Being healthy is everyone’s desire, but not everyone is willing to change their lifestyle or leave their unhealthy habits. Some are eager to make healthy life transitions but don’t have access to the correct information. To help separate facts from fiction, we busted some myths on the basis of information available from different health experts.
1. Myth: Cholesterol Is Not Bad For You
Fact: Not all cholesterol is bad for your body. There are two types of cholesterol – LDL, low-density lipoprotein (also known as ‘bad’ cholesterol), and HDL, high-density lipoprotein (known as ‘good’ cholesterol). Collectively, both are categorized as ‘total cholesterol’. According to experts, total cholesterol in the blood is not as important as the proportion of LDL and HDL in your body. An excessive amount of LDL cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, whereas, HDL cholesterol helps keep your LDL levels in check, thereby maintaining your heart health.
2. Myth: Cracking Your Knuckles Can Cause Arthritis
Fact: Cracking your knuckles will not give you an early onset of arthritis, as some might have you believe. The cracking sound is produced by the popping of gas bubbles that are present in the fluid that lubricates the joints, called synovial fluid.
3. Myth: You Need To Work Out At Least One Hour A Day To Be Healthy
Fact: Exercising regularly definitely has great benefits for your mind and body, however, working out every single day is neither possible (considering our busy lifestyles) nor recommended. A day off in a week is usually required for the body to relax and recover. Additionally, any activity is a good activity, even if it is a 15-minute walk outside.
4. Myth: If You Exercise, You Will Be Able To Eat Whatever You Want
Fact: Metabolism plays a vital role in burning calories. You cannot just take a bad diet and ‘exercise-it-out’, you have to eat mindfully. Everyone has a different metabolism rate which determines how many calories we burn while at rest and while we exercise. If we intake a lot of calories and have a tendency to burn on a standardized basis, our bodies would accumulate these additional calories as fat—regardless of the amount of exercise we do.
5. Myth: Cold, Wet Weather Can Cause A Cold
Fact: One can get sick only from infections caused by bacteria or viruses, and cold is the upper respiratory infection which can be caused by more than 200 types of viruses. Getting exposed to wet or cold weather does not cause you to catch infections.
Hope we helped bust some of these common myths that people swear by! You can too, be a myth buster and help us raise awareness. Comment with some good health facts below!
