood sugar levels appropriately during the day, what kind of follow up care (podiatrist, opthamologist, etc) is important, what symptoms of worsening disease to watch for, that kind of thing.
Anyway, 2 months ago, one of the nurses had some free time and was able to sit in on one of these sessions. The volunteer, who had been there for a little over a year at this point, was telling type 2 diabetics to go on juice cleanses.
This bears repeating; a volunteer at a free clinic, who is going to come across as a health expert to these patients who generally have low health literacy, is telling glucose intolerant individuals to eat nothing but sugar as a diet strategy.
The nurse asked her for a quick word outside, and then told her she wouldn't be leading those sessions anymore.
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Similarly, natural remedies that involve sticking a garlic clove/parsley/cilantro into the v****a are guaranteed to end in disaster.
#6
"Nah, it's all good. I switched to menthol.".
Perhaps the most offensive thing for doctors is when a patient, after being told in detail what they need to do to cope with a problem, starts extrapolating from someone else's alleged experience to their own experience. That experience, of course, completely devalues the doctor's recommendations.
For example, a heavy smoker, instead of taking the doctor's advice and avoiding lung cancer, begins to recall that one of their distant relatives kinda smoked several packs a day - and that this didn't prevent them from living to 100. If this semi-mythical guy could do it, why can't I, such a patient thinks.
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I was teaching CPR to a room full of cops and we were talking about AED use. After I finished the Lt. comes to the front and explains to his officers that each police issued taser can be used in place of an AED by shocking directly over the heart! I was dumbfounded. I quickly told everyone that was NOT true and the act could get them in a LOT of trouble. The Lt. was visibly mad that I corrected him in front of everyone and he ended up calling my supervisor.
EDIT: Hey guys thanks for all the replies. I figured I should clear some things up. I did instruct the class that this was not appropriate conduct. Honestly most of them already knew what that their Lt was spouting BS. The PD and FD in my area (like most) take CPR/AED every year even though their AHA license is good for two years. Most of these guys are very smart and learn well.
I went on to explain that the only "shockable" heart rhythms you can be in are Ventricle Tachycardia and Ventricle Fibrillation. Both require "just the right amount" of electricity to restart the heart. The wrong "dose" of electricity can stop the heart which is even worse than VT and VF. The Lt had been implying that if no AED was available or coming soon he would "with good intent" shock the patients chest with his taser. I told him he no longer can say good intent because now he knows the medical truth.
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Another example of this line of thinking are the recent deaths of Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan, and the many similar reactions online. For example, if one led an extremely unhealthy lifestyle for most of his life, and the other was the gym frequenter, yet still lived less than Ozzy, then why even bother with sports?
This, of course, ignores the number of injuries, large and small, Hogan sustained during his wrestling career, and that Ozzy's body was a de facto medical phenomenon, precisely because of its superhuman endurance. After all, many rockers who led the same kind of lives in their youth didn't even live to be forty.
But this cynical dichotomy has already gone viral, and some folks will inevitably take it as a guide to living... Unfortunately, thereby putting their own health at risk.
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Doctor: "sir, you had a heart attack, you aren't out of the woods yet and we need to talk about some serious lifestyle changes going forward. "
Patient: " Dr. My wife's mother's cousin had like 4 heart attacks and lived to be 99 years old and he smoked and ate bacon and eggs twice a day until he died, I'll be fine."
In that same vein when a Doctor makes a recommendation for treatment or surgery and the person whips out webmd and tries to one up the doctor.
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Good lord woman(Yes it's ALWAYS women) if you were intolerant of gluten you would be s******g from holes you didn't know you had.
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Any and everything relating to Dr. Oz. I go into fits of rage the second he's mentioned. Unless you're getting advice from him on Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Also, people thinking you need to hold someone down who's having a seizure so they don't get hurt. That's how we break bones. Just move furniture and what not out of the way and call appropriate help. Grabbing the arms and legs of a thrashing person is bad juju.
It's partly understandable why some people are prone to giving out strange health advice, but why do so many of us believe it? In fact, it's all because many people fail to grasp how complex the modern world is, and subconsciously seek "simple" solutions. They actually embrace so-called "magical thinking."
In fact, it's not just a lack of proper education. "Less education is certainly a factor, but higher education does not, on its own, inoculate people from conspiracy thinking," Ralph Lewis, M.D. writes in his article for Psychology Today. "People who believe in one conspiracy theory are more likely to believe in other conspiracy theories."
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My response..."Absolutely not. Do not stick ANYTHING in his mouth, and do not hold his head unless you want to break his neck. Get him a pillow and set it under his head, and move objects out of the way so he won't hurt himself."
Scary.
#14
Sinus infection? Chiro. Yeast infection? Chiro. Depression? Chiro. Pneumonia? Chiro. Diabetes? Chiro. Asthma flare ups? Chiro. Iron deficiency? Chiro. Stomach flu? Chiro. Ear infection? Chiro.
Going to the doctor? Nothin. Can't trust them.
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According to this article published on the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMCV) website, ever-increasing stress and anxiety, and a growing distrust of institutions, literally drive people to believe various weird health recommendations. Hence the attempts to explain complex mechanisms with "simple things."
“You want a simple story to explain why the world feels messed up, or an easy fix for a chronic health condition. A lot of it comes down to powerlessness,” the AAMC website quotes Abbie Richards, a research fellow at The Accelerationism Research Consortium (ARC). In fact, the more complex the world around us becomes, the more people, unfortunately, begin to believe all sorts of dubious theories…
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n body temperature can leave to convulsions, especially in children.
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This isn't really a health tip I've heard, but rather witnessed. If I respond to a seizure call or an unresponsive party, about one in ten will have a bag of frozen vegetables in their pants. For some reason the people in the city I serve think frozen vegetables will fix anything.
Well, we offer you just over forty stories about different people here, but you should never take this “advice” at face value. Just read, appreciate the depth of human weirdness, and feel free to share your own stories in the comments, if you have some under your belt.
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